Student Resistance to Learning

Resistance to learning is a common site for teachers. Brookfield has discussed the steps to deal with this resistance in a clear and comprehensive manner. He rightly suggests that we can never deal with all the resistance in a classroom and that sometimes in our attempt to deal with resistance coming from a small group of students we tend to ignore the other who may be showing keenness to learn. It is important to deal with resistance and obviously a teacher cannot ignore student resistance to learning. The idea is that we should never make it an egocentric issue.

I believe a teacher should be as accommodating and keen to change as per her class needs, as she expects her students to be doing the same- showing readiness to change. Dealing with resistance starts from learning about our self, our class, their background, their needs, the gap in our teaching and their expectations, understanding our expectations and how they are being received by the class and practising the same level of commitment as we expect from students. A teacher should always keep in mind that learning leads to change and change happens when we come out of our comfort zones and embrace it.

Also, when a student learns or prepares himself to move from one level of learning to another, he comes out of his comfort zone and accepts that there is a gap in his knowledge that would be covered by this learning. This makes the learner vulnerable and can make him resistant to learn, if he finds the atmosphere very challenging or judgemental.