Three ways to learn...

This is something I do in class, but as yet don't know if it has had any impact. There are three ways to learn, I tell students. The poorest way to learn is when teacher talks and you listen. This is inefficient because it has least participation or intent on student's part. Talking is mostly done by the teacher and its not in your control or of liking.  Worst, you can't avoid it, teacher can go on like a drone.

The second, more efficient, way to learn is when two people are talking to each other and you are just listening. This is better because someone else is doing the thinking and you can see the arguments for free. Also, the listener needs to focus on what is being said and one naturally starts judging - is it correct or makes sense. This has greater intent on listeners part and hence one learns better by listening to conversations.

But the most efficient way to learn is to talk to yourself, the self-talk. Here the intent and the participation is maximum. If you can debate with yourself, the sense of learning and depth of understanding is greater. You get most fun when you figure out the argument yourself.

Very often I follow these three ways in my class. I start my class by talking about a topic or a question. Then I do a controlled discussion amongst children. At this point, I often remind children of the second method of learning. By the end of the class, I leave some time for them to think and write on their own. I hope that this starts self-talk.

Knowledge+Skills

'Being good at something' has many components. One of the obvious parts is that you know a lot. An expert knows a lot about a specific subject. Since this is obvious, it has got all the attention in our schooling. We learn more and become specialized. We value people who know a lot. Also, given a long list of complicated things to learn, its easy to set a exam and give marks for the knowledge in any subject. Naturally, much of the teaching and testing is focused on how much one knows.

Yet there is a second important component to 'Being good at something' and that is - skills. Competency requires not just knowledge but also skills. Only when one has a fair amount of knowledge and high degree of a skill, can he/she be competent. However, our education system has largely ignored development of (say, academic) skills. Skills are difficult to teach, they required longer persuasion and hard-work. Taking the easy-route, schools have ignored teaching and testing skills. While knowledge is specific to a domain, skills are often cross-disciplinary and broad-based.

As a result, we find youngsters, when they finish schools, know a lot but they have mastered very little. Competency = Knowledge + Skills. Unless we are teaching both knowledge and skills, we are unlikely to produce versatile competent students.

Challenging them to challenge me

Teaching well is only half the problem in education, the other half is 'learning well'. This is a bigger problem because it requires motivation from students. While one is finding ways to teach well, one should also find ways by which students learn well. This part is often overlooked or not given enough time and efforts. Here are couple of things I do in class which have started to pay-off lately.

I often ask, What naughty thing did you do today ? or, Tell me one mind-boggling thing, or else I tell some mind-boggling things. Of late, some students have started coming back to me, on their own and tell me something new. A few ask me to give them a challenge, say a science question, or a maths puzzle or a origami challenge. This is pushing me into a corner, as I have to rush around to find newer challenges. The next day, they come back with the solutions. So I have managed to start the 'good learning' cycling in some of the students. This means that their half of the work is happening on their own.

This also takes-off some my teaching stress. I often use their answers and questions to start-off my class and integrate with what I am teaching. It brings greater willingness to learn. Remind yourself that - 'Learning well' is students' responsibility. It's the other half of 'good education'.