How stuck are your students?

An important read before completing the quiz below.

Can students get better at dealing with being stuck?

Being able to get yourself unstuck isn’t something that switches on one day and stays for ever. It grows and builds when it’s viewed as a useful part of learning thus enabling the emotional blocks to diminish and the skill and tactics to deal with ‘stuckness’ to increase. You become both willing and able to deal with being stuck.

Growth pattern for learning behaviours.

Learning behaviours e.g. becoming more competent at getting unstuck, can be seen as going through emotionally generated phases.

• Lacks; when the learner has no interest, inclination or belief to behave in that way. Depicted in grey below. In simple learner self talk it might translate into ‘I can’t, I won’t’.
• Receives; when the learner does something because they are told or expected to. Depicted in purple. In simple learner self talk it might translate into ‘Show me. Tell me’.
• Responds; when the learner is gaining interest and doing things more willingly. Depicted in blue. In simple learner self talk it might translate into ‘I’ll try’
• Values; when the learner sees the value of behaving in this way. It’s a win for them because behaving like this is in their interest. Hence the behaviour becomes more secure; its a key phase. Depicted in green. In simple learner self talk it may translate into ‘I see why’.
• Organises; when the learner capitalises on their own interest and gets themselves organised to use the behaviour positively. Depicted in yellow. In simple learner self talk this may translate into ‘I make sure I do’.
• Embodies; when the learner has made the behaviour their own. It has become part of their character; they can’t not do it and have become highly skilled in doing it. Depicted in orange. In simple learner self talk this may translate as ‘I can’t not do this’.

This growth pattern of progression phases should be seen as a long term journey. Some phases can take some people years to work through. Some phases may never be worked through since none of the phases are inevitable. So there is a lifetime of possible development captured here.

 In a learning friendly classroom culture learning behaviours have a better chance of improving because teachers can make  specific interventions to bring about improvements. The development is purposeful rather than being left to chance.

The following Stuck Questions ask you to gauge how your students react to being stuck now. The results can be used to springboard your future action.