How people learn is diverse. People are different and so is the ways in which they learn. However, there are some typical ways in which all humans are inspired to learn and expound on ideas. People will argue that formulaic teaching and standardized testing is in no way a form in which people adequately acquire knowledge. The use of grades and numbers does not prove that one is learning. I believe that learning cannot be, measured using standardize tests. Education is not accumulating large ranges of facts and routines. That is simply creating a human-robot whose own ideas are deemed useless hence they have to follow the curriculum. Education and learning are about having of wonderful ideas or learning as lifelong. This paper focuses on learning as the having of wonderful ideas a concept that is useful in both teaching and learning.
The curriculum presents teachers as people who explain while learners as the subjects to listen. Little emphasis is put on the learners’ development of understanding. The learner is not given avenues to understand or explore their ideas. For that reason, learners tend to memorize what is being taught while shy away from developing their ideas. Contrary, students are supposed to be encouraged to develop understanding, and the teacher should help learners construct their understanding. Piaget once said that understanding is inventing a factor which has proved to be true (Duckworth, E. 2006). Personally, I would say that I only know I have understood when I can think outside the box and create sense. Duckworth on the other hand viewed intellectual development as the having of the wonderful idea (Duckworth, 2006). It is, therefore, useful that learners get a chance to develop their ideas.
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The actual purpose of education is learning and making learners able to apply learned facts in the real world. At some point, that fact has been overrun by testing. The driving force of education has become the acquisition of grades and passing high stake tests. For that reason, teachers fill students with lots and lots of information whose aim is to make them fit into the existing curriculum. According to human learning as having of wonderful ideas then education is not questioning the world enough. Sometimes teachers will talk about life as it were compartmentalized. The learner is not given a chance to think but instead fed on volumes of information on which they are expected to cram for the purpose of passing examinations.
Humans learn well when they get a chance to air their views and use their ideas. In learning some technical subjects for instance physics, learners are challenged to think but then presented with a way of solving a problem that they should use whenever a question comes up. What teachers forget is that each learner can have the ability to develop a new way of solving that same problem. What the education leaves is the opportunity of learners using their ways rather than the documented ways. In most situations, the learners’ ideas will be dismissed as we believe that the exercise helps the thought. The exam will not accept the new way but rather what is in the textbook. The learners’ ideas are therefore doomed useless.
Examinations and grades are what determine the intellect capability of learners. The learners do not have an opportunity to learn when a test score shows they have not developed intellectually. When the score is clearly saying that you are behind others the interest to learn goes away instead, you start looking for ways of fitting into the routine. Instead of trying to guess what the teacher wants you to say learning as having wonderful ideas enables learners to have the freedom to explore and experiment with their ideas. It even becomes more enjoyable when challenging the teacher by new ideas that student presents. Either way, both the teacher and the learner will benefit from each other.
In learning by having excellent ideas, learners have to make use of the testing ground. In this case, the testing ground is not based on how much information they have mastered but how much of their ideas they can test out given the opportunity by the teacher. The testing ground in this way has to enable learners to choose their path of understanding. The teacher here does not choose the path for them but merely provides an avenue where the learners are free to choose their path. Most teachers find it difficult to give learners with the opportunity. Instead, they view their role as simplifying a subject for the sake of student comprehension. What they do not understand is that in the course of simplification they can make things worse and as hard as it has never been before. What you consider simple may not be as simple as you think to another person. The ability to connect with a subject is what makes it simple. For instance when something becomes incomprehensible it has the risk of being meaningless to learners, and they will have nothing to connect to. Instead of calling a student who has failed to connect a slow learner the teacher should, therefore, consider the method of teaching that will suit the student.
Education provides a curriculum which teachers try to explain to learners. Learners, on the other hand, struggle to make sense out of the curriculum. One will only want to understand something more if the meaning attached to it makes sense to them. While pressurizing most with understanding a school curriculum that rarely makes sense, learning ceases to take place.
Throughout education, one thing is sure; the teacher plays a very important role in the learning of students. A teacher can either support or weaken a learner’s ability to learn. Learning here is determined by the capacity of learners thinking since it's only by thinking that learners will get better at learning. Concerning learning as having fantastic ideas, the teacher's role can well be said to keeping the learners engaged in the subject matter. You cannot force a person to understand something, but you can sure force them to cram it in their heads. Having interest compels learners to understand rather than cram. For that reason, teachers are tasked with finding ways to keep learners interested and having them engaged in the subject matter. The teacher is not under any circumstance allowed to think that simplifying a subject to learners is possible. People understand things in a vast array of ways hence teachers need to figure out and appreciate those different ways that learners will develop understanding.
