The first legend is one of learners as digital natives who form a generation
of students knowing by nature how to learn from new media, and for whom “old” media
and methods used in teaching/learning no longer work. The second legend is the
widespread belief that learners have specific learning styles and that education
should be individualized to the extent that the pedagogy of teaching/learning is
matched to the preferred style of the learner. The final legend is that learners
ought to be seen as self-educators who should be given maximum control over
what they are learning and their learning trajectory. It concludes with a
possible reason why these legends have taken hold, are so pervasive, and are so
difficult to eradicate.
How timely your post of these myths are in Education today. Many of the students (digital natives) I have in my classes (mostly juniors and seniors), learned how to and sent their first ever email this year in my class. Many of these digital natives cannot read digital text any better than they can text in an"old school" textbook, but then "old school" textbooks don't come with an auditory reader or interactive pages, which when you teach students how to use them are quite an asset to student achievement. When I gave the learning style inventory assessment to all my students the results yielded were: ALL Students were Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic learners not one or the other but a varying combination of three styles. This confirms to me that interest plays a bigger role than learning style.
ReplyDeleteI think the reasons that things like this take hold is because Education is so important, Not just to the current generations, but to the many generations to come... in that in its importance we feel the need to understand how to make its value intrinsic to all students so they become lifelong learners passing this value on to the next generation. We also have a great need to understand how really good teachers teach... supposing that if learners fail to learn that something else is at fault and that fault that lies solely with the learner. Case in point, countless books are written about the things (14 and now 17 to name two books) great teachers do because their learners... learn. Which is the goal right? While I agree there are many things that impact student learning... I find that relationship building (No CSOs for that) has a greater impact on the individual student's achievement than any amount of content taught (CSOs met). While I may seem a friend I remind the students that I am Not their friend because I will tell things about themselves no friend would ever tell them and not hold it against them... I am simply on a journey with them to help guide them in their transformation of learning how to learn to learning how to think. All of this goes much deeper than a comment post could ever go into, but many myths exist to help justify and excuse shortcomings of ourselves or others. Thoughts????
"We also have a great need to understand how really good teachers teach... " - Yes, we do. I believe we try to adopt and believe what we see works with others. When we see a strategy or philosophy impacting student achievement, we want it for ourselves and our students. So, if we continue to research, build relationships with our students, remain flexible, and bring in any strategy to help students develop instrinsic motivation... we have accomplished a lot!
ReplyDeleteSo, its not just the goal that's important, but the journey too! Oh, the things we can accomplish if we care Not who gets the credit! ( my wife has to constantly remind me that sometimes people do not understand my sarcasm and witty humor). I agree, we should always be trying use strategies and techniques that yield results (the best results)... as well as honest self-reflection on our own efforts and motives. When students make remarks like..."this is easy for you because you are the teacher" I humbly remind them I'm always as much a learner as they are if not about content at least about how they are learning the content... and many times it's both! If they only really knew that teachers are really just learners helping learners! (my modified Vygotsky coming out).
Delete