How Learning in Schools Should Be: A Reflection from Harvard’s Leaders of Learning Class
One basic paradigm I believe it’s true is humans are hardwired for learning.
Just take a look on a baby. Of course it’s cute (HAHA!), but more importantly baby is a learning champion. Using the physical senses it has, it started to absorb all information from its surrounding. And just by doing so, by the time, it grows ability to recognize its mom and dad, most of time crying when meeting with strangers, and gradually develops ability to throw words.
In fact, babies don’t wait for an order to start learning all of those. It just happens anyway! They just naturally do it, like magic.
From this reflection, we can get a glimpse that learning is an innate nature for human-being. But, if learning is truly our nature, why once we get older learning isn’t becoming that simple? Why most of us have ever faced the so called “learning issues”, especially when learning in school?
My direct answer would be it’s because we are no longer able to just follow our nature of learning once we grew up. Babies are soon starting their learning because they need it to survive. They need to learn to say a word to express themselves better, they need to learn how to walk so they can grab their toys, etc. Learning is coming from a deep-internal gumption when we were babies.
BUT, world is of course not only about eat and play, isn’t it? Once we grew up, we started realizing that we need to deal with various social issues (read: external factors) as we’re a part of a larger society. And, what our parents do to prepare us (read: make us learn) for it is by sending us to schools.
Believe it or not, schooling has become a global culture (Ivan Illich labeled it “global religion”) that “pushes” our kids to learn, which adults hope it could bring their kids to get better future.
Adults know deeply that future needs to be prepared. And, their answer is by sending their kids to school so that they can start preparing it. This background then become the foundation of schools development all around the world. Schools are then held responsible to create a system of learning which structurized this natural journey of human-being.
BUT, to most of our kids, future is unimaginable. They are not really aware of the importance of preparing it because it’s just too far from their current state of mind. And, to order them to start preparing it by learning in school could bring them to experience a “backlash” in learning which we are used to call it “learning issues”.
This backlash emerges as learning is no longer coming from deep-internal gumption of an individual, rather than it is coming from external order or push. At some point, it could bring our kids to learn something new and start building their internal need of learning. BUT, sometimes, it gives them additional pressure when learning is just seen as an “order” from adults and society to them.
The problem is, most of time in schools, the human’s basic need of learning which is discovering the “why they need to learn something” isn’t always well-satisfied because most schools are just busy with “teaching”, not “learning”. Our schools worry so much with their students’ grades because they think it represents their responsibility to parents.
BUT, back to the basic essence of school development, is this something that we truly want from schools? I would personally say, NO! I want to send my future kids to school because I want to see them learning, not collecting scores. I want them to grow well, living up their potentials, and not only being under pressured!
I don’t hate scores, but it just don’t make sense to welcome it as an only factor that symbolizes the success of our kids in their learning process.
#OurKidsAreMoreThanJustScores
I feel lucky to get this awareness about learning after experience it firsthand that learning in school wasn’t always ideal. Most of time, I questioned my self about why learning in school should be like this or like that. And, I am grateful to be able to participate in the Harvard’s Leaders of Learnings Online Class that better enlightened me about this issue.
It turned out that I am not alone thinking that we need to adjust they way our schools deliver learning. And, here’s the five takeaways I got from the class about how learning in schools should be.
- Learning Should Be Empowering, Not Dictating
Oxford Dictionary defines “empower” as an act to give somebody more control over their own life or the situation they are in. In learning, it should be all about endorsing learners to live up their unique potentials so they can be the best version of themselves.
It’s such a valuable and beautiful goal, isn’t it?
Yet, today’s learning in school isn’t that beautifully implemented. Like what I’ve mentioned earlier, most of our current schools are just worrying about how they can support their students to get higher (they say it “better”) scores.
Many teachers in today’s schools are entering class rooms with only one mission which is “to teach” the students. Having this mission in mind, they try to accomplish it by explaining the materials they have to students and test them once the materials are fully delivered to check their knowledge progress.
But, what’s included in their explanation? Most of time, it’s 99% about the “how” (read: concepts, functions, equations, & instructions) to learn a subject. Yet, the “why” is left untouched.
As previously explained, this is where the “learning issue” emerges. Students are no robot. Once teachers only order them “to study this”, “to do this”, “don’t do that” or, in other words, “dictating the learning”, it will never work effectively to students. And, when this unexpected “push” is continued, this is where “hatred” towards the subject possibly emerges.
