So, the biggest learning news coming from the Richardson household last week has, as is more often the case than not, little to do with the classroom and everything to do with doing. Two quick stories, both involving my 13-year old daughter Tess:
Story 1
Three weeks ago, Tess decided (on her own) to go out for the track team, something she had never done before. As soon as the coach saw her walk into practice, saw her thin, 5′ 11″ frame, he pointed her over to the high jump pit and said “have at it.” And Tess started learning how to jump. Two things have “jumped” out at me in the interim. First, her high jump learning life has been made up of 98% failure, something my daughter does not deal with especially well when it comes to athletics. I’ve been trying to point out to her that failure, in some cases lots of failure, is a necessary step to success, especially in getting over the high bar. She’s trying to make her body do things it’s never had to do before (just ask her heretofore non-existent ab muscles), and it’s going to take some time to find the rhythm of the run, the jump, the flip and the landing in ways that make her sail over, not into the bar. But here’s the thing: success will not come just on the strength and the muscle memory she gains during the practice on or off the track. (Read: lots of sit ups.) It will also be dependent on her ability to reflect and learn from her failure. She can’t jump 4′ 8″ until she learns to jump 4′ 6″. And while she gets feedback from her coach, she also gets feedback on every jump from the bar, whether it stays or falls as she tries to go over it. How she makes sense of that in her mind and adjusts her efforts will determine her success. The good news is that I think she’s starting to understand this and, even better, she’s beginning to see those connections to other parts of her life as well.
And I love this part: it’s just her. She’s played basketball and field hockey for the last two years, but high jump is all about her. There’s really no team involved. That’s the other thing she’s learning…to push herself for herself. Sure, she wants to do well as a part of the track “team,” but at the end of it, she’s the only one who can make that success happen. No one is holding or adjusting the bar for her.
(Side note: Turns out, she’s pretty good. Keeping in mind she’s only in 8th grade, in her first meet last week she cleared 5′ 0″, qualifying her for the district meet, leaving her two inches short of qualifying for states, and tying her for the school record. Think she’s going to work harder?)
Story 2
Here’s the second part: Her class took a trip to Washington DC over the weekend and, as luck would have it, they were in the House chambers when the very contested vote was taking place on the budget resolution last Friday. She heard Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner speak, saw a bunch of protesters get arrested and thrown out of the gallery, and got a real slice of what democracy (at least what’s left of it) looks like. On the ride home from picking her up at her school last night, she was talking about all of the monuments, the museums and landmarks they visited, and all of the accompanying stories that she heard around those places. Despite the weather, it seemed to have been a pretty excellent adventure. At one point she said, “You know, I really learned a lot on that trip.” No doubt.
The Point
A couple of weeks ago, on the recommendation of Gary Stager, I picked up Seymour Sarason’s 2004 book And What Do YOU Mean by Learning? and I’ve been slowly working my way through it. It’s not the easiest read, for me at least, but what keeps me diving in is the push he makes about what we define as learning, something that has been making me increasingly frustrated of late in terms of  the national conversation around schools. Here are Sarason’s two main points for the book
- First, we’ll never get true “reform” in schools until we come to some consensus on a more accurate definition of learning.
- Second, that “productive learning” as he defines it doesn’t happen much at all in schools.
Here is a snip from the introduction that gives the flavor of both the style and the thesis:
Learning is not a thing, it is a process…I try on these pages to distinguish between contexts of productive and unproductive learning. And by productive, I mean that the learning process is one that engenders and reinforces wanting to learn more. Absent wanting to learn, the learning context is unproductive or counterproductive. Is it not noteworthy that the word or concept of learning probably has the highest of all word counts in the diverse literature in education and yet when people are asked what they mean by learnng they are taken aback, stammer or stutter, and come up with a sentence or two which they admit is vague and unsatisfactory? (Boldface mine.)
He’s right. I’ve been pressing this question of “What is learning?” in my presentations lately, and the answers have been intriguing to say the least. Some say it’s the acquisition of knowledge, others say it’s the application of knowledge, and yet others say it’s the creation of knowledge with a whole bunch of other stuff thrown in between. Â And when the descriptions move more closely to the type of learning I hope happens in my kids’ classrooms, it’s difficult for many to describe what that looks like in practice.
