My friend was approaching the tee on a short par three. He looked up and muttered, “Just don’t hit it left into the water.” He stepped back, took a practice swing, and then said the same thing. As he approached the ball, you could see something change in his body language. Sure enough, he hit the ball left into the water. You could see how different his swing was than any other swing that day. It was almost as if his brain shut his body down.
This reminded me of when teachers ask students questions, and a student responds with “I don’t know.” You can see immediately that the student has shut down and stopped thinking about the question that was asked. Students often answer this way, hoping the teacher will leave them alone and move on to the next student.
Like my golfing buddy, students need to change their mindset. When they are not sure of the answer, they need to think about what they know that could help them answer the question. What resources do they have (notes, for example) that might help them answer the question? What hints can the teacher give them that might eventually lead to the answer?
When students change their mindset from “I don’t know” to “How can I figure this out?” they are more engaged. As they work through the problem, they strengthen their resilience, which will allow them to persist longer.
Remind yourself and those around you that learning is often a struggle. Help those around you to keep a positive mindset about learning and to think about what we do know.
What I have found is that when you embrace the struggle, you usually end up increasing your learning. The next time we golf together, I am going to ask my friend to tell me what he has to do to make a good swing.
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