The Teachable Moment

Can we reinstitute the superb significance of the Teachable Moment?

The teachable moment ~ that rare and invaluable moment where every single student in the class is on board as a unity with the teacher and what s/he is presenting.

In the fairly recent past, it was not uncommon for most teachers to experience a teachable moment at least once a week, or perhaps, once a month, and then share with colleagues how it had transpired, the lead into it, how it had felt and how awesome it was. It was like the ultimate confirmation of what teaching is all about, a naturally occurring hallmark of the

Profession.

More recently, I have heard little to nothing of such moments in conversations that are occurring globally online, among teachers from the entire spectrum of the social demographic. Instead, conversations centre much more on how to engage students, how to accommodate the many, many diverse needs that present in one singular classroom, how to manage behaviour and how to manage one’s personal well-being or stress levels. This says a lot about the emphasis of the profession at this moment in time.

It is sobering to reflect that the ‘teachable moment,’ a signature of our profession, is nowhere on the radar for so many teachers.

 Yet the experience of the teachable moment is absolutely amazing.

It's the moment when Johnny stops fiddling with the things on his desk; when Artie stops staring out the window as though he’d rather be anywhere else but here with you; it’s the moment when the social chit chat in the middle of the room ceases and, almost miraculously, everyone, the entire group, is brought to singular point of focus.

There is a quality in the room, like that of a still lake. The concepts that the teacher is presenting are like delicately laid pebbles into that lake, that somehow do not make any disturbing ripples or any sound. They simply land and are silently picked up by the students.

The usual trends when a teacher presents a new concept is for multiple hands to be raised, as students are wanting to ask questions about things that you're going to present within the next two minutes anyway. The hands and the questions can actually interrupt the flow of the presentation on many occasions.

But in the teachable moment, there are no hands raised. There is simply complete and absolute attentiveness, with no effort on the part of the teacher to make this circumstance arise and sustain.

What magic, what energy or quality, is it that descends in that moment, rendering both teacher and students as a unity that is focused on one key aspect of learning?  Everyone is held by this depth of attentiveness.

When the presentation is complete, there is even a moment when the teacher asks for  questions, comments or feedback on what students have just heard, where there is silence because what has been presented is still being processed, still landing in the bodies of the students, so much so that they don't even want to ask a question.

Eventually someone raises their hand, usually in great deference and asks, perhaps, a clarifying question. The more active aspects of teaching then resume their usual motion and we are off into the application of the concept through bookwork, discussion etc.

It disturbs me that these moments are now almost ‘extinct’. I feel something akin to sadness that that this no longer occurs and so is not being lauded, shared and celebrated as one of the hallmarks of our profession.

I am not at all against technology, but I have observed how, at times, the abuse of it seems to substitute in as a very poor cousin of the teachable moment. Yes, children may be quiet and compliant while accessing a device but there are often the vague looks of children withdrawing into their own screen world.

Then there is the trend of teachers working a lot more with smaller groups, rather than the one larger group. Small work group is often super supportive, but it is often executed in the midst of the hustle and bustle of many other groups doing their thing in the classroom, too. There is not the sense of whole group unity, of singular focus that is the fertile ground of the teachable moment.

So, I'm simply questioning why did we let that go? Why did we let other things come in to undermine the teachable moment? Why did we not claim it as one of the most profoundly effective, but also profoundly beautiful, aspects of our profession?

Can we reinstate the value and the reality of the teachable moment?

For those of us who have had direct experience of the teachable moment, its profound value already lives deep within us. Perhaps, it’s a question of us bringing it back into more active service once again, rather than being convinced that it is a relic of a bygone age only to be reminisced fondly about, but never again restored to its actual and true pedagogically huge significance.

Perhaps we can ask ourselves, how do we make this teachable moment more accessible to all the members of our profession, including those that may not yet have experienced it for themselves.

How can we do this?

What I’ve observed is that on many occasions, the prelude to the arrival of the teachable moment has had several predisposing, foundational factors that paved the way for it to occur.

Certainly, all behavioural standards needed to be upheld within the classroom. There had often been a depth and care with the planning of the lesson.

There was always a sense of connection and relationship between the teacher and the children and, perhaps, also a special interest on the part of either the teacher or the children, but not necessarily both, in the concept that is being presented. There are doubtless other factors that my fellow professionals could also add to this list of preluding signifiers. However, it is certain that once all those ducks are lined up, then in drops the teachable moment in all its exquisite simplicity and clarity.

There is also a lesson to be learned from the past, that it is of great value to share about this teachable moment, as indeed we used to do ~ how it occurred, when it occurred, what it was like. What was the standard of the students work after such a moment and how was that the same and how was it different to the standard of work that occurred within the same subject, but where there was more of a sense of the teacher having to take the lead the whole time rather than there being this unified attentiveness. I have certainly found that the applied work ethic after such moments is huge, as is the quality of the work produced by the students.

These are simply a few ponderings on what is possibly going on in the teachable moment. I leave it now for my fellow professionals to investigate it further in their own practice so that we may all be the beneficiaries, teachers and students alike, of that invaluable moment that we refer to as ~ the teachable moment.