On Learning

Learning is a Process

I think it's important to describe learning as an ongoing process, not as an end result or goal. It is a process that neither starts not stops in the classroom; learning occurs from the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we go to sleep at night. Formal education is but one avenue through which we "gain knowledge or skill" (the common dictionary definition of learning).

Students are not only learners in school; they must simultaneously navigate the waters of adolescence and burgeoning adulthood. Students learn not only algebra and social studies, but also social cues, interpersonal interactions, family relationships, financial responsibilities, and the impact of broad cultural issues like crime and poverty. Every facet of students' lives and experiences shape them as they grow into adults. From there, the learning process never stops.

I find this environment--one of constant student learning--to be essential to remember when engaging with students as a teacher: I cannot and should not expect a rapt audience. The knowledge and experience that I share will be competing for students attention with myriad other sources of information every day.

In order to be successful in this environment, I must make deliberate efforts to make classroom time relevant. The more that students can ask with confusion "Why are we learning this?", the more I'd feel that I let them down.

In mathematics, making teaching relevant means much more to me than simply using a host of "real-world examples" (though context/applications are incredibly important, too!). I also refer here to the need to emphasize the importance--the constant relevance--of critical thinking skills, and of an ability to intelligently analyze and criticize. I want my students to know the motivations behind the lessons I teach, and to challenge me when those motivations are not relevant to their broader academic and personal lives.   

Act and Experience

Learning is sometimes a conscious act; a young student may choose to investigate a compelling problem or interesting subject without any external influence. But learning can also be a passive experience, in several ways.

Students can learn passively through exposure to ideas, actions, or behaviors. The subtle ways in which a teacher interacts with her students, for example, may over time provide students with indications about that teacher's interest in them, expectations of them, and confidence in the classroom. Experiential learning is ubiquitous outside the classroom as well. For example, a student living with an abusive parent may also learn, through passive experience, to avoid talking about certain things at certain times of the day.

Students may sometimes also (unfortunately) be seen as passive participants in the overall classroom experience. There is a model of teaching that envisions the teacher as a "watering pot", pouring her knowledge into the receptive "potted plants"--the students. Extending this analogy reveals some of its problems: not all plants ought to be watered on the same schedule or in the same amounts, and plants need more than just water to thrive.

But of course the analogy is flawed, because students aren't quiet, passive receptacles, and I don't believe that our goal should be to "say knowledge at them". While one-way instruction is certainly a crucial part of a teacher's job, I conceive lectures as a single tool among many, used with the ultimate goal of making students active learners in the classroom: investigators who care enough and know enough to ask their own questions, and help drive their own growth.  

Teacher as Learner

In this journal entry I've largely followed the model of "student as learner" and "educator as teacher", but certainly this is not the entire story. Teaching/learning is about two-way engagement, and as a teacher I fully expect to learn, both actively and passively, from my students. I expect to learn about my students; I expect to learn about my professional practice, and where it could be improved; I even hope to learn a bit about myself.