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As a teacher, you’re meant to be the fount of all knowledge, right? Even if your teaching style is to be a guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage, you’re still expected to actually know stuff. Well, sometimes it pays not to know, or at least to appear not to know. Here are three times I used this approach, and the results. The first three relate to the years in which I taught Economics to senior students, while the last one pertains to my teaching of Computing. (I added a fourth one as a bonus!)
Experiment 1
My first year in teaching. I have two ‘Upper Sixth” groups. That was the name, in those days, to the students in their final year of formal schooling, aged 17-18. One group was lovely: friendly, mostly willing to work and think, and able to enjoy a laugh. The other group was morose, unengaged, not willing to think, wanting to be spoonfed. They seemed to have a gigantic chip on their collective shoulder. After a few weeks of this I’d had enough.
“OK”, I said to the class. “In today’s lesson we’re going to have a Q & A session. You can ask me any question you like, about economics, and I’ll answer it.”
Student 1: What’s the current exchange rate?
Me: Dunno.
Student 2: What’s the current interest rate?
Me: Ain’t got a clue, mate.
Student 3: How many people are unemployed at the moment in the UK?
Me: Your guess is as good as mine.
Student 2: This is ridiculous. You don’t know anything!
That was exactly the explosion I’d been hoping for.
Me: Of course I do. But these questions are boring. What do you think I am, a walking almanac? You can easily look up the answers yourselves.
Student 4: Alright, how we can solve the current problem of having inflation and unemployment at the same time?
Me: Do you seriously think that if I knew the answer to that I’d be standing here teaching you lot?
We all burst out laughing, which eased all the tension. Moreover, we were then able to go on and discuss the fact that there are no easy or single correct answers to questions like that. And after that they realised that their thinking and input into the lesson were as important as mine. Well, almost as important!
Experiment 2
Same school same time. I had two parallel lower sixth groups, that is 16-17 year-olds. I had one group before morning break on a Wednesday, and the other group after the morning break.
One day I discussed with the first group all the reasons that the official unemployment statistics were understated, and that in reality the unemployment rate was higher. For example, some people don’t register for unemployment benefit because they don’t think they’ll get it, so why bother?
After break I discussed with the second group why the official unemployment statistics are always over stated. For example, some people who register as unemployed have absolutely no intention of taking up the offer of a job.
The next day, I had a delegation of several students drawn from both groups.
Student representative: You told one group that the unemployment stats are understated, and the other that they’re overstated. Which is it?
Me: Excellent question. We’ll need to discuss it in our next lesson.
And discuss it we did. We looked at the fact that how ‘unemployment’ is defined depends on which economic theory you prefer, as well as your political persuasion. This isn’t the same as fake news though. It’s more a case of which coloured lens you use to look at a phenomenon.
Experiment 3
As head of my department I always encouraged my team to wander in and out of each other’s lessons. In one lesson I was teaching the students about Keynesian economics.
Me: So you see, a good way of stimulating the economy would be to have public works. For example, you could have teams of people digging up holes in the road, and another group of people filling them in. Anything to get money circulating again.
P (a member of my team who had come into my classroom to pick up some folders): What a load of rubbish!
Students: ??
P: It’s nonsense. That’s no way to lower unemployment. It will just cause inflation.
P, of course, was basing her remarks on what is known as monetarism. The monetarists maintain that digging up holes etc will just lead to inflation. Much better, they say, to lower taxes and leave spending decisions to people rather than government.
Her intervention led to a wonderful discussion. Again, the students were able to see that there is more than one approach to thinking about the economy. And to help them I wrote a couple of blues songs:
Savings Blues
By Johnny Keynes and the Marginals
You know I woke up this morning, and saw that my income's way too low
I said woke up this morning, and saw that my income's way too low
I said to my woman, I ain't gonna save nothin' no more
My woman told me, she thinks that stashing my cash is wrong
Yeah my woman done told me, that stashin' my cash is wrong
She don't seem to understand that I might wanna buy me some bonds.
One of these days, gonna get myself a well-paid job
Yes I got a feeling, I'm gonna get myself a well-paid job
When that day comes, gonna stop being a no-savings slob.
Savings Blues
By Irving Fischer and the Classicals
You know I woke up this morning, and saw that interest rates are low
I said woke up this morning, and saw that that interest rates are low
I said to my woman, I ain't gonna save nothin' no more
My woman told me, I oughtta stop spending my cash
Yes my woman told me, I gotta stop spending my cash
I told her interest rates are low, so ain't no point in buildin' up a stash
One of these days, interest rates are gonna rise again
Yes I got a feeling, that interest rates are gonna rise again
When that day comes, my days of spending are gonna end.
I tested them on the theories a few months later, and they remembered them perfectly!
Experiment 4
I told my students that In wanted them to create a computer program that would enable a shopkeeper to very quickly work out discounts according to particular criteria, delivery costs, and so on. The user interface had to be very straightforward, and they had to write the program in such a way that the shopkeeper would be able to make adjustments easily and without having any technical expertise — and without trashing the program! They would have six lessons in which to do this.
A couple of students called me over and told me they wanted to write a sub-routine that would perform a particular task, but that they weren’t sure how to go about it. I told them (and this was genuine) that I wasn't either. So we sat down together and, consulting the manuals I had in the classroom and trying out different approaches, we started to make headway. What really impressed me was that none of the students were appalled or even faintly disturbed by the fact that their teacher didn’t know the answer either.
Conclusion
Whether these kinds of approach would work with primary (elementary) school children is a matter of doubt I think. However, in the secondary (high) school setting I think it can engender trust, and the reassurance to students that it’s ok not to know. And that there is seldom only one correct solution to a problem — or, indeed, any solution to it.
Experiment 4: You didn't know the answer? Hmm...I guess teachers don't or can't know everything. I'm glad you were able to decipher something by looking at the manuals.
This reminds me of my first full-time job, which included computer programming. I had no idea how to do the project. It was using some language I had never heard of. I can't even remember what it was now. I perused the help file that showed the programming language and was able to figure out how to do it. It took some going back and forth looking at how the code was manipulated but eventually I got it and produced the code that I needed for the project.
Terry, these experiments are terrific - it's really great to have set up situations to provoke questions right back at you, and discussions between groups who've been given opposing information to chew over - this is teaching on absolute steroids! Learned a tonne with this post - thank you.