One thing that has always held my attention in class is the questions at the end of the lecture. Sometimes they are all a learner can think of when the lesson is over. The challenge with question comes with how relevant they were to the understanding of learners. Sometimes a teacher can ask a question that will put off learners such the next class will not be anticipated. On the other hand, some questions are relevant for expanding the field for exploration enabling learners to research, think more and come up with new ideas. Most of the time people learn is because a particular question woke up a desire to know more and think critically. The thinking here is not by what the teacher expects the learner to say but what are the possible solutions to a particular problem.
In the course of acquiring new knowledge, confusion is bound to happen. In trying to understand something we become confused and we fail in our first attempts. Encouraging that confusion is what promotes the development of one’s ideas. Failing and gaining insight again promotes a better form of learning than just getting everything right. While some students will take a short time to be confused and come on track again, others will take long and often get lost in their confusion. However, tutors ought to identify when a learner's confusions are going too far so that they can help them get back on track. The idea is to keep learners on track, and too much can be frustrating causing learners to lose interest. Teachers also ought to encourage rather than despise confusion. Everyone needs to be confused at one time so that they can develop intellectually.
A good aspect of learning by having excellent ideas is sharing of one's ideas. It is always wonderful to be appreciated by others because of that brilliant idea you gave out. Nothing makes group discussions more relevant than the idea of sharing ideas. It is an important part of development when we share. Keeping engaged is also important when you have something to share. When a learner gets the opportunity to share with a group of peers’ individual learning Is encouraged extended and refined by the group. Construction of knowledge cannot only be achieved from within an individual but from others as well. Learning cannot be said to be a person only but within people as well. Right from kindergarten children develop some core abilities in an environment where they are with others. The peer social connection encourages the sharing of one’s fabulous ideas helping them explore their interest. As one grows up, they will be eager to learn and share what they learn hence they will never lose interest in learning.
Having excellent ideas in education supports the creation of another avenue for learning. As it becomes interested in the subject matter, one thing is bound to happen, the interest to continue learning throughout one’s life. Lifelong learning becomes more relevant when we encourage learners to explore their ideas to the fullest. Lifelong learning has to be voluntary and self-motivated. For most people, they will pursue course either for personal or professional reasons. Evidently, most people who chose to pursue education throughout their lives do it for personal reasons. The most common reason is a passion that builds enthusiasm.
Lifelong education is currently critical to every individual. To a person, it encourages social inclusion and personal development. The nation benefits by having a useful active citizen. Other reasons such as employability competitiveness and self-sustainability come as a bonus. For this reason, we see learning as very important not only to an individual but the society and the nation as a whole. When one encourages learning by having excellent ideas, lifelong learning tends to develop. Teachers will feel satisfied when a particular student chooses a particular subject as a permanent course.
The lifelong learning does not only focus on classroom learning but learning that is relevant to one’s life and other situations. Perhaps that is the reason why people would want to pursue particular learning projects. When a learner is encouraged in class, the probability of them becoming lifelong learner’s increases, the subject of interest becomes integrated into one’s life. The daily interactions with others and the world from a classroom on itself to an individual Lifelong learning can be self-directed, informal or formal. Though there are many contexts of lifelong learning, one absolute fact is that it cannot be defined by a particular place, time or a specific location to apply knowledge. It is simply learning as a process that is ongoing in a person’s life. Lifelong learning is possible in homeschooling where learners develop informal learning patterns. In adult education, learners acquire skills later in life. In continuing education learners enroll for higher education courses knowledge work is where people go for job training.
Most people will go for self-directed learning facilitated by personal tools and available sources such as online applications. Most colleges and universities identify lifelong courses as relevant in the attainment of degrees. Achieving Lifelong learning is possible when one has interest hence focusing on the role of a teacher in developing the interest of learners. Keeping the learners engaged is the ultimate way of encouraging lifelong education. Just as learning by having wonderful ideas is important so is learning as lifelong. The two go hand in hand in hand by achieving one the probability if making the other rises.
Measuring success is not attainable when we consider grades and ranking as the measure of intelligence. Learners are most of the time struggling to fit in the curriculum and reject their ideas. The interest to continue with education is minimized when nothing makes sense in education. Encouraging learning forms an early age encourages the development of the notion and the lifelong learning. Consequently learning as having fantastic ideas is the only sure way of making education relevant to learners.
References
Business/Higher Education Round Table. & Business/Higher Education Round Table. (2001). The critical importance of lifelong learning . Melbourne, Vic: Business/Higher Education Round Table.
Duckworth, E. R. (2006). "The having of wonderful ideas" and other essays on teaching and learning . New York: Teachers College Press.
Edson, L., & Time-Life Books. (1975). How we learn . New York: Time-Life Books.
Field, J., & Leicester, M. (2000). Lifelong learning: Education across the lifespan . London: Routledge.
Ormrod, J. E. (1999). Human learning . Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill.
