That’s the question I was grappling with today in class. I taught  Stem Plots to my Grade 9’s and gave them a task while purposely leaving out some information needed to complete the task. I wanted them to realize there’s some missing information and therefore wanted them to seek to find out hence “Learn”. I teach in a one to one laptop school thus they have a very powerful tool at their disposal. A laptop plus an ebook textbook on the lessons being taught in class. What reactions did I get?:

• Some skipped the question as they didn’t know.
• Some waited for me give them the answer. (“Tell us, so that we can save time finding out on our”, own one student said)
• Some came to ask me, instead of giving it go themselves.
• A few tried looking for the answers themselves “Learning” maybe…

What is learning? Is it knowing the things you need to know to pass standardized test? Is is providing the teacher what he/she wants? Or is it simply completing a task? Is it about getting good grades? In reality all of the above has some relevance to learning, it’s unavoidable, that ‘s the system. It doesn’t mean we have to enslave ourselves to it.

I believe it’s all about desire and attitude. People may have both to a certain degree. That’s who we are, we are creatures who want to know and learn.

It’s about a genuine hunger for knowledge. You just need to know. You have countless questions. You want to grow. You will search for answers no matter what’s the obstacle. Kids spend so much time learning stuff that they may not have the desire to know. There’s no wonder or amazement about the things being learnt. There’s no context at times. Learning cannot simply be demanded, it has to nurtured and cultivated. You need to give it time to grow. It must come from within oneself. As a teacher you need to exemplify the attitudes and traits of what it means to be a learner. Teachers’, we all come to school to “teach”, are we, teaching? Students’ all come to school thinking, hoping they are “learning”, are they?

Teaching and Learning, easy to say and write, but difficult to implement. Going back to the question above, it’s easy to expect learning, but how do you teach “learning” to students. I met a man once, 96 years old, a few years back (he’s still alive). Became a lawyer after he retired. I installed a new computer at his home as he wanted to learn to use the WWW. Was sharing about the new language he was acquiring, Russian, in order to translate a book and discussed countless other issues he was reading or learning. Guess he figured out what “learning” is, it became a part of him.

How do you teach “Learning”?