You Have a Professional Language, Too
Don't Shy Away from Technical Understanding of Teaching and Learning
As a teacher, you earned a teaching degree and certification by learning a specialized body of knowledge. Don’t shy away from that knowledge. Don’t complain about technical, wonky teaching and learning terms. They are your tools of your profession. Embrace your profession’s technical terms, insights, and language.
From time to time, in my years promoting instructional enhancement among teaching professionals most of whom felt that they didn’t need any enhancing, I heard complaints about wonky teaching language. Here are a few examples I’ve used or will surely soon use: interleaving, spaced repetition, anchoring, cognitive schema, shaping stimuli, and even neuroplasticity. I’ve even had confidantes encourage me to dumb it down.
No thanks. I refuse to do it. I refuse to treat teaching professionals as anything less than fully capable of learning and deploying their own professional language, in pursuit of insights that will help them improve their craft. I instead believe in challenging myself and challenging others to grow. Indeed, I love diving into educational psychology, behavioral psychology, and other related fields to learn their professional language for the insights it might yield.
Please, don’t shy away from your own professional language. You don’t have to use the wonky terms with your students or their parents, although it won’t necessarily hurt if you do. Don’t use fancy language to impress others. And especially don’t use it to confuse others. But don’t hide your willingness to treat your profession seriously, embracing its greatest and newest insights. And if you disagree, then please forgive my own fascination with technical language and expertise. I’ll try to go easy on you.
Thoughts? What’s your favorite wonky teaching term? What term has taught you the most or inspires you? Leave your comments below for the rest of us to enjoy.