Teachers’ Cognitive Activities

Abstract

A teacher educator is about to begin a lesson for his students on the introduction of fractions, but one of them interrupts: “I’ld rather talk about practical problems. I know I am doing fractions in my class just now, but I’ve about five pupils I can’t cope with. I get the impression that these five stop listening as soon they don’t understand something, and then start disturbing the others. Your suggestions about teaching fractions won’t help me with that problem. I want to know how to improve these pupils’ motivation—not just motivation theories, but practical advice for my lesson planning. The things I have been taught about motivation seem far removed from Peter, Walter and Jose—who are the three worst. The teacher who had this class before told me: ‘Keep an eye on those three, and everything will run smoothly.’ But how can I do that? I try, but when I need to finish a lesson on time, I have to concentrate on the topic and not just on those three pupils. Besides, I have watched this teacher work with the class, and when I think of the graveyard silence she produced, I know that I don’t want any of that ‘everything will run smoothly’ at all.”