I Tried That and It Didn't Work' — There's a Learning Curve to Any Teaching Practice
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder addresses the common excuse of abandoning a new practice after one attempt, explaining that implementation requires persistence through the learning curve.
Key Takeaways
- One try isn't enough - Every new practice requires time and multiple attempts to implement effectively
- The learning curve is normal - Struggling with something new doesn't mean it doesn't work
- Persistence separates success from failure - The difference between schools that improve and those that don't is often just sticking with evidence-based practices long enough
Transcript
I tried that and it didn't work.
How many times do we say things like that in this profession?
Oh, I tried some new technique, I tried some new strategy, and it didn't work, so I guess I'll try something else.
That was my experience all the time as a new teacher.
I would try something, maybe something I learned at a workshop in professional development, or maybe I saw somebody else uh use a particular strategy and i try it myself and it wouldn't work and i would say to myself i guess i need to find something else to do with a little bit of perspective now years and years later i'm realizing that there are levels right when you try something for the first time let's be honest you're not good at it you're at what i call a level one and i'm borrowing the level system from my book mapping professional practice At level one, yes, you're doing it, but you're not good at it yet.
And at level two, yes, you're doing it and you're doing a little bit better, but you're still not good at it yet.
It's kind of clunky and it's not really going to work until you hit that what we call level three or fluent level of practice.
And I think that's tricky to realize because when you're new to something you don't know what you're doing wrong you don't know where the opportunities for improvement are you just know okay i'm doing this thing and it's not really working maybe my kids are different maybe you know the strategy was not such a good strategy and that can really make it difficult for us to learn from other people so We're talking today about how to help new teachers understand practice at a deep level and learn from other people's practice.
And I think a lot of what people need to understand is that you're not good enough at a practice the first time you try it to really be able to say, oh, that doesn't work or that doesn't work here.
We have to recognize that everything has a learning curve.
And sometimes we've got to stick with something longer than we think we need to, because it's not going to be until that level three that we really start to see results.
So I guess my general advice here is don't give up.
If you're trying something new, it's working for somebody else, it's not working for you, recognize that that's normal.
It is normal for a new practice to not work right away, especially if it's a pretty high skill practice.
If there's an art to it, you're not going to get that the first time.
It's going to take some some effort, some at-bats, some failure, some frustration.
So don't jump to something new because like that's the part I want to save you from.
It's jumping to something new every time because I know I did that as a new teacher.
You know, try this.
That doesn't work.
Try something else.
Like pick a lane.
Try something.
Stick with it long enough to get good at it and you will see the results.
Let me know what you think.