A while back I had an epiphany about education. I was recollecting all the "stuff" I had learned throughout my time in elementary and high school, and I realized that I had long forgotten most of that "stuff". I mean, I remembered some of the "stuff" that was of interest to me, and some of the "stuff" that I happen to use from time to time, but mostly it all seems like some distant and vague memory. Ultimately, what dawned on me, was that most of that "stuff" was unimportant. What was more important was that I learned how to learn.
While I've forgotten many of the things that I was taught in school, I am readily able to reteach it to myself, should the need arise. With technology and the internet, being an autodidact is easier than ever. So, I don't lament my failure to remember—for I possess something far superior, and more useful: metacognition. As I edge ever closer to becoming a full-fledged school teacher, I find myself wondering how I will gift this magnificent tool to my students.
One way to do this, I think, may be through assessment strategies. Between assessment "of", "for", and "as", the latter may prove most useful in this. Self-assessment, in particular, may be one of the best ways for students to learn about learning. By learning to critique themselves, and their work, they will be more aware of their strengths and shortcomings. Over time, they will begin to value self-improvement, and learn how to go about attaining it. As they develop different strategies to cope with the challenges they encounter, they become more versatile and effective learners. That is my hope at least. Right now, it is just a hunch.
To bring this back full-circle then: as a teacher, perhaps I should not focus on teaching my pupils "stuff", but more on teaching them how to learn said "stuff" and to teach it to themselves. That way, in the future, when they begin to forget—as we all inevitably do—they will not just shrug their shoulders and acquiesce, instead they will take that old textbook of the shelf, blow the dust off, and relearn what it was they'd lost. Well, I suppose it's more likely they will just use wikipedia, or some other online repository of "stuff".
An insightful blog. Yes we learn a lot of stuff that we all forget. So clearly that can’t be the purpose of school. Those of us who are successful in the traditional school also learn a lot of skills by osmosis – such as organization and if we are lucky – metacognition. These life skills are the real lessons of school. At the same time this is why educators are turning to big ideas as what’s worth knowing. We need to know big ideas to deal with events in our life and to use higher-order thinking. With the big ideas we can look up the stuff (details) of an example of a big idea when we need it.
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