K Bechtel

After reading Chapter 2 and several occasions in which the author described some of his own learning experiences, I began to think about some of my own experiences.  I remember in 4th grade thinking how much fun school was.  Up to that point, I don’t think I knew that school could be fun.  My teacher in 4th grade though taught me that learning doesn’t have to be something that happens in your seat in front of a textbook.  We had many opportunities to learn that year and many learning moments in my mind were just plain accidents.  I really felt like I was just playing most of that year.  After that year though, learning meant sitting in my seat and receiving the knowledge the teacher would allow me to have.  And just like a deposit in the bank, once I had learned it, I moved on to a new topic.  I didn’t use it.  I didn’t really know I was supposed to.

The next time I really remember a learning moment was in high school in a Calculus class.  The teacher really was hard but that meant he really made me think.  Up to that point, thinking at school was minimal.  School was more like a script.  The teacher talked for a while and then I regurgitated what he or she said on some kind of paper or worksheet.  My Calculus teacher though changed that.  He answered my questions with another question.  “Why was he so mean?” I would think to myself.  Why can’t he just tell me the answer or tell me how to get it right?  Well getting it right was not his concern at all.  He was more driven to teach me to think about the problem and possible solutions than just getting it right.

College classes also gave me thinking experiences.  Although I had taken Calculus in high school, I really didn’t feel like I could do it.  I took Algebra as my first math course in college, and finally developed a moment of real understanding.  I had taken Algebra as a freshman in high school and here I was taking it again in college, but I was so glad I did.  I finally got it!  I could not only do the problems but I understood why I was doing them that way.  I have always appreciated that moment.

So for me learning has meant 2 very different and independent things.  At times it has meant doing something and getting it right.  That would be the school definition of learning.  However, a few teachers out there have not cared if I got it right or not.  They wanted to see evidence of my thinking skills.  So I ask myself, am I asking students to do things to get the right answer?  When was the last time I asked them to think?  Do we expect students to really think?  I don’t think I really want to know the answers to these questions.