Across the preceding six posts, I’ve described four ways to get students learning. We’ve looked at the pros and cons of reasoning, sanctions and rewards, easy and social nudges and habits.

So which is best? Where do we see the most effective teachers spending their time? What do the best teachers avoid?

Jonathan Haidt (2013) offers the arresting image of a restaurant failing to satisfy because it serves only sweet, or only salty, food.

Similarly, we are unlikely to get all students learning if we use only one or two of the approaches described above:

  • Reasoning sways some students – but not all.
  • Rewards and punishments can be powerful – but they are hard work and can evoke resentment.
  • Making change easy and tempting helps – but the effects may not last.
  • Motivation and self-regulation are valuable – but pursuing them may not get students learning.
  • Habits promise lasting change – but to form habits, we may need to make change easier and to motivate, reward or reason with students (Fiorella, 2020, p.9).
  • We can help students see themselves differently (encouraging further change) – but it’s easiest to do this once they are succeeding.

Just as a satisfying meal combines many flavours, to get every student learning we must combine these approaches.

We can encourage students, make change easier, and try to make change stick, with habits.

We can use each approach separately – making starting a task easier without promoting a habit, for example.

But lasting impact is most likely if we combine these approaches to help students form habits of success.

  • Which of these approaches do you use most? Which least?
  • How do these approaches support one another?
  • To what extent are you pursuing lasting changes – habits – and to what extent immediate changes?

This is adapted from Habits of success: getting every student learning.

Previously: convincing students learning matters, sanctions and rewards, nudging, motivating students, building student self-regulation, habits of success.

Particular thanks to Dan Cronin, for articulating the importance of combining these approaches in comments on an early draft of Habits of Success.

References

Haidt, J. (2013). The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion. London: Penguin, 131-133.

Fiorella, L. (2020). The science of habit and its implications for student learning and well-being. Educational Psychology Review.

If these ideas interested you, during his podcast interview with me, Ollie Lovell probed how Habits of Success is both about habit formation – and behavioural science more broadly, at about fifteen minutes in. And it was generally a really fun, fascinating discussion – highly recommended.