Thursday, April 9, 2015

Learning is not Pass/Fail



        Years ago I worked with a colleague in the research office of a major school system.  He always tried to find a way to make research and statistics understandable to the average person.  He once talked about the infamous College Acceptance Letter.  I'm not sure if this is still true today, but years ago you would apply to multiple colleges and then you would wait and wait and wait for a letter from these colleges that would tell you whether or not you have been accepted.  When the letter arrived, you would open it and there would be one or two paragraphs of "welcome" and "thank you" messages.  And, finally, somewhere halfway down the page you would get to the part that you really wanted to know:  Accepted or Not Accepted.

       My colleague suggested that the most important information in such a letter should come in the very beginning and the other stuff can be written farther down in the letter.  Better yet, he suggested, they should just send a letter with a smiley face or a frowny face!  That would be the simplest way to communicate the message and everyone would understand what it meant.

       I wonder if people outside of education often view learning in the same way?  "You get it."  or  "You don't get it."  We sometimes use the phrase "Filling your brain with knowledge."  I wonder if some people imagine learning to be this (sort of) empty skull or glass that is filled by the teacher.  When it is full, then you have learned it and you got it and you will always have it.

       In reality, learning is much more of a process with a somewhat hazy finish line.  While there are certainly facts that students can memorize (5 + 5 = 10; July 4, 1776 is the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; Paris is the capital of France), actually learning is much more of a process that develops over time and requires thinking and discussing and trying and failing and trying again--and learning from the mistakes.  Learning is much more like a baby learning to walk than it is like a switch that is off or on.

       We should think of learning as being more of a continuum and less of a Yes/No, Pass/Fail dichotomy.  After all, it isn't so much that we want our children to "pass" in school; what we really want is for our children to "learn" in school.  Employers don't care what grade you got on a test in high school.  They care about what you learned and are able to do.



1 comment:

  1. I am said to that , The Protest Educational System .It is not given actual education. Atfirst, I said that Student are 'Upper standard;Medicare standard;Lower standard' etc.The'Upper standard are Brilliant,Outstanding,Satisfied etc. The Medicare standard are Good,Excellence etc. The Lower standard Good/Bad Both student's.The create for education system "Drop Out/Drop In student's Catagories"." Pass or Fail is not Promoted policy "- There are any teacher school/private demand to be Brilliant Student' [he/she]. Why are you demand teacher ? He/ She given to education Reader,Learning,Teaching all people. The all student are Son or Daughter. They always choose particular some student's Brilliant (He/She) .The education are all of part of view.The all people claim to education.It is not control particular 'Caste or Religion' in Society.The teacher learning to student made a future. "Today, This are Children/Boy/Girl/Men/Women student' s. In future they are Teacher". " Yesterday, This teacher are once day, He/She was Student. " Pass or Fail policy "-are not decide made the future.The Good/Bad student's. I requested to the Govt of West-Bengal Mamata Banerjee​are seeing 3 Idiots Hindi Movie 2009 " The any school Rural/ Urban area Teacher are not good effort teaching school & college. Mainly, Urban school teacher's are not good effort in teaching school schdule.They are always want to be Private-tution.It's just income to the money.They are always pressure create the student's. Why? The given to the lot of salary. 'Stop the Private-Tution' . Student's Out of mind in education Pass or Fail .They are always all time competition both student's are Upper standard;Medicare standard;Lower standard' .But, stop the crime Pass or Fail rules .

    ReplyDelete

Public Schools and Choice

       Is it true that public school kids and their public school parents don't have choices?  I'm sure that I will expose my igno...

Teach100 blog