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Can't Sew, Won't Sew: Unpicking Negative Thinking

By: Geraldine Jozefiak
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:40
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How we think about our ability to sew comes from a variety of experiences and associations. If you want to break the pattern of negative thinking, it helps to understand how we arrive at these thoughts.

I teach teachers how to teach. When I ask them to think about bad or unhappy learning experiences they can easily give me examples. They can easily remember their exposure to these situations because over time they have remembered the emotions that went with them. But experience is only part of the reason that we develop poor attitudes to the craft process.

Another important factor is how we think about ourselves. Imagine that you are having a bad time in a learning situation. The teacher is ineffective and can't manage to present the information in a way that stimulates you. Frankly you are beginning to dismiss their ability to teach.

It might be at this point that you rationalise your inability to participate by telling yourself that you didn't want to do it anyway!

However, if you already had a good opinion of yourself and your ability to do the subject (in another situation) then you wouldn't be starting to think negative thoughts. Ideas that you were stupid, inept, etc. would not figure in your thinking. Instead, if you have a good picture of your abilities. You'd probably by now thinking that about the teacher.

Those of a shaky confidence though start to think that the problem in understanding is theirs - and not the teachers. And if they have had a number of previous poor experiences in the subject, guess what! They will add this feeling to the others, and it will just serve, once again to convince them, that yes, they really find this subject difficult.

What's more troubling, is because they are convincing themselves of their hopelessness, they decide that they will not put themselves in this situation again, if they can. (There may have been times you bunked off P.E. for instance because you dreaded showing up your poor ball skills!).

All this seems pretty dire but it's easily changed. Use words of encouragement and present information in a way that enables learners to learn.

By that I mean

· Break down your project into tiny steps.
· Make it easy for them to get started.
· Look for ways to involve them in the subject.
· Chose subject designs that they like, colours and materials.
· Make the project suit them as best you can by encouraging them every step of the way.

Congratulate them on their successes.

It is possible to change thinking. We know from research that memories are 'telescoped' into one big memory. If there are lots of poor experiences to craft then they will all be lumped together and there will be negativity. The experiences that are strong on emotions are likely to be remembered more.

If that's the case, make the experience memorable by making it pleasurable. Enable them to interact with the project with emotion.

This is made more possible through using the senses.

· The words you use need to be encouraging and involving.
· The materials they feel should be exciting and pleasurable.
· The things they see around them need to be fun and enjoyable.

If learners in your class are negative, it is because they have accumulated experiences that have had them believing they can't. If you make every effort to re-teach them that they can, then you should congratulate yourself that you have unpicked that negativity. You may also have re-started someone on the road to happy crafting.

Geraldine Jozefiak is passionate about crafts and their place in education. Be part of raising standards in teaching and learning with craft instruction at its best.
http://www.the-craft-teacher.com

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