Teachers Best Kept Secret

“Not only do students cheat on exams, but also teachers cheat.”

A famous meme about student life describes three meaningful analogies: The first is about the work that students do in class – we could say that it has a difficulty similar to the sum of “1+1.” The second instance is the homework, where the difficulty goes up a little more, equivalent to summing “3+7.” Finally, the third analogy is about the exam when we pose a problem similar to the following: “John has four apples, he eats one and gives another to his friend. Calculate the mass of the sun.”

What is the message that the students are sending us with this meme? Why don’t we teach them how to calculate “the mass of the sun” in class?

I have over 20 years of teaching experience. After several years of teaching, I realized that I could not address new problems, using problems new to me. I was “acting” like they were new to me when they were not.

Responding to the questions above, I believe that the perception of the students who created that meme is that we do not teach them how to resolve new problems confronting us – we profess to them – new problems. On the second question, we can teach them how to calculate the mass of the sun; of course, we can, and we do it. We get the result, which is essential; however, the process to arrive at the result is the key.

“I began to listen to my students genuinely when time passed, and I had no idea what to do with the blessed problem.”

How can we teach students to solve problems that are also new for us, teachers?

In this article, I will tell you my experience with this. More than ten years ago, I focused on studying how to develop students’ creativity. In 2018, I designed and implemented with other teachers a pilot test of a Creative Problem-Solving Workshop. Beyond getting valuable feedback from the students related to the way teachers teach and students learn, I wanted to experiment with how to teach solving a new problem. Below, I share what happened:

I asked an ex-student if he had any exciting problems to solve. Indeed, he sent me a problem I did not know. It was similar to a Sudoku square, but its result was not easy to see at first glance. My ex-student is called Jeremiah, so we christened the problem as “Jere’s Square.” I taught a class how it was solved, without ever having resolved it, and not knowing if it had a solution.

The students were aware that we would focus on the process and that it could be the case that after a considerable time of trying to solve the problem, we might not arrive at any result.. what? A problem without any result? Exactly.

So it can be understood better, I share with you the design principles of the workshop in which this experience was given:

The teacher must explore problems without knowing their solutions.

• The learning strategy is based on active methodologies.

• It is not a traditional class. (theoretical or expositive).

• Students are the protagonists.

• Teamwork is the chosen mode for students to solve problems.

• The number of students per course does not exceed twenty.

• Time for reflection is always a fundamental part of the process.

• Error is not penalized; it is encouraged.

• The learning is focused on the process of resolution, not the result.

• Most of the problems do not have a single solution or a single way to solve them.

• The resolution of problems does not end with the first solution found.

• The teacher should generate a context favorable for learning (using humor to create a psychologically safe environment).

Guided by the principles above, and with the firm belief that creativity and humor contribute to learning, I set out to teach how to solve “Jere’s Square.” However, how do I solve a problem if I do not know the solution, and what is the value of doing this?

Let me address the last question first. In recent years, creativity has become renowned worldwide as a key ability for the 21st century. Let’s think about the kind of situation where it is critical to use this skill. Yes, you guessed it! When we confront problems that we have never resolved before. Now that this activity’s value has been demonstrated, I respond to the first part of the question. The secret is that teachers should stop cheating, forget for a while the results, and focus on the process, so the students trust that they can improve and learn.

From experience, I verified some principles, and others emerged. Three were key: 1) think alternatives aloud, 2) accept and encourage error, 3) and, above all, listen – genuinely – to the students.

Since I had no tested methodology in mind to solve the problem and had no idea of the result, I had to explore alternatives. For the students to follow my logic, I had to “think out loud,” that was the first essential aspect. Then, on the fly, I proposed various paths to try, accepting the risk that they might not lead anywhere.

It is important to try seriously and not give students proposals of the kind, “Let’s see what happens if we do this.” In reality, just by the tone we use to propose to students, they already realize that that is not going anywhere.

Concerning these tests that apparently lead to “nowhere,” they may not lead to an immediate result, but they could lead to new ideas that eventually get us to the result. Isn’t that what scientists and academicians do to create knowledge?

Another exciting aspect was that in our reflection to see why such or such path led to nowhere, we built criteria collectively to infer if new approaches would be interesting to try. Patience is also encouraged, and time is valued to explore alternatives to address, focus, identify a problem, or as I usually say, “to fall in love with the problem” – and not the solution.

The third key aspect was astonishing; I thought I was listening to my students. Lie! Before this exercise, I was not listening to them. I only was waiting for them to finish talking to correct them. How bad! Well, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but I do it to emphasize my point.

“Creativity is a crucial skill when faced with problems that we have never solved before.”

I began to listen to my students genuinely when time passed, and I had no idea what to do with the blessed problem. Then, I began to appreciate the ideas proposed by the young girls and boys in the Workshop. This experience caused them to feel on par with me, and, what’s more, I valued their contributions – genuinely, and not for grading them or seeing if they pay attention. That was not necessary. Also, their contributions were valued by their peers. They felt like protagonists in the
class because we solved the problem among us all, rather than their just “listening and understanding how the professor solves it,” having a passive attitude.

The trick was to focus on the process. I am not saying we forget the result, but we should not put it as the only goal to achieve or evaluate. Let us enjoy the process, have the intellectual humility to listen to our students’ proposals, and learn to face the novelty ourselves.

About the author

Hernan Mavrommatis (mavrommatis@unlam.edu.ar) is Head Professor of “Maximum Entrepreneurship and Innovation” and researcher at the National University of The Matanza, UNLaM. His line of research is on practices of organizational creativity at the University of Buenos Aires. He has to his credit more than a dozen published articles on said subject, and he was a TED speaker at UNLaM.

Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Hernán Mavrommatis

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