ABSTRACT
We have all encountered people who lack interest, or hold wrong or outdated beliefs, in the content of a conversation. As a result, the idea of “teaching against resistance” has occurred to most people at some time or another. In the present chapter we think of teaching against resistance in two different ways. First, it refers to the process of teaching learners (i.e., students or others) who harbor some type of resistance to the learning experience. 1 Our focus is on the resistance that the typical learner brings to the typical learning encounter, with an emphasis on the classroom. It may take the form of incorrect preconceptions, faulty reasoning, or emotional or inertial resistance. Second, we mean “teaching against resistance” in the sense of proactively developing and managing a learning environment (whether in or outside of a classroom) that seeks to minimize, or reduce, the creation of resistance or inertia. Thus, we consider how to address preexisting resistance as well as proactively avoid new resistance.
