How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

Petruchio

As a teacher, I wonder if it is possible to instill this skill into students the skills of rationality and critical thinking. I teach the third grade, and it is not immediately apparent how to apply this with my own class.

The problems I foresee are as follows:

Young children often do not know the basics on the subject which they are learning, be it math, science, art, religion, literature etc.
Many children are very shy, and try to give as short of an answer as doable to a verbal prompt.
Written prompts are arduous, straining the attention span and writing capabilities of the students. This is not a bad thing, but it presents difficulties in the economy of time and material to be presented.
Attention spans in general are very short.
Experiments can be very infrequent, and nigh impossible with certain subjects.
Children, at this age, are likely to take the words of a parent or teacher at face value, and naturally parrot it back. This may be a hard habit to break.

In the sequences, it is suggested teachers should drill into students words don't count, only anticipation-controllers. How practical is this for an elementary school level? Also appreciated would be any ideas or experiences on how to do this, or how to combat the above problems. Hearing from other teachers would be excellent especially.

The problems I foresee are as follows:

Young children often do not know the basics on the subject which they are learning, be it math, science, art, religion, literature etc.
Many children are very shy, and try to give as short of an answer as doable to a verbal prompt.
Written prompts are arduous, straining the attention span and writing capabilities of the students. This is not a bad thing, but it presents difficulties in the economy of time and material to be presented.
Attention spans in general are very short.
Experiments can be very infrequent, and nigh impossible with certain subjects.
Children, at this age, are likely to take the words of a parent or teacher at face value, and naturally parrot it back. This may be a hard habit to break.

I don't expect ordinary elementary school students to be mature and competent enough to do this without devolving into bickering and status posturing.

In some schools teaching the skill of giving and receiving feedback without going into status fight will be a challenge for the teacher. On the other hand it's a skill that students should learn as early as possible.

Keep in mind the age of the students in question. Feedback from eight year olds on academic work is likely to be unhelpful even to other eight year olds.

You are right that eight year olds can't give each other the "correct" passphases to academic work in all cases. On the other hand that doesn't mean that the feedback isn't useful.

As far as spelling errors go, I see no reason why eight year old should be unable to find them. As far as style issues go, a eight year old has a much easier time to understand feedback from another eight year old than to understand feedback from an adult.

It's also not only about getting feedback but also about giving it. If you give feedback then you think about what you consider to be good and what you consider to be bad. That process is very important.

Verbal feedback is about more than giving someone a correct way to do things. It's about direction attention to an area over which the person might learn something.

As far as style issues go, a eight year old has a much easier time to understand feedback from another eight year old than to understand feedback from an adult.

"Don't write like that, it's stupid! You're a stupid if you write like that!"

0Desrtopa14y

I think you may be overestimating the writing abilities of the average eight year old. When it comes to style issues, more third graders are in need of learning basic coherence than stylistic elegance. I think that most of the Less Wrong population was probably at least somewhat precocious, which may make it hard to relate to what the average third grader needs to learn, as opposed to exceptional ones. Having third graders attempt to correct each others' work sounds to me like trying to get white belts to try to correct each others' form in a martial arts class. Low level students may practice together, but you don't try to put them in a position of giving each other instruction until they achieve some measure of basic competence.

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How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

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How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

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