I am constantly amazed by how little we understand the learning process. If you put 20 well-educated people in a room, they will most likely not be able to agree on how learning happens. Sure, they know it when they see it, and we can tell you how Miss Sally McSmarty learns, but what about everyone else? Is it any wonder we have so much difficulty making learning "happen" with children with a wide range of emotional issues when it can't be defined?
Have you ever tried to "teach" someone how to breath? Of course not. We are born with an intuitive knowledge of how this process works. It is something that we all do hundreds of times per day, but it is invisible and automatic. In fact, thinking too much about your breathing process can cause you to become light-headed and panicky.
As newborns, we immediately began learning faces, sounds, smells, touch, and eventually language. Did anyone ever try to educate a newborn on who their mommy and daddy is? Of course not. Just put a three-month-old in the arms of a total stranger and see how well they have learned whom their parents are.
Learning and breathing are automatic processes. You can't help but be learning all the time. It is a state of being. The difficulties occur when we attempt to teach it and break it down for others. They can become "lightheaded and panicky."
What would you do in real life if someone walked up to you and began lecturing you on a topic against your will? You would surely walk away, or find some excuse to leave the premises. If you were too polite to slip away, you would almost certainly fall into a pattern of nodding and vocal cues - taking in absolutely nothing that they said.
Imagine the same situation, but replaced with you approaching the person and asking, "Could you tell me more about...?" You would almost certainly be much more naturally present and receptive to the information.
Through our efforts as educators to teach, beat, and conquer learning, we have done much to short-circuit the instincts of our kids. We have taken the natural God-given curiosity they had fresh out of the box, and taught them that learning is something that happens TO YOU from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a textbook and a worksheet. Nights and weekend? Nah! Do your homework (of course), but then just find out what is happening with all of your friends, go online to figure out how to get past those levels in a new video game, and watch YouTube videos on natural disasters...you know..."not" learning.
At what point did we decide that transferring information from a lecture or book to a piece of paper was learning? I want to see the research that says this is a best practice. Yet, asking our students to spend hours perfecting this process is common in many school buildings. Basically, we are training kids to operate as copy machines, except for when we are writing research papers - then it is called plagiarism.
Lest you think I am the all-knowing sage lecturing you from my pulpit on a topic against your will (you clicked on the link, remember?), I want to admit that I am the guiltiest of guilty. Oh yes, I have been a packet-of-worksheets-stand-and-deliver kind-of-teacher for many years. The reason I went into teaching was so people would have to listen to me go on and on without being able to complain.
The problem is that now I know this strategy doesn't work as well. Sure, I could keep at it with my students (adult learners), but why would I want to...
Everybody has his own technique of learning, you Don't Know about other Learning technique. Am constantly amazed by how little we understand the learning process. We will see in universities students are constantly communicate with others. We will meet some educated people in a campus, they will most likely not be able to agree on how learning happens. We have so much difficulty making learning happen with children with a wide range of emotional issues when it can't be defined in universities program.
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