Motivational speakers sometimes recommend setting personal goals out of reach. The idea is that you’ll go further by working toward an impossibility. The point where you fall short will supposedly be further than where you’d be if you set a reachable goal.
Individuals are free to follow that philosophy, but when an instructor is trying to create interest, goals should be precise and attainable so that students know:
- They’re on the way there.
- When they’ve arrived.
We’ve come to the last of the four factors that I’ve found in interesting learning environments. The prior three articles were from the attendee’s point of view and dealt with:
- Meaningfulness (https://trainingmag.com/meaningfulness-the-first-priority-of-interesting-learning-environments-part-1/)
- Momentum (https://trainingmag.com/putting-momentum-in-your-instruction-part-2/)
- Participation (https://trainingmag.com/make-room-for-excellent-participation-part-3/)
Now we’ll look at the fourth factor: Reasonable Challenge. When designing for interest, which I define as a desire to think, your responsibility is to guide your students through a challenge that neither insults their intelligence nor stretches them too far.
Use Appropriate Difficulty
Good-hearted instructors want learning to be interesting. An instructor here and there will boast about being tough: “Passing this class won’t be easy.” That’s silly talk. If students have the right knowledge foundation, are properly guided through the tasks, and are putting in the effort, they often find it’s hard not to make a high mark. Students who aren’t willing to do their part don’t count.
Like a car with a flat tire, overly difficult instruction impedes momentum. True, certain kinds of training are almost unbearable, such as brutal athletic workouts that seem to have no end in sight. Digging your way down to discover deep interest in a field of study can be that way, too. Difficulty, however, does not make instruction excellent. “No pain, no gain” is an unnecessary approach for most learning, because interest supplies energy and delight.
Stay in a Constant Feedback Mode
To a large extent, your trainees’ performance is an evaluation of your teaching. Don’t let that scare you if you’re constantly collecting feedback and using it to adjust your content and method. Let’s peek in on a training on car repair estimates at an insurance company.
Instructor: “I graded your tests, and I’m going to pass them back to you now. You only have six weeks to show that you can handle these concepts. So if you didn’t do well on the test, get together with classmates who did and ask them to help you with the material. Study your notes again.”
Let’s give that instructor a feedback mentality.
Instructor: “These results from your online test tell me we need to talk. Most of you got the second item wrong. What happened?”
Student A: “I didn’t understand how to estimate damage or repair for the rear bumper, because the picture showed that the bumper was hidden under fiberglass or something.”
Student B: “We weren’t given the price of the fiberglass covering.”
Instructor: “I wouldn’t know how to work the problem without that information either. The item won’t count against you. Let me explain how to handle wrapped bumpers.”
The instructor has won the students’ respect and will develop lessons and tests of higher and higher quality with the ongoing feedback solicited from the class.
Don’t Fish for Answers
We insult people’s intelligence when we burn up time by forcing them to guess what we’re thinking. For example:
Instructor: “Which county in this state has the highest rate of uninsured motorists?”
Student A: “Johnson?”
Instructor: “No, not that one.”
Student B: “Marion.”
Instructor: “Not Marion.”
Student C: “Merimac?”
Instructor: “Try the northern half of the state.”
Student D: “Lawrence?”
Instructor: “Not Lawrence.”
What a waste of time to make intelligent people guess information that can be handled more productively. Like this:
Instructor: “Smith County has the highest rate of uninsured motorists in the state. We will not be sending you there very often to do damage estimates.”
Or this:
Instructor: “Smith County has the highest rate of uninsured motorists in the state, mostly due to the high number of immigrants there. Do you think we’ll be sending you there to do estimates?”
This is a cultural question that I wouldn’t expect the class to answer easily.
Student E: “No estimates for them. They’re here illegally.”
Instructor: (Silent)
Student F: “Why are there so many immigrants in Smith County?”
Instructor: “That’s a great point. It’s because they’ve been brought in to help roof thousands of houses after hail storms hit that whole region. The contractors can’t do the jobs without tons of help.”
Student E: “So they are illegal.”
Instructor: “That’s none of our business. Most of them don’t have a license to drive. Therefore, when we send you to estimate damages where the vehicle owner was at fault in this state, you can assume the owner has a valid driver’s license and valid auto insurance. But the roofers who don’t buy auto insurance from us do buy at least one of our other products because we treat them like valued customers. If you don’t treat them the same way, we’ll know it before you get back in your car.”
There’s a lot going on in that exchange. Preparing good questions for a single training session can take a half hour or more. Do it gladly. Good questions add amazing structure and give attendees a chance to shine and to inquire while you add valuable knowledge and guide them through challenges that respect their intelligence.
More Than a Grade
Most people want some type of grade, but a thoughtful sentence or two from you, spoken or written, can be much more powerful. It represents a shared journey. You were the guide who safeguarded meaningfulness, momentum, and participation, and you sealed it all with one reasonable challenge after another. You helped everybody get to the other side. You did it together. Honestly, instruction doesn’t get any better than that.
Max T. Russell has specialties in educational media and human learning and memory. His e-book, “How to Be an Interesting Teacher: Mastering the Four Factors of Interesting Learning Environments,” is on Amazon. You can contact him at maxtrussell.1@gmail.com.