It’s now becoming more obvious that we need more educators-minded individuals to guide our children to learn in schools. We need them to help students figuring out the rationale of learning something, building their inner-gumption for learning, and guide them about the how to learn it.
This mindset should be owned by teacher, school staff, even more importantly school leader so that learning in schools could be more empowering to students.
2. To Learn is Everyone’s Need, but Not Everyone Learns in The Same Pace
In many Indonesian schools, students who failed to get the standardized minimum grade of a school subject’s test (it is used to be 75 out of 100) need to take a remedial test. How many time do they need to take it? It depends on the students’ performance on the test! If they succeeded in only one retake, they could be free sooner. But, if they weren’t, multiple tests are waiting means more push to their shoulders.
In fact, we know that students who failed with the test are they who probably facing the learning issue. They are the ones that need teacher’s attention the most!
Yet, only demanding them to take remedial test to correct their grade would never be the ultimate solution for their learning issue. Getting bigger push by retaking the test once, twice, or more is of course not becoming something they expect.
School educators should be wiser to deal with this phenomenon. Testing students about a subject is fine, but our perspective need to be just and empowering. Making a test should be a “bridge” for educators to know better about their students learning pace. The result of a test should never be interpreted as a way to categorize good or bad students, but whose need fewer and more attention!
Having this empowering mind would be valuable. This would endorse more awareness from educators to really take care of their students. Like when dealing with students who need to take remedial test, educators can’t only demand them to take the test, but they need to also giving them facilitation (read: more helps) to learn the subject better. This will motivate more talks, tighten relations, and finally build more trust between educators and students.
3. Teacher’s Well-being is Essential
In Indonesia, becoming a teacher is not on the top of mind among this country’s young generations.
Why? It’s sad, but it’s true that our teachers, especially who are working in public schools, here are underpaid.
We’ll not talk here about why this reality happens (read: why we have such attitude towards teachers, in fact, we don’t want too), but this reality has made many Indonesian teachers need to take part-time job, one or two, to fulfill their daily needs.
Some of them are doing it inline with their main job as teachers, such as opening private courses, teaching in informal schools, writing educational blogs, etc. But, not just a few of them are doing something different from their main job, such as farming, opening catering service, even singing.
Well, taking a part-time job is of course fine for somebody. But, what happened in Indonesia is this has led many of our teachers to have minimum performance on their responsibility to students.
Their personal matters has made them too busy to become a true educators. They are just “teaching”: delivering subjects to students, give them homework, assess them with test, and finish! Very simple because they need to catch up for another things.
It’s far away from empowering!
As teacher is also human, this issue is sensitive and highly understandable. We do need systemic change that can support our public schools’ teachers better.
4. School’s Building Matters
After participating in this Harvard online class, this issue is what really impressed me.
I always know that teacher is a powerful factor that can bring success in learning, but for being aware that “building” matters too is my first time here.
And, YES! building matters. When we’re in schools, it’s so often that the way learning process is conducted adapts to the shape and layout of a classroom. For example, when your classroom’s wall is fixed since all of it’s part is made from the bricks, then you have no option other than doing learning in this fixed-size classroom.
But, how if your classroom’s wall is portable? You can minimize the size of your classroom when you want to have small discussion or you can expand it when you want to have a seminar.
Got it? I hope so:)
In the US, the awareness about school building design has been rising for quite some times. In Indonesia, I think it’s just still few educators talking about it.
Having a well-qualified and empowering school building to support learning is of course a privilege. Can we get it in Indonesia? Of course, there’ll be a way for it. I believe that creating building that really fits for schooling (not fabric-style ones) is in our reach. What we need is to invest more time and focus in planning a school design. Thus, we can set the budget, looking for alternative materials (come on, we have abundant natural resources in Indonesia, guys), and execute it well.
5. Creating Learning Synergy
To students, learning in school is just a little part of their learning time in a day. They learn more things outside of school.
Thus, creating a learning synergy with all actors that can affect students’ learning is definitely a part of learning missions that need to be accomplished by schools.
School needs to have regular conversations with parents. By doing this, schools and parents can work hand in hand to create best learning environment for students, not to mention to have early detection should students show the symptoms of facing a learning issue.
More than that, school needs to also join hands with its surrounding community for creating a conducive environment for learning.
To close this writing, let me ask you one question “have your learning experience in schools been ideal to support learning?” And, when your answer is no, then you should know better about how learning in your school should be!
Never stop to dream for betterment, guys!