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May 6, 2008
Learned Helplessness
Just finished reading an interesting post from Liz Davis expressing her end of year frustration about the slowness of change called Dealing with Negativity. She did a Twitter poll and collected responses from her followers that range from consolation to commiseration. Funny, nobody said that it doesn't happen in their lives.
Then I started listening to Tech Therapy, a podcast that deals with using and supporting educational technology in higher ed. Basically, the same topic. What they decided was that it was an example of "learned helplessness."
I'll use the definition they used, from Wikipedia.
Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances.
That's an interesting way to look at the way teachers approach our approaches to introducing technology into their current practice. They haven't learned that technology is hard, but they've learned to believe that technology is hard.
I'm not sure just how to apply this to working with teachers, but it gives another way to look at things. For me, on those most frustrating days I remember that at worst, it lets me keep working at a job I love!
Posted by Pat on May 6, 2008 7:44 PM
Comments
Interesting that I arrived here after my inbox notified me of your following me on Twitter. This post is just perfect for me at this time of year. I'm meeting with K-5 teachers over 5 days about how we want to better use technology in the classroom next year. I've been a little frustrated after the meetings so far and the concept of learned helplessness will make it easier to get through the remaining meetings without feeling like a failure in my position.
See you on Twitter:)
Posted by: Michelle K on May 17, 2008 10:15 PM
