Of Teaching and Learning

It has been some time since my last reflection, this week I will touch on my belief of teaching and learning, starting from my own experience to how this translated to the teaching and learning of my students.

My own experience

Now, back tracked four months ago into the teaching of my own kid…. My exasperation filled the room. My boy sits in front of me quietly, knowing once again he has got it wrong. Just yesterday… yesterday… we covered these same letters and he had gotten them right. Now, it is as though he has never seen them before. He tries. At least I think he does. But sometimes it is as though he is trying but not learning. I have no idea what is wrong with my boy. My elder boy learnt the same stuff with no problem. He took everything in like little sponges. So it is not my teaching method that is the problem. What is up with this boy of mine? I berated my kid for his failure to identify the letters correctly. Once again, he did not get it. He was in tears. I was in tears (in my heart). This one month (Dec 2010 to Jan 2011) has been dreadful. Really dreadful for both my wife and I. What was I thinking? He was not learning with us and now, we were all miserable.

Our next move was monumental, although I did not know it at the time.

We gave up! (…on our method teaching)

We decided my boy was not going to learn well and that this was okay. We just had fun. I had to try this and try that and just sort of follow what seemed to delight him the most. At that time, his brother was attending a language class and it seemed to delight him when attending. In retrospect, I probably should have seen the light at the end of the tunnel because this was the exact moment that his learning changed for the better. When we began to simply try new things and follow his lead, I discovered that my kid could learn. More to the point, I discovered how he learnt. And learn he did and was able to recite the letters backwards as well. He could read of any letters pointed to him. He was faster than his brother. And we have the extraordinary privilege of discovering them right alongside my kid. All within the month!


How does it translate to my own students’ teaching and learning?

Since that time, I am more convinced that all students can learn, regardless of the any statements they make to the contrary. If I meet students who seemed to be uninterested in learning, I am convinced that we are missing something. It may be that we are just teaching them and not enabling them to learn. Or it may be as simple as the possibility they are not interested in learning in the style in which we have been teaching, a way that may even be painful to them. Who would? Let me cite an example, imagine if I was trying to teach you how to write your letters. I put the pencil in your right hand (even though you are left-handed) and guide you without actually writing on the paper (because I want you to remember the letters in your mind rather than writing on the paper for you). Now I leave you to somehow transfer this input to something you can write on the paper. I naturally expect you to adjust my input in order to teach yourself how to write with your left hand, orienting the letters correctly while recalling from memory.

You might say, “That is ridiculous.” But now imagine once again, my teaching method did work for many other students. The students actually preferred to learn letters in this way, and you are one of the few in the class who struggle with this method. It is clear that it does not work for you. Does it sound familiar?

The traditional visual teaching method most commonly used today may simply be the wrong key banging away at the lock of the tightly closed door to our students’ mind, completely preventing their ability to join in the learning experience that are going on around them. Frustration will eventually lead the student to give up. No one wants to be the one who work on problems so slowly that it is an embarrassment. No student wants to be the one who says something so uninformed that he becomes the object of his friends’ laughter. Any student who says that he does not want to learn is simply employing a self-protection mechanism to shield himself from the fear that maybe he cannot learn.

My job, an incredible responsibility, is to show our students that indeed they can learn. What we can do is to help our students chart a new path, to find a new map that leads to their ability to delight in learning. Teachers are the keeper of the keys. However, it also means that we need to have the ability to find the correct key that will unlock a love of learning for our students.

We should all endeavor to use different keys that work with and appeal to a variety of learning styles. We should begin the process of removing things that prevent our students from learning. And replace systems and techniques and methods that have not been successful keys to opening our students’ minds – thinking skills. Let us allow our students the privilege of learning in sync with the ways they were designed