Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Pablo Caceres's avatar

Thank you for putting in words an issue that we see everyday in classrooms, not only in senior levels, but in junior levels too. Often we, teachers, are competing for student’s attention and trying to engage them in learning.

Expand full comment
Dominic Salles's avatar

Very thought provoking as always. But I think the analogy is a bit different. Classrooms absolutely can be like Duolingo. The engagement in Duolingo is not that it is entertaining (I am one of the daily users who hates it). The engagement is that you are constantly successful because of the way information is chunked and practice is organised and sequenced. Lessons can absolutely be organised this way.

Likewise the incentives of points gained, league tables and slightly annoying celebrations of streaks within lessons and across days and weeks creates proof of success and progress, which motivates despite the lack of 'fun'.

I'll go a step further - students would learn languages in school much better if 50% of lesson time was devoted to Duolingo. 25 hours took me to grade 5 on a reading paper, which is the equivalent of January in a year 7 curriculum.

Expand full comment

No posts