Readings: Week 6

The readings for this week take us back to where I stood on day one of this blog. I firmly believe that in order for learning to happen, real learning, we need to teach students to understand and transfer information, not just regurgitate facts.

I was forever angry in high school because the grades in high school were not about how well you understood the material, or how intelligent you were, they were based on whether or not you filled out the endless worksheets going over the same material again and again. This is the reason why I was not a 4.0 student in high school. I could pass every test with flying colors, I could write a great essay and apply my knowledge to a few different areas or topics we had learned in class. But to me, filling in mindless worksheets was a waste of time, and frankly a lazy way out for the teachers. I will be the first to admit that I'm sure I was a bit of a challenging student to have in class, because although I was always polite, I simply refused to be insulted in that way. Teachers always used to say, "Emily is so bright. She would do so much better if she would just apply herself," to my mom during teacher conferences. Sorry I'm not sorry, but I knew as a fifteen year old that filling in answers was not an acceptable way to learn.

Maybe that idea stemmed from my stellar elementary education, where every unit had a purpose and an activity that tied it all together. I still remember dressing  up as a runaway slave in a wax museum exhibit in the fourth grade when we learned about slavery, or sewing together our Freedom Quilt squares (I am not any better at sewing today than I was in the fourth grade). I recall going outside to splash water on the pavement, measuring the diameter of the spill, and then returning in a half hour to measure it again, and again in another half hour, so that we could see and experience evaporation for ourselves. We turned out whole classroom into a "city." We had a mayor, and we each had businesses where we sold our wares to the other grades for pretend money. I'm sure we had days where we sat and did normal kids-in-school things, but it always culminated in a big activity that lasted for several days and we learned an incredible amount.

What do I remember about high school? I remember I played around with paint in art classes. I remember watching a lot of movies. I remember not doing an awful lot of worksheets. I remember tests which I could have taken the day after the lecture, but we spent weeks on. I remember a few essays. The best courses were my AP European History and AP U.S. Government class, but even those were just an accelerated version of the usual, with one or two larger transfer activities tied in. We did try to do a Middle East peace talks negotiation at one point in AP U.S. Gov, which must have been somewhat successful because I kind of remember it. Mostly I remember a whole lot of nothing. What does it say that I remember my elementary education better than my high school education? I read something recently that was essentially a letter to a young teacher, and it was along the lines of "Don't stress, young teacher, because your students won't remember the lessons you taught them, or the way you set up your classroom. They will remember how you made them feel." Which is sweet in sentiment, but in reality I think that is a disservice to students and teachers alike. Clearly, I recall the well-designed lessons of my teachers from the past. And I thank them for what must have taken extreme amounts of time and effort to develop, because they have succeeded with their students. I don't just mean me, I mean all of my former classmates from that school. We had a little class reunion at the end of our senior years of high school, and so many, so many, were valedictorians in their own schools. So many were going off to attend prestigious universities and do amazing things like become astrophysicists or surgeons or whatever. And so many, too, were inspired by our own teachers to be the best teachers they could be. I was in the middle, I didn't know what to do. I hadn't thought of librarianship, yet, I guess. But I think that for all of us, the lessons we learned as young children stayed with us. Lessons on how to learn, and how to be challenged. That learning is fun, and that the things we learned in school applied in the larger world.

How can we give all students that same kind of experience I had a child? How can we prove to educators and administrators and government agencies that the standard model of education in place today has long outlived its usefulness? This is the real question. Because good educators know that teaching students to understand, not just repeat facts, is the key to success in education, and in life.

Without further ado, a brief recap of the readings.  

Put Understanding First, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

"If we don't give students sufficient ongoing opportunities to puzzle over genuine problems, make meaning of their learning, and apply content in various contexts, then long-term retention and effective performance are unlikely, and high schools will have failed to achieve their purpose."

I think the quote above pretty much sums up the whole argument they make in this article, and what I was trying to get at in my angry educational rant above. They propose that, gosh darnit, education should be meaningful and relevant to students because they would probably learn it better. I don't think I can say much more than I already have other than that I agree. Whole-heartedly. Clearly. 

How People Learn Chapter 3

This chapter is on educational transfer and again how meaningful it is that we teach for understanding and not just facts. It's much lengthier than the above article, and goes in more depth about things which are intrinsically connected to learning materials such as motivation and context. If a student has no motivation to learn something, "How will this ever apply to me?" how could we expect them to learn something from it? I think this can be connected to our previous discussion in class (last week?) when we discussed at what stage it would be most helpful for a librarian to step into the picture. The beginning of the semester is not a super great time to teach students how to use certain databases. They really don't care. Once they have been assigned a paper topic, and need help using the databases to find relevant information? Bingo. 

Fortunately for me, I have the extreme pleasure of manning the reference desk, and from time to time I get the odd intrepid student who realizes that they are lost and need help finding information, or forming a topic, or narrowing the field. I like that part of my job. I get to help shape the direction of their research, I get to talk with them about options they may not have considered. If nothing else, I get to help them out of a corner. But for every student who comes to the desk for help, I can imagine that there must be 10 (or more!) students who muddle through it on their own, relying on what techniques they learned for research in their introductory composition class in the second week. How can we convince faculty that if we are to be of the best use to their students, the faculty need to bring their class to the library once they have been assigned a task?