Underperformance May Not Correspond to Your Teaching

 

Back in the seventies, when schools were still putting students into Track I (college-bound kids), Track II (mainstream pupils), and Track III (learners with special needs), I realized that poor performance was not just because students didn’t hear well or remember well; they never got the information in the first place. Some of these individuals were simply distracted by the lights, the noise, the person sitting next to them, or just all the other thoughts in their minds. It seemed that I needed a way to help my class members shed all the outside distractions so they could focus on the lesson for the day. Pulling together ideas from various disciplines, I came up with the idea of using a meditation exercise, or if you prefer, a super-learning, or focused-concentration activity.

The Focused-Learning Activity

In order to help my class members to focus, I turned down the lights, and asked them to close their eyes, take a deep breath, and relax.  I began the exercise by saying, “Let your feet and ankles relax. They won’t do it on their own, nor can you force them to relax.  Just LET them relax.” We continued by concentrating up the body. With each deep breath, we allowed our calves and shins to relax, then our thighs and hamstrings, our hips and the small of our back. “Allow your neck and shoulders to relax. Take a deep breath every time you hear me say ‘relax.’ Most of us carry our tension in our neck and shoulders so you might take several deep breaths, and each time, allow the energy and stress in your neck and shoulders to move out of your body, down your arms and fingertips.  Take a deep breath, and as you relax your neck and shoulders, allow the stress to flow out of the top of your head.  Inhale and exhale several times.” 

The Mantra

These relaxation instructions helped my pupils to relax, but we discovered that it is difficult to think of nothing.  Thus, meditators are given a mantra to utter in their minds while their minds and bodies are settling into quiet. I chose to have them say "Om" as they focused.  I also added the idea of imagining a candle sitting on a table in a black room.  “Take a breath and continue to see the candle while repeating your mantra, ‘Om.’   You might say ‘Om’ several times in your mind with each breath in a slow rhythmic way.”

Association as a Memory Device

Once the students were in a complete state of relaxation, I would begin a review of whatever I wanted them to know and remember, using association as a memory device. The first time with my Track III learners, I took them on a journey to memorize all the state capitals. I had given them a random Scantron test the day before on the state capitals and no one had scored higher than 30 out of the possible 50 questions. The average test score was 17 of 50, which told me that they knew few of the state capitals. 

Testing My Meditation Theory

I had three classes. Each of them received a different assignment so I could test my theory that focusing, or not focusing, was contributing to academic performance. I asked one class to go home and study the capitals, telling them that they would have a graded test again the next day. The second class was told that the test didn’t matter, but I gave them all the answers and the next day I re-tested them. The results of these two classes was fairly predictable. The former group did surprisingly well, raising their average grade from 17 to 34, essentially doubling their performance. However, this only brought the average up to 68%. The latter group, as expected, raised their score by only six points.

The third class was where I tested my meditation theory. I asked them to do no studying between the first and second test. The next day I started the guided meditation with them. We started with our home state, California. I told my scholars to imagine themselves riding a cow, holding a sack of gold, traveling through the gold country to SACKramento.  A cow is more ludicrous than riding a horse and is thus more memorable. The more ludicrous the association – the more memorable. As we continued our meditative journey through Oregon, we imagined the lush green of the state as we opened our brand new green pack of Salem cigarettes, lit one, and while lying on our cow, looked up at the beautiful Salem capital building towering over us. (Remember, I used this theory in the seventies. These days, Salem cigarettes aren't advertised on TV, and therefore, may not be memorable or appropriate to use for association.) In Washington, we climbed the high mountain of Olympus, home of Olympia, sat back, and relaxed. Again, in introducing the idea of beer and cigarettes is again titillating, and hopefully ludicrous, and thus more memorable. We continued across the United States, stopping and pondering a symbolic image in each state capital. This relaxation meditation takes ten to fifteen minutes and focusing on fifty states in a class period makes for a tight schedule. If you were going to try this specific example, you could divide your class periods by region. 

Results of My Investigation

I asked the students in the meditation group not to study because the test did not count toward their grades. The next day, we condensed the meditative relaxation time to less than ten minutes, the guided meditation through the states to less than 20 minutes, and allowed just 15 minutes for the test which followed the same order as the meditation. Everyone did amazingly well. Several pupils got all 50 questions correct, and the class average was 43 out of 50.

The first time I took my classes through this process, it felt like cheating. I had given them the answers and they were able to focus their concentration and file the information by association in a way that they could recall it at a moment's notice. But really, isn't that the goal of teaching? To help our pupils learn and remember? I ended up using this method of reviewing for tests for the rest of my 38-year teaching  career, applying it to the study of poetry, short stories, novels, or essay writing,

A Caveat

The one caveat with our first study was that when I gave the students a random test on the state capitals six months later, I was disappointed to discover that all three groups scored 20 percent lower than they had on the previous test. I had expected the guided meditation group to retain more through the association method of memorization, but I surmised that they would get better at retention with more practice. Also, these days, you might want to carefully select the mantra, and what you name this exercise, as a parent or student might mistakenly think you are incorporating religion into your classroom.