Teaching Triangles

You put your thumbs together, tip-to-tip, then you put your forefingers together, tip-to-tip.

The teacher is on the vertex represented by the curve between your left thumb and forefinger. The students are on the vertex represented by the same curve on your right hand. And the content is where your forefingers meet.

You got it. The Teaching Triangle.

(Also known as I-Thou-It, popularized first by Martin Buber and then, in the field of education, by David Hawkins.)

As you can imagine, the vertices of this triangle are very important.

Teacher.

Student(s).

Content.

Each brings their own strengths, weaknesses, constraints, affordances to the teaching-learning project.

But what interests me most are the lines between the vertices.

The relationships.

• Does the teacher hate the book she’s teaching?

• Do the students see the value of the math concept?

• Does the teacher want to know what the students think?

• Does the teacher want to hear what the students already know?

• Do the students trust the teacher?

• How does the lesson plan take all these lines-between into account?

When your Teaching Triangle is fat and robust, fun and learning abound! When your Teaching Triangle is lopsided or, worst of all, collapsed into one line or even one point — say, when the teacher merges with the content and erases the students — then problems can arise.

Want an example? Listen to the latest podcast, where Veronica doesn’t just learn the value of the Teaching Triangle. She experiences

a miracle.

Of her own doing.