How do we encourage our learners to think?
A few weeks I came across a video on TED which I was initially listening to in the background whilst doing something else. Within seconds I switched everything else off and became engrossed in the topic under discussion. In the video Dan Myer covers a topic which I feel we are all grappling with in Education: How do we encourage our learners to move from a formulaic ‘spoon- fed’ model of learning to a system where we actively encourage learners to enquire, devise and most importantly think.
After much thought and application in the classroom Dan gives a number of examples which show how he encourages learners to become problem solvers and apply genuine understanding to everyday Maths based problems. Although the examples are subject specific the core ideas are genuinely transferable to all learning.
Yes, he makes a great deal of sense particularly the idea of providing less help in most situations. The crossover from this to history is clear to me; pupils being encouraged to look at sources, think up questions, devise a hypothesis and then an investigation really makes them ‘better at doing history’ in the long run. I regularly see pupils who crave a simple solution and often say that’s why they like science or maths but not history because “it’s too hard”. More challenge, less help….better learners.