Lighting Up Learning has Nothing to do with a Light

We are all learners — and personally, I love learning. As I’ve gotten older, I have become more particular about how I learn. These days, I rarely attend public lectures. Instead, I learn one-on-one with a variety of learning partners, join online webinars on topics of interest, and host a monthly lecture in my home to mark Rosh Chodesh, the new Hebrew month. This way, I know the content will be relevant to me.

Interestingly, one of my most unexpected sources of learning comes through my work interpreting lectures and Shabbat sermons into American Sign Language (ASL) for Deaf audiences. It’s a win-win: I get to learn, and I get paid!  Obviously, I have to stay attentive the entire time!

What motivates me to stay alert?

I am constantly involved in the learning, translating from spoken English into ASL. Sign language is not just a code of a spoken language, ASL is its own language and a large part of the interpreting process revolves around conveying the message clearly and staying authentic to the idea of the statement.

This is especially so when a speaker uses English idioms. A literal translation of an idiom into ASL would have a person looking for a headless chicken or a cat escaping from a bag (when I really mean a hectic moment or a secret revealed)! So an interpreter must quickly grasp the speaker’s intent and rephrase it in a way that is meaningful. I once learned this the hard way at a school board meeting where the speaker mentioned “the elephant in the room.” Assuming the Deaf audience would understand, I signed it literally — until someone interrupted me to ask, “What elephant?!”

My own learning experiences make me wonder: do they connect to what research tells us about motivation in the classroom like Self-Determination Theory? A key idea from this framework is that learners of any age crave relevance in what they’re learning. Drawing connections and creating relevance between the topic and the students’ interests could directly help build motivation.

But even subjects that are largely irrelevant can become appealing when students are engaged, actively involved in the learning process.  And when learners are dynamically involved — the way I am when I have to creatively rework English into ASL — the experience becomes energizing. This suggests that lesson plans that require student involvement can be powerful tools to motivate us learners to pay attention.

It’s not necessarily a stroke of genius but maybe it is a no-brainer, to lose the lectures and light up the learning with educational games, group activities and groovy gimmicks!