In the “real” world conversation about schools, how learning is defined is pretty clear. Just do a search for the phrase “student learning” in Google News and you’ll get the gist right away. Just now, here are two of the three most recent results:
“Core courses taken during the school year give students an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of course content as well as prepare students to be successful on the state standardized Prairie State Assessment Exam and the ACT,†said Rosemary Gonzalez Pinnick, associate superintendent for educational services. “Our schools are not only improving processes for monitoring student learning but also are implementing timely and appropriate interventions. Consequently, the summer program has changed accordingly.†(Here)
And:
“Brickhouse said, ‘This bill not only provides financial support for districts to hire teachers during a timeframe that facilitates their hiring the best teachers, it also sends the message that hiring well-prepared teachers is of critical significance to the goal of dramatically improving student learning in Delaware schools. New standards, longitudinal data systems, data coaches, new assessments — all of these initiatives rely on strong implementation by capable and wise teachers.'” (Here)
My sense, and please correct me if you think I’m missing it, is that neither of the people quoted in these snips are seeing the world as Sarason sees it. I read that stuff and just let out a heavy sigh. In fact, I would guess the vast majority of those invested in the conversation around schools right now don’t see it that way either.
But here’s what I see with my daughter…Tess wants to learn more. She wants to learn more about how to high jump and about some of the events she experienced in DC, events that couldn’t be replicated by a text book or a YouTube video or anything else. She’s learning, productively learning by doing, not by studying up and taking a test and moving to the next chapter or passing the test. I’m wanting for more of it to be happening in the classroom. And not just hers.
Yeah, sometimes I watch my own students (not as often as I used to unfortunately) and I think the goal should be getting them to spend more time on, “So then knowing that leads me to want to learn more about this, and this, and this.” And though I don’t think that is the whole story, I think it’s a much bigger part of the story than we get to even ponder anymore. Makes it worth fighting the good fight me thinks!
I think there are several aspects that warrant more deep thinking:
1. What do students want to learn? Or more correctly, what does an individual student want to learn? Does that matter versus what we as … adults/educators/politicians/parents/etc. want them to learn?
2. What do we as adults/educators/politicians/parents/etc. want to teach? Or more correctly, what do we as self-perceived information authorities want to teach? Does that matter versus #1?
3. How do we as adults/educators/politicians/parents/etc. measure success? Or more correctly, how do we want to be measured by everyone but those we “taught”? Does that matter versus #1 and #2?
The answers to these questions could lead us to a better mechanism. Or more correctly, the processes of trying to decover the answers to these questions could lead us to a better mechanism.
Hey Alan,
Thanks for the questions. I think it does matter what we want them to learn, but where we fail is that we also subject kids to “learning” that stuff the way we want them to learn it. The whole one-size-fits all stuff is what’s most frustrating right now. We can individualize, we can personalize, but we don’t because it’s easier and more comfortable not to.
So for me, it’s here are the things we want you to know and be able to apply, now let’s figure out together the best way to make that happen.
My continuing struggle is around when is it developmentally appropriate to release control? As a parent we all determine when to allow our kids more freedom. It obviously varies with each child and with each learning opportunity. Schools don’t do a very good job of many things including letting go of the reigns to allow students to make some decisions around what they learn and how.
Kathy Cassidy wrote a nice post about choice for primary students.
http://primarypreoccupation.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/its-your-choice-you-choose/
But as students progress, they really have very little choice.
The other issue about control I struggle with is what do kids really need to know? I particularly like your second example with Tess as it shows a pre-determined learning opportunity about things that we believe as a society, everyone should have some understanding. From there, Tess is allowed to shape her own learning. That to me is what school should offer, learning opportunities. Reminds me about the saying about leading the horse to water.
I think we all struggle with the what do kids really need to know question. I fall on the side that says they don’t NEED to know 75% or more of what schools present to them. That doesn’t mean that there is even one small slice of the aggregate curriculum that isn’t useful to someone in the system. But the idea that every child needs all of it is just silly.
