Risk, reward and repetition are the three Rs for any behaviour that one would want to try to establish – good or bad. When it comes to teaching and learning, instructors often have risks that are too great, rewards that are not relevant and repetition that is so far beyond what is needed, or not present at all – according to the students. Now that is not always the case, but it is unlikely, that in post secondary especially, that instructors will think about these three Rs at all when they are designing or delivering a course. But should they? I think they should, especially the repetition. Students should be able to fail (safely) at least once. Afterall, that is what the real world is like… absolute perfection is not the normal state of affairs for anything.

These ideas were brought up by a couple of posts. The first was via Allison Miller, talking about NCVER report “Having your say: ‪Views from the sector on enhancing vocational education and training provider capability and the second from Tom Kuhlmann on Lego, Slots and Video Games where he basically outlined with really cool images everything that I believe as well about risk in the classroom.

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One Response to “Risk, the learning strategy”

1. Tom Kuhlmann says:

   April 14, 2008 at 10:45 am

   Thanks for the plug. Like your blog. I’ll have to take a close look later. Have a great day.