Roger C. Schank’s 2000 feature titled FUTUREPERSPECTIVE – A Vision of Education for the 21st Century still rings possible. Shank has held numerous senior positions in AI and university programs.
In a related piece, he argues for learning by doing. Most companies’ learning systems are bankrupt (bold added). The way managers attempt to help their people acquire skills and knowledge has absolutely nothing to do with the way people actually learn. … In fact, … a great way to learn is by looking over someone else’s shoulder.
Do you think anything has changed since he wrote that in 2000?
From his view, learning is imitating. Some call that adapting to surrounding conditions. Others call it reducing trial and error behavior patterns to meet criterion.
In any case, we all know that some teachers have difficulty matching lessons with practical uses of skills. Actually, some of us (including me) sometimes intentionally stick with teaching the intellectual exercise and leave the practical adaptation of that lesson for students to handle on their own.
I wonder if some of the difficulty Shank infers of translating learning into real world practices rests with the amount of practical experience we have before we teach?
I used to work during summers in ag businesses, lumber yards, building fences, and other odd day labor jobs for money and for exposure to something other than schooling. I know many other teachers did so too.
Do teachers still work outside of school?
Do people who were plumbers before teaching have less difficulty relating a lesson to the way a student will use that lesson later?
Nothing has changed. In 2000 people learned by doing and in 200 people learned by doing. Children, for example, take the things they hear and see and practice like crazy. My youngest child is newly three and is at a stage where everything is. “Me do it!” He has watched and heard how to run the DVD player enough in his opinion. He wants to get his hands in there and do. Our 12 & 10 year old boys were born when I was working in Opera and Theatre. Back then I didn’t have fancy teaching degrees So I flew completely blind. Our oldest went to work in a backpack. At newly three he would line up Supernumeraries and pretend to take into a headset. Soon he insisted on a real headset. He is still the bossy one with out a doubt. I teach students with moderate to severe cognitive disabilities now. I teach using projects and have had a high rate of success with my students. Some of the non-disabled Students who are a “problem and disruption” in their classrooms participate as Peer coaches in our class. They also achieved academic success for the first time. The difference was “doing with” and then teaching their coach-ee the academic skills targeted. The teaching portion of the peer coaches’ responsibity is the intellectual exercise. The peer coaches are brilliant. They are getting instruction in how to adapt learning tasks and have practice implementing in my class. They are returning to their classes and are integrating adaptation skills into their own learning. I am continually researching, practicing, implementing, and evaluating my skills to keep up with the rest of them. It’s the teachers’ version of the circle of life.Somewhere along the way our culture has lost the apprentice system. The practical transfer of knowledge does not recieve much respect in my building. The attitude is present in 1 st career teachers, 2nd Career teachers, and the 30 yrs of the same career teachers. What I find delightful is there is one kind of teacher who expresses respect across the board. The teachers of the Gifted and Talented program express respect by teaching their students using project based, hands on learning.Cultural transformation in our educational system to a student centered guided system of learning is needed. How teachers are educated has a bigger impact than a lack of experience, I think. And, at risk of upsetting many,I have noticed a “Me do it!” personality in many teachers. (Me included)teachers report autonomy is a source of job satisfaction.The common teaching environment is independent most of the time. Learning systems would be richer if partnerships of learning existed between all participants. I think that model is a winner from about 500 BCE.