More and more, I think we should spend our time in elementary school helping kids find their passions, exposing them to many different subjects, exploring questions and developing their love of learning, and then in high school we simply help them to learn the things THEY decide they NEED to know.
I think I just found my new, favorite Will Richardson quote!
More and more, I think we should spend our time in elementary school helping kids find their passions, exposing them to many different subjects, exploring questions and developing their love of learning, and then in high school we simply help them to learn the things THEY decide they NEED to know.
I would agree for the most part but I still think high school students need guidance and exposure to things they might not decide they need or want to know about. I wouldn’t even suggest it needs to be balanced and certainly lean towards passion and choice, I just know that most high school students don’t know what they don’t know.
I really appreciate you articulating that, Dean. Definitely something I wonder about. I do think we can give students a choice about how they learn, even if there are areas in which we think it’s important that we stipulate what it is they’re learning. One of my students said, “I used to think I hated history, but I’ve realized that what I hated was how we learned it.”
Dean, I wonder how much guidance high school kids would need if we did a great job of reframing the role of K-8. I’m not sure it’s a matter of high schoolers not knowing what they don’t know as much as it’s not feeling empowered to learn about the things they really have a passion for. If K-8 is more about sustaining and nurturing their passion for learning all the while exposing them to many different learning experiences, my sense is most of them would flourish on their own. Right now, the system disempowers them more often than not.
I suggest that the question we need to ask before “what do students want to learn” or “adults want to teach”, is what knowledge and skills will young people need to have to be productive (broadly defined) members of society? BTW, I don’t believe there is a one size fits all – not every young person needs or should go to college.
What constitutes essential knowledge undergoes constant evolution, but I think the exponential growth of information and the ubiquitous access to that information has greatly accelerated that process. Identifying what the essential knowledge students need to know is a huge challenge that confronts us. This was the lead topic in a recent issue of Educational Leadership magazine.
We will never be able to identify what students need to learn before we identify what they love. It is love that drives the learning.
On my recent mission to infuse creativity and innovation back into the classroom, I’ve sadly discovered that our schools are not only “killing creativity” – they appear to be “killing curiosity”. Great digital tools do little to support learning unless your curiosity is perked enough to motivate you (the individual) to pursue learnin more. THAT is our job as teachers/coaches — to augment curiosity, motivate, the provide the resources/tools. Just as Tess’s coach – motivated her to “have a go at it”, my job as a teacher is motivate and augment curiosity. It makes me sad when I introduce teachers to programs like SCRATCH – and teachers smile and say “Could we set up an afterschool program for this?” ;-(
Ironically, Scratch was designed for afterschool programs. Software like it’s older cousin, MicroWorlds (http://www.microworlds.com) was designed for learning with a teacher.
How would you use Scratch to enrich curricular topics?
One more anecdote about teaching and learning. I recently participated in a webinar in which a teacher said something along the lines of, “I let the kids in my class mess about with Scratch. The boys love it, but I was wondering if you have any suggestions for getting the girls to use it?”
1) I find it interesting how we marginalize computational thinking by saying that kids “mess around or mess about” with software microworlds like Scratch.
We don’t have kids “mess around” with algebra or spelling.
2) I suggested to the female teacher that perhaps she might try and learn to use Scratch. That would help her serve as a role model to her female students and give the use of Scratch more purpose in her classroom.
The teacher saw this suggestion as a revelation.
Will, I like your definition, “the learning process is one that engenders and reinforces wanting to learn more.” It captures the essence of multiple intelligences, lifelong learning, and extends beyond what I’d describe as academic learning. I wrestle with what is essential to be learned in the learning process. Even with easy access to facts, I believe that one must still have core knowledge in long-term memory to effectively evaluate and synthesize information in order to make sense of it and create new understandings.
Small detail – The definition Will quoted (I believe) are the words of Seymour Sarason.
