“Shocking” Students Toward Learning

A “shock language experience” is designed to provide people with a simulated experience of being an English language learner (ELL) (Kubota el al., 2000). The principles of a shock language experience were adapted to create a new teaching method called the “shock learning experience.” A shock learning experience is grounded in research from brain-based learning, emotions, constructivism, and SOTL to create classroom situations to learn concepts through frustrating simulations wherein students either do not have the necessary “tools” or the situation they are placed in is the opposite of the learning outcomes of the course. The shock learning experience for this study was designed to help pre-service teachers understand concepts of classroom management. The results of the study indicate that students (n=42) recognized that this experience was more “meaningful” than reading about or discussing the topic, and changed their view of classroom management. The objectives of this session are to have participants experience a simulated non-teacher education shock learning experience and learn how to design such an experience for their subject area by participating in a round robin activity