Creating Teachable Moments... and Making Them Last

The article investigates what the content (rather than the process) of instruction can do to motivate oftentimes ill-prepared students with predominantly extrinsic interests in their education. Among the four content-related conditions of classroom learning that are described, particular emphasis is placed on the relationship between teaching for cognitive dissonance and reflective self-assessment. The former is seen as a main condition for creating teachable moments, the latter as a vehicle for turning them into lasting learning experiences. The discussion of these issues is based on work done in three specific courses and on additional evidence from the literature.