@Tom De Craene, do you really believe the “core knowledge” we teach kids in K – 12, the way it is taught (read, memorize, regurgitate for test) goes to long-term memory? Sure, I guess there are some that learn that way, but there are many like me who never remembered anything after the test. Furthermore I certainly don’t recall any of what I wasted my days learning years or decades later. Reading, writing, thinking is important. For many of us, learning and internalizing content needs to come from an inner drive or need to know/do.
To me, learning is the result of the brain processing stimuli from all the body’s sensory systems and making sense of it from a personal organizational perspective.
The results vary from student to student based on genetic make-up, environmental influences, and, perhaps most importantly, personal interests.
Maybe Montessori got it right.
Will,
Glad you’re reading Sarason. He’s an unsung hero. I met him once at an AASA Conference where he spoke to a handful of us while most of the “attendees” were off playing golf.
Sarason was also a life-long learner. He wrote another dozen or so books AFTER he retired and was writing a book designed to blow the lid off of nursing homes at the time of his death in – a nursing home. It’s supposed to be published posthumously.
I often think that the fundamental problem facing all of the debates involving education, particularly the new “reform” rhetoric, is an inability of most people to differentiate between teaching and learning.
When Bill Gates says we need to get the best teachers “in front of” kids, he demonstrates that he does not understand the difference between teaching and learning.
Even if you think Gates is a dope, ask 100 teachers you respect to tell you a learning story. The majority will tell you about the time they taught “Tess” to divide – or something along those lines.
Too many educators believe that learning is the direct consequence of having been taught. And therein lies the problem.
I agree. I’ve seen that in PLP as well…the vast majority want to get to the “how do I use this in the classroom” part. They have little patience for the personal learning part that goes with it. But it’s not surprising…we prepare them to “teach” not to learn. They see “teachers” not learners.
My least favorite thing about when anyone defines what schools do is this: “Core courses taken during the school year give students an opportunity…”
It’s not an opportunity. It’s an obligation. Opportunities are offered, not required. If schools gave more students more *opportunities* and fewer obligations, we’d be a whole lot better off.
Kids take opportunities to learn when they aren’t too busy with their obligations! As in your daughter deciding to join the track team, or wanting to know more about things she saw on her trip.
@Gary, I love your last line there: “Too many educators believe that learning is the direct consequence of having been taught. And therein lies the problem.”
I prefer mandatory “elective” courses.
learning happens on so many different levels. if we truly want to optimize, voluntary is best, per choice. as you have all said, it’s different for each person, as each person has a unique story going on inside their head the moment they notice anything, the moment they are mindful of anything they care to explore.
some signs of learning – a hunger to learn more, a craving to share.
this is learning.. he can’t stop sharing what he’s learning.
notice how much he notices things. notice his energy… http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=10150101726635750&comments
not that link.. this link:
Sat down this morning with my two grandsons, ages 3 (almost 4) and 2. They were working on puzzles. Jake, the younger one, kept saying, “Help, help.” I kept telling him, “You can do it. Just keep turning the pieces until you find where they fit.” He would. Older brother, Max, is an old pro – he’s been doing puzzles for as long as I can remember. He’s also the one who, upon first having an iPhone in his hand, immediately figured out how to take a photo, scroll through pages, and launch apps. He was under 3 at the time. So it goes. Just about everything in their world is learning. It’s experiencing, figuring it out, finding a way and understanding. I watch it happen before my very eyes every day. And it’s quite wonderful. (The lower right hand corner of my site has a picture of Jake and Max).
I love your work, Will (even if you do have more hair than me)!
Dear Mr. Will Richardson –
In your article “And What Do YOU Mean by Learning?†I feel that learning to ME is acquiring information in a way that it will be retained. For schools this means no spelling lists in English class, and only a few important dates to memorize in history. I also believe that these types of memorizations be replaced by hands on visual activities to help kids visually learn. An example of this would be in a World War II unit, coloring a world map with different colors for the allied and axis powers, this way kids would visually remember the country’s on both sides of the conflict without memorizing before the test, and then forgetting after the test. I also believe that if schools provide hands on learning that kids will be much more focused and would understand and retain the information they learn leaving them much better off in the long run. In the future, I would hope to see more of this teaching/learning style happening around the country and because of it, see kids retaining and enjoying the things they are learning.
