How do we get kids to think for themselves?
I keep returning to this question after yesterday’s meeting of teachers who have been in the profession for 10-15 years. We met to discuss how education has changed during the course of our profession and to think about where we need to go from here.
How do we get kids to think for themselves? The question sounds simple, right? Of course we want our students to be independent thinkers.
But do we, really?
How do we set up our classrooms? Who delivers the content? Who deems what is important or valuable? Who is the terminal audience for what our students create? How do we balance our passion for our content with what is valuable to students in the real world? What are the big ideas about our content (and about life) we want students to understand when they leave our classroom or school? How do we handle the mess that often accompanies real learning?
Our students are not that different than those in this youtube video: A Vision of Students Today. So, how are we engaging them and helping them figure out the ways they learn best?
How do you encourage your students to think for themselves?
Here’s an analogy:
If I sign up for a class at Lowes about installing a garbage disposal, I don’t want the teacher to make me responsible for delivering content. I want the instructor to teach me how to install a garbage disposal. I dont’ like tools, I don’t like plumbing, and I’m not comfortable in situations involving tools and/or plumbing. I would need guidance, structure, and a lot of patience from my teacher. I would not get much out of a class like this if the teacher ran it as a free-form, student-centered environment…I would be intimidated by the equipment and by the fear of looking foolish. I would also probably electrocute myself and/or flood the room.
Another analogy:
When I took a class on web design, I did it as an independent study project at Lindenwood. I had an instructor who showed me the very basics about Dreamweaver, gave me a book on the subject, and then got to work makign my own page. I learned by doing it on my own, asked the teacher for help when I needed it, and had a great experience. In this case, I did not want or need the instructor to sit with me and hold my hand every step of the way. I thrived on making my own decisions about what was important to investigate.
My point is that, in a class where I feel confident about my level of knowledge and ability, I want to be let loose to do my own thing. In a class where I feel like I’m in the deep end of the pool, I want the teacher to guide me every step of the way. This is why I try to make my classroom a place where the level of teacher interaction (and the style of that interaction) is highly dependent on what the student needs at that particular time.
Thanks for the reply, Mike. I’m sure we would all agree that our students arrive at various levels of readiness, and we need to tailor our teaching to meet them where they are.
To build on your analogy, if I don’t know how to install a garbage disposal and mine is broken, sure, I need to learn how to do that. I believe part of that learning should include teaching me to ask the right questions about the tools I select, the product search I conduct, and the method I choose to follow, which would be powerful for me to apply to other projects I face down the road.
I don’t think direct instruction need be replaced, but I wonder if I couldn’t watch a video on YouTube to learn how to replace my disposal and use the woman at Lowe’s to help me if I get stuck or to show me a new project that pushes my skill set further. Or, what if my buddy Jen knows how to replace a garbage disposal, and she comes over to help me while I replace it? Do I need to sign up for the class if we can puzzle through it together? Maybe I could use my “class time” to troubleshoot the sprinkler system I just installed instead.
How do we create an environment that has the resources to assist and inspire students who have a range of experiences and comfort levels? Is direct instruction in metacognition a staple of this classroom?
I’ve tried to work metacognitive principles into my instruction for a while, but I’ve never felt that its been very effective. In my own experience, I did not learn how to evaluate my own cognitive processes until I was in college, desperately trying to learn physics that was way, way over my head most of the time.
I think teaching kids metacognition is a great thing, but it needs to be a continuous process throughout a K-12 curriculum. I think the concepts of metacognition need to become part of our daily conversations with students if we are going to make an impact in this area. If we do so, I think the changes could be really positive for both students and teachers.
Lots to talk about at our next meeting. Metacognition seems to be a hot topic. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts.