Connect Before Content.
The Heartbeat of Effective Learning
As parents and educators, we often have a long checklist of things we want to teach. But there's something we need to prioritise before diving into all that content: building an emotional connection with our learners. This isn't just a nice idea; it's a game changer in transforming education. When we talk about "connect before content," we're recognising that our first job is to reach the heart of the learner before trying to fill their head with information.
Why Emotional Connection Matters
Before diving into the intricacies of mathematics or the nuances of literature, establishing an emotional rapport with the learner is crucial. This connection lays the foundation for a bespoke learning experience, tailored to the unique needs, interests, and values of each individual. Think of it like building a house. Before you can decorate the rooms, you need a solid foundation to prevent your home from falling apart. That foundation in learning is the emotional connection.
Building a meaningful connection involves taking an interest in a learner’s unique interests and values.
Benefits of Emotional Connection:
A Spark of Engagement: an emotional connection lights up a learner's willingness to listen like a firework in the night sky. Imagine a kid who loves soccer suddenly paying more attention in math class because the teacher uses soccer statistics in examples. When kids feel an emotional connection to the content or to the facilitator providing it, they soak up information like sponges.
Drives Motivation: A kid is more likely to push through tough or complex tasks if they know their teacher or parent genuinely cares about them as an individual, not just their grades.
Improves Retention: Emotional connection makes information stick. Think about how you remember the details of a great movie because it made you feel something.
Builds Resilience: When learners face tough experiences an emotional connection creates a warm space where learners feel safe to explore and grow. A strong connection can be the support learners need to face challenges with courage and determination.
Common Mistakes:
Task Tunnel Vision: Imagine being given instruction after instruction, task and task without anyone ever asking how you’re doing. Like a ship fixated only on its destination, jumping straight into content at the start of a session is a missed opportunity to connect.
The Blanket Approach: Treating every student the same can backfire. What works for one might not work for another. Think of it like giving every learner the same pair of shoes, regardless of their fit or style. Investing in building connections allows you to reveal the intrinsic motivations that drive each learner and quickly creates a personalised bespoke learning environment.
Eliminating Empathy: Not stepping into the learner's shoes and being able to see the world through their eyes, can create a disconnect that hinders true learning. Learning something new is a vulnerable experience. If kids don’t see that their feelings or struggles are cared about, they are more likely to disengage and tune out in an act of self-preservation.
When learners feel connected, they become more resilient, motivated and engaged.
Strategies for Building Connections
Storytelling: Share stories from your own life that relate to the lesson. It could be as simple as telling the learners about how you struggled with the same math problem they're working on or an example of how the content has related to your everyday happenings.
Active Listening: Really listen to what your students say. If a student talks about their weekend, remember details and ask follow-up questions later. It shows you're paying attention.
All About Me Profiles: Get to know what makes each student beyond the classroom. Invest time in kids creating short profiles about themselves, noting their hobbies, strengths, and even their favourite books or games. The trick here is to include unique questions or tasks that provide opportunities to develop a deeper connection such as; who do you admire and why? Explain your perfect holiday, or even creating a personal logo or slogan to promote who you are.
Emotional Check-Ins: Start each session by greeting everyone as they enter the learning space. It allows you to do a quick, yet meaningful check-in to show your genuine interest in how each individual is feeling. It could be a quick thumbs up or down, or sharing one word to describe their mood. I personally add in a fist-bump for good measure too.
Co-Creation of Learning: Let students have a say in what they learn. Maybe they can choose between two topics for their next project or pick which book to read.
Celebrate Effort: Praise the hard work, not just the final grade. For instance, recognising a student who's been putting in extra effort can be more impactful that celebrating a given grade. By acknowledging the effort a learner gives makes them more likely to repeat that action in the future as it is now seen to hold. value.
Constructive Communication: When giving feedback, start with something positive, then suggest areas for improvement, and end with another positive. It's like saying, "Great effort on this essay, let's work on expanding your ideas a bit more, but your conclusion was really strong." Focusing initially on what the learner has done well frames the conversation to be positive and supportive, rather than an attack or critic on their ability.
Embrace the in-between moments: Make the most of those small pockets of time that occur between completing the usual big tasks. Think of it like the two minutes between starting the microwave and your food being ready to eat. You can use this “in-between” time for quick, fun activities or conversations that reinforce a positive connection, such as a spontaneous joke, a brief story, a wellbeing check-in or a quick game.
Conclusion
Before we rush into teaching all the content we have planned, let's remember to make that crucial emotional connection. It's the foundation everything else is built on. By focusing on "connecting before content," we're not just teaching lessons; we're transforming education by nurturing relationships and creating memorable bespoke learning opportunities.
Don’t over complicate it. As humans we listen the most to people we like. So when there is a heartbeat connecting the learner to the educator, the content being delivered instantly becomes more meaningful and impactful.
