One idea from our discussion of Frank McCourt that stayed with me was how he responded to students when they resisted what they were learning. He did not always immediately tell them that their reaction was wrong. For example, if students disliked a book, he seemed interested in why they disliked it. This made me think about how I normally respond when students resist something in mathematics or physics, since this happens a lot.
In my own teaching, when a student says that a topic is too difficult, it is usually followed by a request to lower the difficulty of the exam or exclude this “difficult” part from it. My first reaction to this kind of negotiation is often to find a way to get the student back on task. After this class, I wonder whether I should sometimes treat that resistance as information. Maybe the student's reaction conveys more information about how I am teaching, how much the student understands, or whether the lesson feels engaging to them. I still don't have an answer that I'm satisfied with, and I'll keep looking for this answer in the coming classes.
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