“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” Ignacio Estrada
I am really upset every single time I read that kids do not score well on tests, that schools are rated based on these scores and teachers are leaving their jobs because of low ratings, high stress, parents are angry and students are frustrated.
This writing is not about debating do we need or not testing or what is good or wrong with the educational system.
This writing is about how all this affects our kids. This is what matters at the end of the day.
If you are following me, or read my previous article “Dude. what on Earth are you talking about?” you already understand that is nothing wrong with our students. They want to learn!
I want you to imagine the following scenario:
You just got your dream job! You are happy, excited /just like kids on their first day of school/.
You know what your job will be /kids know they go to school to learn, we tell them that/ you feel prepared./most of our kids go into school these days after already playing hundreds of learning games on the phones, ipads laptops/.
So, you feel safe as you know what to expect. / after we make our kids beLIEve that learning is nothing else but fun through games, we send them to school in the befLIEve that that is all that will happen in schools too/ and beLIEve is not misspelled or typo, see the capital letters only/
So, all started well…but …
Imagine going into your workplace and getting every day some new pieces of information that you do not understand and you can not follow procedures because you do not understand even though they are plain English? After a time, you are sitting there frustrated and burn out, reading worse and worse ratings of your work…then they let you go or you quit?
You wake up one day and ask yourself: how did this happen? You were such a happy and engaged person when you started your work suddenly you failed at most of your tasks?
You might reply: I never got the chance to ask questions, nobody cared about my understanding, you just kept giving me tasks that I never fully understand what am I doing or what I have to do!”
Well, this is what happens to our kids!
They start the learning process loving learning and being entertained with learning games, where they can make decisions, choices and in a very short time, they sit in a school asked to do things only our way, follow procedures and got tested based on what they are told!
Is it just not normal they lose interest because we never ask them how they “want” to learn?
It is not about changing the educational system overnight, it is not about letting kids deciding about their education it is simply giving them the chance to tell us what they know already about what we teach them.
You see, they already know must of the things that 10–20 years ago were absolutely mindblowing for today's teachers, educators, and parents. That information that we consider awesome for them, it is just a normal, boring piece as they know it for long.
So, why do we not teach them the way they want to learn?
Instead of standing in the front of the class and talking why not asking them, engaging them in the process?
By this, we can make learning a game, just like we showed them that learning it is. A game through questions and answers, choices, failure and success!
Allow them to use resources, ask for their opinion, challenge them to support and sustain their theories. Be provocative and be open-minded, and do not be afraid to admit you might learn from them.
Set up your game and ask them to join in!
Let them show you how they understand and support them by filling their knowledge gaps while you are learning new information too.
I will no stop repeating the most important thing that you need to remember:
YOU ARE NOT ANYMORE THE ONLY SOURCE OF INFORMATION!
YOU ARE THE FACILITATOR IN THE JUNGLE OF INFORMATION THAT KIDS, STUDENTS ARE EXPOSED!
We leave in the era of knowledge!
Knowledge is to know how to get information, how to use and apply information.
Until the educational system will be willing to change, we need to make sure that we teach kids the way they want to learn and make sure that they understand what they learn.
Just the simple fact that we engage them in learning through games and interaction and suddenly we ask them to learn from us by listening to what we say it is a shock for most of our kids!
It only takes to pause for a moment and ask: show me how would you want to learn?
“WANT” is here the most important word.
Because if we slowly but surely kill the willingness to learn in our kids and students, well…then will be no use to teach at all.
Enforcing and reinforcing policies and ways that we already failed miserably, it is nonsense.
Adapting new ways to get results would make more sense.
When I say to set up your game I do not mean by any chance that you need to create and launch the next Fortnite game!
I mean that you need to “gamify” the process of learning by making the process engaging! Using INTERACTION, and that does not mean at all that is only technology involved.
There are millions of resources on the internet, where brave educators had already created it for you!
You see, it is not as hard as we think, it is not about confronting the system, it is just about adapting the way you go on the path. You can walk like we humans do from thousands of years, you can drive/ you can choose from cars made in 1920 and you can choose now self-drive cars, you can fly, /commercial airline or private jet/ and you can teleport yourself.
Same is in parenting or teaching. You can choose the way you do it to get the end results.
The goal is the same: get the best education to our kids, that serves their future!
We can choose: do it our way/ might some learning happen / or matching it to the way they want to learn…when learning will happen anyway!
The role of parent and educator is not any more to narrate and present the lessons, it is to ask and support the process of learning lead by the students level of understanding and guiding them through the process of learning.
Will these all be easy?
NO!
But, it will be REWARDING for all!
Let me know your thoughts!
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