Hi Will,
Your post is both timely and important. I’m working with a group of caring educators who are completing a course on Learning Theory and Technology in Delta, British Columbia. They’re enrolled in Simon Fraser’s Graduate Diploma in teacher inquiry.
While I’m not sure that we’ve found “answer(s)” to the question(s), “what does it mean to learn / to know / to be ‘competent’ or exhibit ‘mastery’, we did come to a common understanding about what is important.
They decided that learning is not one thing; not a single state, but heavily dependent on the context and purpose, the goals and intended outcomes.
They continue to explore ways in which the students in their classes can become more self-directed learners and ways in which they can make their classrooms more learner-centered.
They continue to struggle with the imposed reporting systems and the demands of the curriculum and what they believe about assessment and evaluation.
In both the course and in the diploma itself, we ask teachers to consider themselves as both teachers and learners. They are asked to keep a learning portfolio in which they tell the story of their learning in the program and the insights they gain into their practice.
Many of them have remarked to me that it had been some time since they were learners. Being in that position again has given them greater insight into their students’ learning. Learning can be an uncomfortable place (I shared with them a Québec expression that learning happens as you move from one place to another ~entre les chaises~). In this way, learning is change or growth, a state of becoming or being, of questioning assumptions and engaging in a critical reflection on practice. The portfolio therefore is both product and process. Here’s an example of one of the teacher’s “baseline” portfolios. They share out in another 2 weeks. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to join them on this journey.
Thanks for the opportunity to extend my thinking once again,
Tom
Dear Will Richardson,
In your blog post “And What DO YOU mean by learning?†it really got my attention in the point you made in what learning really is. I totally agree with you that a student’s will to learn determines if that student will learn. I am a high school student and to me learning is having the want to acquire knowledge so you can better your future. It is taking your education to the next step so you can get into a good college, be successful after graduating, and getting prepared to take on the world and all of the problems it has waiting for us once students today are on their own. Schools think that they can spend large amounts of money to get a student the best learning they can but no matter what a school or teacher does, a student won’t learn unless they have a desire to learn. It all starts with the student and if he/she has the right attitude towards learning and wants to have a better future.
Dear Mr. Will Richardson,
I read your article “And What do You Mean By Learning†and I never thought of learning this way but you said that learning is on the child not the teacher. Students need to have a greater desire to learn because if they do not how will they be taught anything. It is like your daughter and how she perseveres through her own problems like the high jump. I also believed that you had some very interesting thoughts about nobody knows how to define learning but that you do think SAT is not supposed to be in the definition. I am a high school student in a class that to be honest has a lot of slackers, and it is not because they are not intelligent but more that they do not apply themselves in learning. That need to practice learning and like you said nobody knows how to practice learning but many students will keep trying to learn and that is what our school needs.
Dear Mr. Will Richardson,
I read your article “And what do You Mean by Learning†and I agree with you when you said learning is on the student not the teacher. I agree with that because the students have to apply there selves to succeed and it’s not on the teacher to make you work hard it’s up to you. Also, when you said in your article “in some cases lots of failure, is a necessary step to success” I agree with that because every time you fail you try over and over again and each time you try you learn to get better. I am a student in high school, and every time I fail I try to get better at getting good grades and applying myself to learn what the teacher is teaching me.
Dear Mr. Will Richardson,
I read your article “And What do You Mean By Learning†and it totally changed my perspective of schooling today. Taking your education to the next level isn’t always the easiest thing but it is a required thing to make a good living in today’s fast pace society. I think to be able to learn, students must be able to cope with situations that can’t be handled in school. Another point I would like to put out from the perspective of a high school student is it would be hard for adults to come to a consensus on learning because they are used to the way they are brought up. What back then was just an everyday part of living is now very difficult for some kids to handle. I will also have to agree with the statement “Learning is on the student not the teacher” because there is no way a kid can go to school and get the full meaning of it which would be to learn if the teacher cares more about the grade than the student.