Doug Johnson Website

Learned Helplessness
Head for the Edge, Technology Connection, May 1996

For many years staff development for technology went something like this:

Teacher signs up for “Computer Basics” and completes the inservice, leaving the training with a sense of mastery.
A week or two later when Teacher gets a few minutes to use the building’s computer, she sits down to find out that she remembers little of what she thought she had mastered. “Must need more training,” she thinks.
Next time technology training rolls around, Teacher signs up again for “Computer Basics” and completes the inservice.
A week or two later when Teacher gets a few minutes to use the building’s computer, she sits down to find out that she remembers little of what she was taught. “Must need more training,” she thinks.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 a couple more times.
Teacher finally decides that she just isn’t “good” with technology, and begins to avoid computer inservices at all cost.

Far too many teachers have fallen prey to the syndrome that Donald Norman in his book The Psychology of Everyday Things calls “learned helplessness.” It’s easy to acquire. Folks have learned to be helpless about a lot of things beside computers - music, cooking, languages, carpentry, writing, swimming etc. If we register a couple negative experiences with an activity or skill, we quite easily rationalize our frustrations by saying “I was just never very good at __________ “(fill in the blank).

It may be too late to save some teachers - the learned helplessness may be too deeply ingrained. But most are salvageable if your staff development program includes:

1) Access, access, access.
A computer in a teacher’s room or office is probably the single best way to prevent “learned helplessness.” Teachers need to be able to check computers out to take home in the evenings, over the weekend, and especially during the summer. I have found that many teachers get tired of lugging computers back and forth, and wind up buying a computer for home within a year of active computer use anyway.

2) Meaningful application.
I am not sure technology advocates have done anyone a favor by suggesting that computers make one’s life easier. They may save a little time here and there, but the real benefit computing is that it just plain makes one better at one’s job! Our district staff development activities stress the use of the computer as a productivity tool FOR THE TEACHER. We work hard to see that all teachers use word processing, e-mail, and a computerized record keeping system in the form of an electronic grade book, spreadsheet or database. I am firmly convinced that teachers will not use productivity tools with kids until they themselves have experienced the empowering effect of technology on a personal basis. Oh, and teachers seem NOT to need instruction on how to use drill and kill applications.

3) Time for practice.
Learning to use a computer, it’s said, requires about the same investment in time and energy as gaining rudimentary fluency in second language. So how do you “give” a person more time? A savvy administrator who knows that a teacher is earnestly trying to master computer skills might temporarily release that individual from some supervisory responsibilities, understand if they don’t sign up for building committees, look for others to do special assignments, find ways to reduce the number of preps etc. Technology use should be accepted as a professional improvement goal. Inservice and workshop days for technology training are a must. A couple of laptop computers for teacher check-out can extend teachers learning time from a couple hours a day to literally any time they are not in class.

4) A technology environment.
It’s amazing what happens in a school when even a few teachers start using a computer. It gives everyone else in the building courage. The internal dialog goes something like, “Geeze, if Johnson can learn to use a computer - and I know I am a heck of a lot smarter than he is - so can I.”

5) Support.
We all need it, but some need it more than others. This can be formalized by holding follow-up sessions to training a few weeks after the initial round. But as importantly, it means having someone close to call. These are the steps we advise new computer users to follow when they hit a road block:

Try again
Get a cup of coffee, go to the bathroom, stretch & try again.
Check the manual (optional)
Call another teacher who was in the training
Ask your kids, neighbors’ kids, or the local computer club.
Call your media specialist. (Mine say they don’t have a life anyway.)
Call the computer coordinator.
When all other avenues have been explored, call the district media supervisor. He can rarely help, but he’s often very sympathetic.

6) A little fear mongering.
Let’s face it. Computer illiterate teachers are not good for kids. It’s time administrators and fellow teachers stop accepting excuses for some teachers not having computer skills. But we may be too late. Kids and parents are already communicating that message very well.