Agitations and animations

Abstract: As educators, we write about how we teach and how our students learn, but often there are some things missing from these accounts. These 'somethings' are the animations and agitations that attend most deep learning. These are not easy to describe, particularly because they are often only visible in passing moments. I argue that story-telling is one way in which these animations and agitations can be seen, and that story telling therefore plays a part in discovering and communicating some of the more subtle aspects of the teaching and learning experience. In this article, therefore, I tell a story about a teacher and some of his students, in an attempt to identify some of these subtle aspects, and then provide a commentary on what I think the story tells us.