The great economist John Maynard Keynes is supposed to have said “when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? - David Franklin

So Trump was 29% likely to win. What does 29% mean?” he asks. This is an odd question for many: they’re doing a Master’s degree at Harvard, and they’re being asked what a percentage means. The question is aiming at the gut reaction of the brain to the number. Inevitably, students think it might be a trick question. Dan waits a while, and when no-one raises their hands, he breaks away from the example to tell a story: “You know, when I first started teaching, I was terrified of silence. I thought, ‘oh my god, I’ve got to do something, they’re not saying anything’.” The class laughs: he has eased the tension created by the silence. “The more I taught, the more I realised that silences are important in a class – they give time for people to think. These days, I’m not afraid of silence at all.” After a few seconds, a woman puts up her hand. “Well, obviously, I knew that it meant there was some chance that he would win. But it was still a shock that the 29% happened.

Acknowledging that students have competing purposes is the first step to managing them.

Recognising competing purposes Although few would have much trouble identifying ‘maximising learning’ as the purpose of the class, there may be several competing purposes in play, all of which are invisible. For students, maximising enjoyment, minimising effort, maximising test scores, maximising learning about something else, and making friends are all likely to be found across the classroom. For the teacher, we can add to that list maximising evaluation scores, which may be closer linked to student satisfaction than to student learning.