Learning about versus learning how

In recent weeks several of my favorite blogs have hit on the clash between the learning about paradigm and the learning how paradigm in the goals and practices of schools.

First, Kathy Sierra's discussion of the failure of university science programs to teach students how to do science.  She says "What experts use to do their work are the things we don't teach. We focus almost exclusively on how to talk about the work."

Will Richardson's recent post says "the thing that seems to be missing from most of my conversations with classroom teachers and administrators is a willingness to even try to re-envision their own learning, not just their students."

Then while tidying up my del.icio.us tags I found this by Ewan McIntosh: "if ... we are looking to give learners the opportunity to direct their learning then what is the role of the teacher? Well, in order to teach you have to be the person you want your students to be."

Last week I had more conversations yet again on the topics of (1) a recent teacher seminar on innovative instruction, delivered as usual in a classical lecture style, and (2) the irony and contradictions of implementing a portfolio based curriculum in an environment where all K12 education focuses on performance on ONE 195-minute university entrance exam (if you read Turkish you can visit this link to read more).

And then today in a meeting colleagues and I discussed how to institutionalize the IBO's recently released Learner Profile when, no matter how much we value the characteristics of the ideal learner, those characteristics really aren't the kind of thing that show up in the standardized tests required by our students to graduate from the national high school program.

Will and Ewan are talking (mostly) about the implementation of Web 2.0 tools to free up learning in schools, and Kathy is talking about the future of innovation (one of the pillars of the US economy), but they're all talking about learning how to learn.  That's why it's good that we learn the scientific method or web-based research tools or collaborative writing with wikis. That's why we also need to learn to risk failure, to embrace error and to reflect on our own experience. I'm liking my recent metaphor of burning rubber more and more.

So in our nicely compartmentalized subject areas like chemistry and history we learn all kinds of facts and theories, but the tools and skills used for creating knowledge in those fields don't look very much like chemistry or history. Even more ironic is that we also teach tools (Internet research, PowerPoint, DreamWeaver, whatever) outside the context of using those tools to communicate and create knowledge. 

Imagine four years of art class where all you do is learn about brushes, and never get to paint!

Comments

[GYANOPROBHA]

Dear Tom

Again, like so many of your other posts, this one is very relevant to my present concerns. Discussing the IB learner profile is more than I have been able to get my colleagues to do. I keep trying to hammer home the point that our assessment system has a learner profile implicit in it - the wrong one! But that's not what most of my colleagues want to here. Now I know what John the Baptist must have felt - except I'm not subsisting on locusts and wild honey!

Did you listen to the Eğitim Şurası discussions? I did only on TV, and read about it on Radikal. See my response posted today on my blog.

Best

Gautam

[Tom]

Hey, Gautam, thanks for the comment. I just had a thought: create a wiki for all our disruptive friends in IB to post ideas on how to operationalize/ implement/ institutionalize the learner profile. Maybe create official "Risk taking" or "Make a mistake" days to loosen things up?
You know, locusts actually taste like shrimp. In Oaxaca they eat them in tacos.

[Barbara]

Interesting post! I am enjoying exploring your thinking. The last paragraph about compartmentalized subjects and learning raised an issue that I have been starting to ponder. In Grades 6, 7 and 8 we are just beginning blog activities. In setting up the student blogs we stumbled on an interesting issue that I think pushes toward the heart of Web 2.o and part of its potential. Our program is departmentalized with 4 teachers who all teach the same 90 students. All 4 teachers will be using blogs so we set up blogs for each student. Students will use their blog for all entries for all classes allowing them to make connections across the curriculum and to designate work for credit in multiple subjects. We are not there yet but the concept is and it moves us from individual teachers using blogs within their classes to a more systemic and holistic kind of learning. It will not ( is not) an easy jump but I am excited about the vision.

[Tom]

Great idea, Barbara. Just had a thought: you could set up one Bloglines account that subscribes to all the blogs, maybe organizing them into folders according to classroom or subject. Make all the subscriptions public, and then everyone can browse all of the blogs from just that one Bloglines account's public view (www.bloglines.com/public/username )