Learned Helplessness and Blended Learning: Removing the Teacher as Crutch

Before I began my Blended Learning Journey, I knew I would have to combat learned helplessness since some go immediately to the teacher to ask questions of what to do or how to do something.

In a blended learning classroom some of the instruction, including directions, is online, so I figured I'd see an uptick in questions directed my way that were not content-related. Preemptively, before they begin their stations or online work, I remind them: "Ask 3 before me: group/partner, directions, Google" 

However, I wasn't quite prepared for the level of helplessness some students exhibit. I'll have students call me over and ask "What do I do?" When I ask if they have read the directions or watched the direction video, I'm gobsmacked when they tell me "no" and then look at me, waiting, I assume, for me to tell them what to do.

Now, I'm all for helping students who need other ways of receiving directions or need me to reword directions. That is part of differentiation and differentiation is why I believe so strongly in blended learning. But I also know my campus mission: We will prepare every child to become independent, growth-minded servant leaders. That I build up that child's capacity to be independent is a key part of his or her future success.

It is my job, then, as an educator to respond to a child with the cognitive process that I want the child to internally adopt. Therefore, I've learned to change the question I ask. Instead of "Have your read the directions and asked a peer?" I'm asking: "How can you figure it out? What resources in Schoology can help you?"

And guess what? My students who were chronic "What do I do?" students are starting to make the shift! It's taking a little time for them to figure out when they need to ask to get support versus when their asking is actually causing a hindrance, but we are getting there.

What do you do in your class to grow independent learners?