Every student has obstacles to learning, from diagnosed disabilities to simple time pressures. But the greatest obstacles to learning are teachers who give up too easily, who only teach one way, who discourage exploration and questioning, or who have low expectations of student abilities. A great teacher takes responsibility for adapting and continually improving, to help every student learn as much as they can, in the way that works best for them.
Everybody learns differently, but most classes in most schools and universities are organized exactly the same way. A student who can learn that way, who may even be good at learning that way, will do just fine. But a student who learns differently is set up for failure from the very beginning, and I’ve known lots of intelligent people who couldn’t be “successful” in conventional educational settings.
Every child comes into the world with a natural hunger for learning. About four years later they will start asking, “Why?” But by 18, only the most persistent young people will still be asking. Most people are smarter than they think, but they’ve never developed their abilities and don’t know how to think analytically. They’ve become accustomed to teachers telling them what to do, and if they do what the teachers say they get the right answers and are rewarded with good grades. True learning is much deeper than that! Great teachers encourage students to think, explore, ask questions, and find solutions that make sense to them, not just follow a list of steps like trained monkeys.
In education, we often hear statistics on the low retention rates after a class is over. But when students really understand, they can apply their skills to different kinds of problems, and they’ll be able to remember and use those skills for the rest of their lives. The way to accomplish this result is to relate classroom learning to real-world problems, from the very beginning. When students learn an academic topic in the context of how it relates to what they already know, they naturally form connections in their brains so that new information or skill is handy when they need it. On top of that, they’ll be more interested in learning because they see how it will benefit them.
To varying degrees, we’ve all (students, teachers, and parents) been affected by the conformist mentality of formal education and the misconception that high grades are the measuring stick for effective learning. But with patience and persistence, we can learn to adapt to individual learning differences and strive for a deeper, richer level of understanding. Will you join me on this exhilarating journey?
Going off of the previous ommcent discussion, how do you feel about a very shy, introverted student attempting to get the same sort of information from a teacher as an open and outgoing one? I myself am not a very good speaker, and am very introverted to say the least. In fact, I have some major social phobias which have led me to skipping classes altogether for fear of being called on. For some people this makes sense if you are unprepared, but I typically am up on all my work to the best of my abilities. In response to your video, do you agree with how school systems function with normal test procedures? I find studying specifically for a test is rather self-defeating to actually learning something. If everything not on the test is thrown aside, and a person is really only studying for a good grade, then nothing is really be learned (and more importantly, retained).
There’s no video here, so I’m not sure if your comment was intended for another blog.
It’s true that a shy or anxious student is at a disadvantage in the classroom. When I teach, I make a conscious effort to promote an environment where students are comfortable taking risks.
I have serious objections not only to conventional testing, but also conventional grading. In a number of ways, the system of assessment undermines the supposed goal of learning.
Welcome to the blog!