5. Judgement and Assumption

Your brain is particularly ‘wired’ to present you with what you are expecting to see. It is wired for assumption: If you are about to buy a brand new red BMW, it is amazing how many red BMWs you see.

When you label students, when you give them what you think students need, when you ‘just know’ how the next class is going to be today, you are indulging in assumption and judgement.  The point being made here is not about the accuracy of the assumption of judgement, but the usefulness of either.

Jarrod (for example) might often be a miscreant student (and, indeed, a pain in the backside), but the more efficient behaviour management position to take is to be prepared, take him as he is and present him with choices that drive to self-managed behaviour.

Alternatively, if you whinge to your colleague, over coffee break, that you have Jarrod again, and “Who knows what he will be up to today…”, all you are doing for you and your colleague is setting up your brains to be hyper-sensitive to Jarrod.

This difference here is clear. Instead of (e.g.)  “Jarrod! You are a very disruptive student” best-practice teachers say “Jarrod, you are making some poor decisions at the moment”. An observation, not a judgement or label.