An evolutionary view!
It is interesting at times to reflect on education in the broader context of evolution. The pre-frontal cortex is a relatively recent innovation, as such we, as humans, have not yet learnt to use it very well.
Since civilisations emerged, we have used our advanced capacities in rivalrous ways – a sort of survival, or domination, of the fittest. This has led to a situation where our current civilisation is self-terminating, we are destroying the very substrate on which life depends by maintaining the status quo.
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All change!
The move from Competent to Motivated (see here for the taxonomy that describes these terms) involves a standing back or holding back of a teacher’s own influences that might limit or constrain her students. These include moods, fixed beliefs and defensive responses to being triggered by some behaviour or feature of a student.
When these are not held back then the teacher is not modelling what it means to be a healthy adult as well as behaving in ways that will limit students’ developing autonomy.
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Let’s get going!
In my latest book Why We Teach, I introduce the idea of a teacher taxonomy, based on which student innate drives are being fully supported. To meet current student and societal needs all three drives need to be properly supported.
The largest group (~60%) are Competent Teachers in the dual sense of focusing on supporting students’ innate drive for competence and of meeting system requirements i.e. they competently do their jobs.
Motivated Teachers support both innate drives for competence and for autonomy, empowering students to think and act more for themselves, this group is about ~35% of all teachers, by my estimation.
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Anger as powerlessness!
I have been having various discussions recently about anger. The most compelling explanation of its presence in adults in a modern society is to do with a lack of empowerment. A four-year-old will get angry when they can’t get their way but as they grow up, they develop increasingly sophisticated ways of navigating the world that don’t require raw anger, as it is not especially effective, even at four-years-old.
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