Editorial
This is the summary of an on-line discussion hosted by the IATEFL Global Issues SIG (Special Interest Group) in 2013. It aims to give you an overview of the ideas that emerged, as well as a taster of the discussion process itself. The sentences in italics have been lifted out of the actual on-line discussion.
Unlearning ’Learnt Helplessness’
Margit Szesztay, Hungary
For the past 25 years Margit has been a teacher trainer working mostly with beginner teachers of English. Her main areas of interest include community building, the teacher as educator, group dynamics, creativity in language teaching, and language development for non-native speaker teachers. She is currently the coordinator of IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest Group.
E-mail: margit.szesztay@gmail.com
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Introduction
Why learnt helplessness in education?
Why learnt helplessness? – going deeper
Ways towards unlearning LH
Conclusion
One of the aims of our Special Interest Group is to exchange ideas about combining ELT with wider educational goals. One such goal is to raise awareness of real world issues and to encourage our learners to take an active role - in and outside the classroom. The assumption is that taking on responsibility for your own learning can foster a more responsible and initiative-taking attitude in general. Being a responsible member of a learning group can foster the kind of social responsibility needed for making this world a better place.
However, educational cultures the world over tend to assign a passive role to learners. This is why our SIG decided to explore the concept of ’learnt helplessness’ (LH): to better understand what it is and to see if there are ways in which it can be shaken off, or ’unlearnt’. Our on-line discussion started out with some background information followed by three focusing questions:
Ken Robinson says that we educate our children out of their creative capacities (TED talks). He quotes Picasso who allegedly said ‘all children are born artists’ and adds that the difficult thing is to remain an artist as you grow up. If you watch pre-school children closely, you can see that they are ’movers and shakers’, curious, forever asking questions, trying things out, actively exploring the world around them. However, by the time we leave school most of us lose our capacity for active exploration, and many of us are only concerned with fitting in, perhaps believing that we are incapable of making a difference anyhow.
I first came across the term ’learnt helplessness’ in Alan Maley’s article ‘Macdonald’s Duck Re-visited: implications for culture, society and education’. Alan describes the way consumerism, globalization, media saturation, trivialisation, and More:Faster! are forces at large contributing to widespread feelings of apathy, ’living in a state of trance-like incomprehension, a paralysis of the will, inability to react meaningfully to the world around us’. This resonates with me. I believe that education needs to be a counter-force. Instead of assigning a passive and largely unthinking role to the learner, we need to build on their natural capacities for active and creative exploration. What do you think?
- Do you find any evidence of learnt helplessness around you?
- Do you think education could /should have a role in fostering the ’gentle rebel’?
- What could be the role of English language teachers and trainers in all this?
One of the issues we considered in depth was where learnt helplessness comes from. The three key quotes below highlight some of the main ideas expressed.
- “Secondary school students in many parts of the world become passive recipients of knowledge rather than active participants in the learning process.” (Julietta, UK)
- “A large part of learnt helplessness is taught helplessness.” (Jim, UK)
- “I know some university (!) students whose parents accompany them to the doors of the exam room to make sure they find the right place” (Evgeniya, Russia)
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The view expressed by Julietta that secondary schools seem to be a breeding ground for student passivity was echoed by several contributors. In primary schools there tends to be more hands-on learning, whereas secondary education tends to be what Carl Rogers referred to as ‘education from the neck up’ (1983).
There was also a comment from India that students are often being spoon-fed, and in some cultures they are not allowed even to ask questions in the classroom. As Jim notes in Quote 2, teachers might be part of the problem, we might actually be creating an attitude of helplessness by the way we are teaching. He adds: the more you tell people what to do, the less they can tell themselves what to do.
Evgeniya’s remark brought the role of parents into the discussion, reminding us that family background and the way children are raised is also part of the equation. It is not only schools, but the family, as well, that can spoon-feed or over-protect.
In the next stage of the discussion we explored some of the root causes of LH. Again, below are some of the central ideas raised:
- The curriculum is a major hindrance and compels teachers and learners to rush towards exams. (Iqbal, Pakistan)
- In many countries teachers, too, feel helpless to change their circumstances and feel disempowered and passive. (Coralyn, Spain)
- The primary function of schools is not education. More important are the functions of ‘caretaker’, or ‘social control’, and or ‘sorting house’. (Alan, UK)
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Several contributors noted that it would be simplistic and unfair to put all the blame on teachers. It is not just teachers but educational systems and school cultures in general that are responsible. As Iqbal remarks in Quote 1, teachers often have to work under the constraints of a set curriculum. He continues: if the curriculum is lengthy and imposed on the teachers by managers and directors, students will just be readers, not critical learners. Standardisation, exams, assessment are also mentioned by others as factors which make it difficult for teachers to foster autonomy and critical thinking in learners.
Building on Coralyn’s comment in Quote 2, a teacher trainer from Hungary adds that teachers are less likely to have the time and energy to question educational traditions when they are underpaid and overworked. Sometimes it is just survival that is uppermost on their minds.
Quote 3 looks at schools from a wider perspective. Three functions are highlighted: that of ‘caretaker’ – to keep the kids off the streets, that of ‘social control’ – to inculcate the values and norms of society, and that of ‘sorting house’ – to make sure kids know where they are in the social pecking order. Alan further notes that it takes a great deal of courage to go against the tide: accepting educational traditions is the line of least resistance, an inherited condition, a symptom of deep-seated conservatism.
One of the questions starting off the discussion focussed on the role of ELT in all this. What can we do as teachers of English? Is it possible to help our learners to unlearn LH? Here are some of the key ideas which emerged:
- The teacher who is wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind – Kahlil Gibran. (sent in by Susannah, Ireland)
- Is unlearning LH the same thing as encouraging creativity, cooperation and critical thinking? (Ildikó, Hungary)
- Teenage students may be very engaged learners, but mainly outside the classroom. Their e-life online, music life, game life much more vital than anything in the classroom. (Bill, Bulgaria)
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Several contributors agreed that in spite of the sometimes constraining and controlling effects of education systems, there have always been great teachers who have empowered learners, as Quote 1 illustrates.
Quote 2 goes futher in this direction by asking what lies at the heart of unlearning LH. If we as teachers foster creativity, encourage cooperation, and engage the critical faculties of our learners, are we at the same time getting them to be more active members in our classroom communities? And could this lead to attitudes of social responsibility and activism needed for bringing about social change?
Quote 3 reminds us that the same young people who are bored and passive in our classrooms can show energy and enthusiasm outside the classroom. Perhaps there is a need to reconsider what engagement means in the light of wider societial, technological developments.
It is not possible to do justice to the richnes of an on-line discussion in a short summary article of this type. In the space of two weeks we had over sixty responses from fourteen different countries. The wealth of ideas expressed also defies neat categorisation – nor does it lend itself to any clear-cut conclusions. What I can conclude with certainly, though, is that the topic struck a chord with teachers in different parts of the world: thinking about how ELT can contribute to unlearning learnt helplessness seems to be a worthwhile endevour.
If you want to find out more about the work of our Special Interest Group, please visit our website: www.gisig.org
Maley, A. (2005). 'Macdonald Duck revisited: implications for culture, society and education'. IATEFL GISIG Newsletter, Vol.XVII.
Rogers, C. (1983). Freedom to Learn for the 80’s. Columbus, Ohio: Charles Merill
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How the Motivate your Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics co at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How the Motivate your Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
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