Teachable Moments: Impart a love for learning!

Teaching anything is a challenge, not only because you need confidence in the subject yourself but because you are dealing with an audience. There’s pressure to be understood and for the experience to go well. You are forever trying to create
tasks which guide a learner towards success yet also have some measure of practical application in real life. It's not just in the classroom either- in fact anyone involved with the teaching of a skill has to master the Teachable Moment.

Recently however, the idea of a Teachable Moment was taken too far with disastrous consequences!

Cast your minds back in time for me, to January of this year. It feels like, thanks to this horrible time warp we live in, it was decades ago and how quickly therefore we forget the dramas that come and go in those times. Let me refresh your memory to one particular event that hasn’t really left my mind since and how with a bit of analysis there might be a valuable lesson in it!



I'm talking about the unfortunate saga of Bean Dad!

Who was Bean Dad?



I’ll start right now by saying that this article isn’t really intended to be a full recount and retelling of the whole Bean Dad saga and with brevity in mind, here’s the cliff notes. For more information (including the Bean Dad’s apology), check out this article over on BBC News.

In January, a nine year old girl approaches her father (John Roderick) with a can of beans and desire to eat a meal. The father instructs her to open the can herself, rather than do it for her and the ordeal (hey can openers ain’t easy!) takes about a half dozen hours from hungry start to famished finish, all in the name of turning a simple request for beans into a Teachable Moment.

Why was this not a teachable moment?



One of the first things we learn about in teacher training is the simplified process of imparting new knowledge. I’ll expand on each step but it goes like this:



• Offer the knowledge to a willing mind

• Demonstrate how

• Practice and guidance

• Student can do it themselves

Looking at the story of Bean Dad, it seems like he skipped to step 4 which results in a learner engaging with their own negative experiences in a loop! Not to mention the fact it was the evening (bad time to learn) and  she was hungry (not able to commit to learning in body as well as mind).

How would I have done it?

(Presented as a little story, because i've got to use this Creative Writing degree somewhere!)

Fictional Child approaches me, Fictional Dad, with a can of beans and a hungry look. She wants to eat and while I know she’s old enough now to fix herself a simple meal, I ask if she’d like me to show her how to fix it for herself, because I know if I use the word teach I’ll conjure up images of school and therefore boredom and she’ll reject it. I even offer to sweeten the pot and show her how to make oatmeal raisin cookies too!

(Although they, I know, are primarily for me.)

She says yes (if she didn’t I’d fix them up myself and be done) and we depart to the kitchen. The can opener is a tricky beast and I tell her that it can be hard to use and I have trouble with it. Saying that, true or not, builds up a sense of empathy- they want someone to struggle with them sometimes! 

The first thing I do is get her to watch me open the beans, I may even (if she’s paying attention) get her to hold the handles or turn the crank. I make sure that if I mess up I’m the first to laugh, knowing that if I give into the anger and frustration this can opener will impart on me, Fictional Child will always associate the can opener with a negative memory. 

Pro teacher tip: If the experience will be miserable, avoid it. 

We eat the beans and if Fictional Child is still interested I suggest we have some canned fruit and ice cream for dessert. Now here is a chance to have her practice opening the cans herself. I make sure she gets a chance at least, offering at first to assist rather than take over which I’ll do if I need to. Eventually the can is opened and food is enjoyed. We then go and bake oatmeal raisin cookies because they are objectively the best cookie.

Over the next weeks we repeat this adventure until soon enough, the skill is learned and hopefully associated always with a happy memory.

Final advice



To teach, a learner must be willing and energised to learn. Honestly, there’s so much more to the psychology of this so do let me know if you enjoyed this and want more and let me know in the comments about the teachable moments from your life and if this method works for you.