Pick your passion - inspire and engage students by teaching what inspires you

There is nothing worse than observing a lesson where the teacher is clearly apathetic about what they are teaching. They aren't engaged, and so funnily enough the students are not engaged. 

So here is my plea to curriculum designers and heads of faculty everywhere: as far as possible, allow teachers to teach their passions. Not only is this empowering for teachers, the positive knock-on effects will translate into more engaged students and better outcomes. Hattie measures teacher credibility as having a 0.9 effect size on students progress, just outside the top ten. I would argue that allowing teachers to teach what they are passionate about, therefore probably more knowledgeable about, will increase teacher credibility with students. 

I've been doubly lucky. Firstly, as a language teacher, any song, film, article, comic, play, poem or piece of writing is a potential stimulus text for teaching. I can, and do, pick whatever interests me (a recent lesson involved me having students compare a song by Tracy Chapman with the stand-up comedy of Sindhu Vee and a poem by Patience Agbabi). Secondly, even during those periods in my career when I haven't been Head of Department, I have had department heads who have encouraged and supported me in my selection of texts and teaching materials. 

I appreciate that not all subjects have such flexibility, but where the opportunity to teach your passions exists, I urge you to take it. 


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