hosammansour

Teaching in this age should be less like filling an empty vessel with knowledge and more like training a child to ride a bike.  You start out with training wheels until the fateful day when, gripping the bike and running along side him, you finally let go and leave the child to his bike riding future alone.

Give Them Control

I don’t like dealing with constant mundane requests like students asking to go to the bathroom.  They disrupt my teaching and it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

Instead, dedicate a certain portion of the day for instruction and the rest as unstructured time.  During that time give students various responsibilities that need to be fulfilled within that time.  Allocate rations for limited resources like the computer and other workstations.

Otherwise, allow students to have some leisure time and go to the bathroom with a limit on the number outside of the classroom at one time.  Most of the time young students want to go to the bathroom to steal a moment of free time anyway.  Instead of forcing them into that kind of desperate situation we should allow them the ability

The more control you give to a student, the more empowered they will be.  Rather than directing every minute of their lives as teachers we should accustom them to managing themselves.  No doubt power can be abused

Allow Them to Negotiate

If a true education is designed to make students independent then they should be trained to think about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it all on their own.  If an assignment doesn’t jive with them they should be allowed to propose their own.

Negotiate with them until their proposal satisfies both you and the students.  Many students may have difficulty with this so in order to make the transition easier present several varying alternatives to your lessons and allow them to choose one.  This gives them an idea of what’s possible.  Part of motivation is being interested in what you are doing, so if students are participating in self-directed learning then chances are greater they will be more absorbed by their work.

Put Their Feet to the Fire

Give students the freedom to choose what they want to study and how they want to do it.  But when they do, hold their feet to the fire and don’t let them give up until they have given it their all.

Also give them real responsibilities, deadlines and critical tasks. Let them feel the stress of having to perform important tasks that others are depending on.  Appoint or have them elected by other students to leadership positions.  If they are successful then reward them, if not, strip them of their titles.  It might be painful to watch but no pain, no gain.

Please share other techniques that help make students more independent in the comments.