The Teachability Factor

Teaching doesn’t always result in learning and this discrepancy seems to be widening. This, despite the fact that students have never been smarter, teachers have never been better trained, our curriculum has never been more honed, and our technology has never been so advanced. According to Dr. Neufeld, the problem has to do with the diminishing teachability of our students. The teachability factor refers to those determinants of learning that are psychological in nature: developmental, relational, motivational and emotional. Cultural change has altered these factors, making the teacher’s job much more difficult than it used to be or needs to be. According to Dr. Neufeld, the teachability factor is the most overlooked, least understood and potentially the most promising of the factors in the learning equation. Current educational methods and curriculum assume teachability, setting teachers up for considerable frustration when this assumption is not realized.

The Teachability Factor was developed by Dr. Neufeld with the purpose of making sense of students to the teachers, administrators and supporting professionals responsible for them. It is an insight approach bringing the best of attachment-based developmental science to bear on the issues and challenges of educating our young. This course focuses on the two most significant factors in learning and behaviour: developmental stuckness and the student-teacher relationship. Interventions flow logically and directly from an understanding of these factors.

The video material for the course is divided into eight 1-hour sessions, and is supported by 4 discussion groups. The course is relevant to all educators and supporting professionals.

Course Outline

Session 1: Teachability Introduced
Session 2: Teachability and the Adaptive Brain: Correction, Resilience and Neural Plasticity
Session 3: Teachability and the Developing Brain: problem solving, self discipline, and the capacity to process conflicting thoughts and feelings
Session 4: Teachability and the Heart: stuckness and defendedness
Session 5: Teachability and Relationship Part I: empowered teaching and the desire to be good
Session 6: Teachability and Relationship Part II: how attachment is meant to develop and what hinders its formation
Session 7: Raising Teachability through Attachment: overcoming students reticence to attach and cultivating a context of connection
Session 8: Raising Teachability with Stuck Kids

Interested in this course?

Click the Let Me Know button at left to receive notification when a new group is scheduled.