Words are powerful and can literally can be "life or death" to those you speak them too. So the simple change of focus from simply giving facts toward appealing to the heart is huge.
The video How to Change People Who Don't Want to Change by the Behavioral Science Guys is such a good illustration of how lecturing people with facts causes them to be reactive, while presenting them with a question that appeals to their heart motivates change. When people are motivated by their heart they actually discover for themselves what is important.
While giving facts and information is not innately bad because plans and initiatives should be backed by research, cue the literature review, it is not the facts and information that people react to. This reminds me of the TedTalk from Tom Asacker where he says that brains don’t make decisions based on facts and that information doesn’t move us. Instead he suggests that desire moves us. When we appeal to the heart, people are more motivated to act or change.
Asacker also mentions that people operate in who they believe they are saying "Who we think we are determines what we do."
Translating this into how it fits into the classroom, if our students believe that they are not good at something they will not try because they believe they will fail. Instead of lecturing them on whatever topic they feel inadequate in and feeding them more information, educators should present them with a question that will get them thinking about what they really believe. As an educator, we have the responsibility to instill knowledge into our students it's true, however more importantly we have the obligation to inspire them to change their way of thinking and help them discover what they believe is true about themselves. When we help stir them to realize their true potential they will be unstoppable!
References
[Crucial Learning]. (2015, January 5). How to Change People Who Don't Want to Change | The Behavioral Science Guys [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACi-D5DI6A&t=6s
[TEDx Talks]. (2014, June 20). Why TED Talks don't change people's behaviors: Tom Asacker at TEDxCambridge 2014 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jTZ-GP0N4
Photo: "Heart feeling head" by Free Stock Illustrations | Creazilla
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