This weekend my wife and I had a group of friends stay with us at our cabin. One of our visitors was 2 1/2 yr old Charlotte. Charlotte spent the weekend questioning everything. Why do fish swim? What is that? Why is the boat loud? All these questions made me wonder...why don't the kids I teach in 9th and 10th grade ask this many questions? Do they think they know everything already? Do they not care anymore because all the answers are at the tip of their fingers on the internet? Wow...I sound like Charlotte with all my questions!
University of Virgina scientest Daniel Willingham set out to answer questions like these in his new book Why don't kids like school? USA Today interviewed Daniel to try to promote his new book and answer a few questions most teachers and parents have. I was surprised by some of his answers. Willingham explained that it is difficult for teachers to make school challenging for students because they want a mental challenge that is not too easy but is not too difficult. Who are they goldilocks? He also went on to explain why we remember certain things and not others. Using dissection as an example, he explained that often times kids are thinking of how gross it is and not what they are doing. Maybe they should try the virtual dissection online?
Willingham explained that good teachers get students to think about the main point or central theme unavoidably. Using Pearl Harbour as an example, he described how from the Japanese point of view rather than the American, this was much easier to do. The biggest surprise for me came when Willingham explained there is no such thing as visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners. He explained how people differ in their abilities and interests but that there is no such thing as different learning styles. Willingham vaguely cited over 50 years of research to support his claim.
I remember being a kid and being excited to go to school. Coming home and telling my mom what I'd learned that day or showing her some new skill I'd developed was the highlight for me. At some point things changed, and school was a chore or something I had to do and no longer fun. Maybe, it is because the same methods for delivering information are repeated from K-12 and then into college. Maybe it was too easy and I wasn't challenged enough. No matter what, I think this class has proven that we need to find creative ways to engage and challenge our students. Gone are the days of teachers standing in front of the class lecturing then we hand out a worksheet and repeat 200 days out of the year. Hello blogs, podcasts, wikis, discussion threads, online simulations, etc. If we don't adapt to how students learn or how they want to learn, we can expect our students will be bored and lifeless in class. This is not the classroom I want nor the teacher I want to be.
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It is ironic that you wrote about this. Over the weekend, we went to my husband’s hometown for a family reunion and met many of his former teachers. A discussion began on when school stops becoming fun. Most of the teens agreed it was right around 5th grade. The reason my 15 year old twins gave was because that is when “the book learning started and we stopped getting to explore and experiment with things. We stopped getting to ask questions. We just had to read and learn what they wanted us to learn.” My one son still asks us a gazillion questions about things whenever we are driving, or together doing other things, and he is the one that finds it the most to get excited about going to school. So maybe it isn’t that they stop wanting to ask questions? Maybe it’s that many teachers have stopped allowing them to ask questions, viewing them as being something “off-topic, and they’ve learned to just go through the motion to get a passing grade?
ReplyDeleteI would think that with all the research I have read on brain-based learning and even the Montisorri method, that Willingham's "vague" research would be heavily disputed. The book I read for our book review "Classroom INstruction that Works" reminded me a lot of some of your blog comments. It tells about ways to keep students engaged and challenged. This semester I am also taking LMIS 659 which has investigated a lot of Web 2.0 tools to be used in education. What a great class. If we can combine these tools with the instructional strategies of the book I read, we can completely change the face of education for students today.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I must comment on one thought that struck me as I read your blog posting. Charlotte sounds like a typical toddler with lots of questions about everything. When kids are toddlers we tend to think that this is cute. As kids get older why do we think this is less cute? Maybe something in our attitudes causes children to ask less questions as they grow. Are we too busy with our own tasks that our demeanor says, "DOn't bother me!"? I have to get after my older children who will sometimes tell my youngest (age 10) to stop talking all the time. I remind them that he is very smart and has a lot to talk about. He has every right to talk and ask questions and comment on his observations. Maybe this is something we need to look at fixing for our students as well.
I am not sure that I agree with the comments of that article. I definitely think that their are all types of learners and also knowing what type of learner you are helps when you are trying to study. I also think that kids never stop being curious. They just learn as they get older that sometimes it is rude to ask about someone’s personal life and be forceful about it unlike a five year old child would. As teachers we need to find a way to make them curious. That is why we use differentiated instruction where we are teaching something to all he different types of learners.
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