We’ve known for a long time that some learners need a certain type of noise or quiet in order to learn.
For example, auditory learners will learn best by listening or by having noise in the background while they’re trying to learn something.
And learners with sensory-avoidant sensitivity often need quiet to learn – like an ADHD or autistic student needing to wear noise-cancelling headphones in a noisy classroom or to get through a school assembly.
But here’s the wild part that I didn’t know, but I learned this week in class!
I noticed this week that I was getting annoyed that one of my teaching textbooks consistently uses “practice” every time, when they actually should be using the verb “practise” in some sentences.
How do you know when to use practice or practise?
To practise is a verb that means you’re doing the same action or process over and over, usually over time, to get better at that action or process. For example:
“I practise the flute once every 6 months, just to remind myself that I still know how to play it.”
“It’s good for young students need to practise their times tables every day at first, so that they can remember the answers automatically when they’re solving other maths problems.”
A practice is a noun (a place, object, thing), and people use this word to mean of two things:
A practice can be a company you work for, or a place you work at, like a medical clinic or a legal firm.
“My friend wants to open their own practice one day, but it’s quite expensive to rent out an office space.”
A practice can be a collection of ideas that someone has brought together and it’s become their method or their philosophy of how they work.
“The practice of applying new technologies to old problems is a great way to motivate students to learn about a topic.”
How to remember when to say practise or practice
So how do you remember whether you need to write practise with a c or an s in the sentence you’re writing? Here’s a few different tips on how to remember it, because I know everyone’s brain works a little differently!
What letter do I use?
The word “practice” uses the letter c because it’s a “collection of people or ideas”.
For example, the practice of medicine is a collection of ideas about how the human body works.
And a legal practice is a collection of people who get paid a lot of money to write very boring but important documents.
What does it sound like?
Another tip is that if you think about when you were a little kid, sounding out words one letter at a time, the sound of the two words will usually help you pick one that “just sounds right”:
“I’m practising my teaching skills.” sounds right when I use the “sssss” sound, which means the letter s.
“I’m practicking my teaching skills.” sounds funny when I use the “ck” sound, which means the letter c.
Can I avoid having to remember?
Yes! I find the easiest way to remember when to use practice vs practise it is to stop using the word “practice” altogether.
Because no matter which of the two meanings above you need for “practice”, you can almost always replace “practice” with a clearer word or just delete it entirely.
For example, let’s reword the above two examples to be clearer, by replacing or removing the word “practice”:
“My friend wants to open their own legal firm one day, but it’s quite expensive to rent out an office space.”
“Applying new technologies to old problems is a great way to motivate students to learn about a topic.”
…or let’s simplify it and add an example, to be even clearer: “Students are much more interested in learning when you let them apply new technology like ChatGPT to old problems like research and writing.”
And as always, remember, English doesn’t have the easiest spelling and grammar rules to learn, even if it’s your first language. So if you’ve been confused by practise vs practice, don’t feel bad!
Comment down below – what’s something you enjoy practising?
Have you learned any new skills lately?
I learned how to crochet recently, and so far, I’ve made a very short scarf!
Image description: A selfie of TJ wearing a very short scarf, crocheted using rainbow chenille wool. It looks fluffy and soft, but kind of lumpy. 😂
I’m currently studying my Master of Teaching (Secondary), so I thought I’d start sharing some of the gems I am discovering in the education and training sector!
I’m also working at the same time, in the not-for-profit sector, where training adult volunteers and facilitating group events is a big part of my role. So I’m getting to exercise the things I already know about training and teaching there, as well!
Today’s tip comes from an American study, but next week I’ll bring you an Aussie one… Because you know I think our local context is one of the most important things, whether we’re talking grammar or publishing books or teaching!
How to help students succeed, by teaching them a growth mindset
So in 2016, an American study of 125 math teachers and their 3,965 Grade 9 students, looked at how students felt about their teacher’s attitude about each student’s ability to learn, and how the teacher acted in the classroom…
And compared that to what the teacher said in a survey: Did the teacher believe they had a growth attitude themselves, and did they believe they were passing on that mindset?
Wait, what’s a growth mindset?
A growth mindset is where you believe that you can learn to do anything you need to, so you can achieve anything you need to if you keep trying to learn it. (The opposite is a fixed mindset, where you believe you are either good or bad at doing something, and your ability to learn new skills is limited or “fixed”.)
The example in this study was: “My math teacher believes that everybody in my class can be very good at math.”
How to help students grow a growth mindset
The short version – heavily paraphrased by me – is that, if you want to create a growth mindset in your classroom, to help every student have a better chance to succeed academically:
When a student is struggling, we reassure them that the struggle – the effort it takes to learn something new – is natural, e.g. “It’s definitely confusing when you’re learning a new concept, and it’s totally normal to feel frustrated.” or “Everyone gets stuck sometimes, and we keep trying new things until we get it.”
Share accountability for the student’s success at learning, e.g. “We’ll work together on this, and we’ll make sure you get it.”
Avoid putting it back on the student to just work harder, e.g. “You have to put in the effort and study.” would not be helpful.
And the crazy takeaway from this study is that it doesn’t seem to matter whether you, as a teacher, actually have a growth mindset or not!
Whether teachers reported in the survey stage that they have a growth mindset and they focus on teaching that to their students, or whether they said they have a more fixed mindset, or whether they said they have a growth mindset but they don’t focus on teaching that to students, didn’t affect whether students developed a growth mindset.
So we can hope that as long as you’re helping your students to believe they can learn and believe that you’ll provide help as needed, then they are likely to develop a growth mindset in your subject or class.
This 2016 study was conducted by Hooper, Haimovitz, Wright, Murphy, & Yeager – and I should note that I’m mostly reading analysis by Haimovitz and Dweck, 2017, because it’s a lovely summary.
Are you a teacher?
Send me your best teacher tips! I love learning, and although I’ve been training adults and working with young people for years, I’m so excited to be learning new strategies for helping teens become more confident, more capable, and lifelong learners.
Special thanks to the teachers who shaped my young, creative, undiagnosed-neurodiverse brain in ways that helped me find my growth mindset! Chronologically, Mr Fittell, Mr Pitt, Ms Suarez, Mr Hanlon, Mx Dugan. ♥
TJ Withers 