💬 Learning’s first principle – the most important thing i learned this year

Bookmarked Learning’s first principle – the most important thing i learned this year by

dave (davecormier.com)

Student separate into two categories… those that care and those that don’t care.

Simon Sinek suggests starting with why, while Brad Gustafson suggests starting with people. Dave Cormier suggests that what matters is if we even care. If we don’t have that then we are a bit lost.

Marginalia

The problem with threatening people is that in order for it to continue to work, you have to continue to threaten them

If we’re trying to encourage people to care about their work, about their world, is it practical to have it only work when someone is threatening them?

Once we jointly answer questions like “why would people care about this” and “how does this support people starting to care about this for the first time” and “will this stop people who care now from caring”, we have a place to work from.

I’m in this business because i think i might be able to help, here and there, with trying to build a culture of thinkers.

9 responses on “💬 Learning’s first principle – the most important thing i learned this year”

Aaron Davis says:

September 1, 2018 at 3:35 pm

Great post Dave. It often feels like the dialogue around ‘engagement’, whatever engagement actually is, centres around the teacher. After the year that I have had I am moving towards a more open understanding of ‘engagement’ that incorporates the whole space. Starting with ‘do you care?’ is not only simply, but to the point. This offers a great entry point to start an ongoing discussion. I wonder though if those students who may have been metaphorically beaten to oblivion, who say ‘they care’ as that is the answer required, but deep down seem to have forgotten what it is to care, what can be done for them. The supposed ‘lost causes’. I guess the only threat that should be made in classes is that you must make a choice?

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dave says:

September 1, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Aaron the idea of students lying about caring is always a possibility 🙂 Our job, i suppose is to see through that

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1. Valerie Taylor says:
  
  September 5, 2018 at 12:15 am
  
  I don’t think they “lie” about caring. They just don’t know what it is to “care” about anything. They do care passionately about all sorts of things, just nothing to do with “school” as they know it.
  
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Aaron Davis says: @ collect.readwriterespond.com

May 30, 2022 at 9:40 pm
Andrea, Adam Grant’s discussion of care and ‘feeling joy of progress’ reminds me of Dave Cormier’s post about ‘care’ as learning’s first principle.

Once we jointly answer questions like “why would people care about this” and “how does this support people starting to care about this for the first time” and “will this stop people who care now from caring”, we have a place to work from.
I’m in this business because i think i might be able to help, here and there, with trying to build a culture of thinkers.
http://davecormier.com/edblog/2014/12/21/learnings-first-principle-the-most-important-thing-i-learned-this-year/

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