Rethinking Education: Self-Directed Learning Fits the Digital Age

  • By Amy Harrington
  • 12.10.13
  • 3:42 PM
  • Edit

img src=" alt="" title="classroom_tech_660" width="660" height="330" class="size-full wp-image-12097" />

Is the one-size-fits-all, top-down classroom a misfit for the Digital Age? Photo: James F Clay/Flickr

Taking apart the idea of school as we know it and getting back to the roots of children and learning is a pervasive thought which I am constantly researching and evaluating. There is no shortage of pedagogies out there but there seems to be a lack of application of relevant methodologies for out of the box creative thinkers.

Our public educational system as we all know it is one of the most broken institutions which is entirely counterintuitive to its intended purpose. Many parents have children and without thought register their children at the local school because currently that is the expected norm. Historically, compulsory schooling at an institution was not the norm and I am suggesting we rethink everything we currently know about traditional brick and mortar schools.

Even for those who can get through the top down, rote style didactic learning and achieve high marks in a subject, it doesn’t mean that this passive recipient style of providing information is even close to optimal. “Teaching to the test” creates an atmosphere of outcome-based performance within a high stakes, anxiety producing context that is the antithesis of meaningful learning, and is destroying our youth. If we are to prepare our children for the ever evolving, unknown future then antiquated sub par methods of information dissemination will need to change.

Standards-based education is ruining the way educators teach and children learn. Education should not be about teaching to the next level in education and vocation and yet, that is exactly what our current school system is designed to do. Our goal should be to foster a love of learning for learning sake. Learning is not something that we should force onto our children to ensure they go to college and get a good job. True learning is intrinsically motivated and the reward is knowledge.

Filling in bubbles as a yardstick of achievement is a poor measure of knowledge acquisition. As parents and educators we should support independence and foster divergent thinking which is essential for out of the box thinkers. We need to inspire children to explore their world, follow their interests, think for themselves, ponder ideas, question everything, create and produce.

Self-directed learning is a necessary component of education and yet there is little emphasis on this in both public and private schools. Here and there one will hear about a pilot program that addresses the power of autodidactic learning but it is infrequently assimilated as a pedagogical alternative to traditional education. Our teachers are stuck within the confines of a system that no longer serves our children.

In its inception, fact driven accumulation and regurgitation served a purpose as did punctuality, direction following, obedience and conformity. This was back during the Industrial Age when factory workers needed a place to send their progeny so that they, too, could gain employment within factories. We are in the Digital Age where most factoids are searchable in real time as necessary.

There no longer is a need to memorize disjointed, a la carte facts and call that learning. Memorization is a useful skill but in and of itself it is not demonstrative of thinking and learning. What one is capable of doing with that information is more relevant. Someone who engages in rote learning may give the wrong impression of having understood what they have written or said. By definition, rote learning repudiates comprehension, so by itself it is an ineffective tool in mastering any complex subject at an advanced level.

People love to talk about the importance of problem solving and critical thinking skills yet most schools do nothing to foster this. Our educational system is built on the premise that the adult teacher has all the information which he or she will impart onto the child who will then show that he has mastered the grade level material by filling in answer choices where the test provides you with the desired answer. So, just when is a child supposed to engage in critical thinking or problem solving?

I remember my kid reflecting on his days in school and quoting Jim Davis’ Garfield comic where John is putting food into Garfield’s mouth and Garfield says: “Today I will be chewing my own food.” We don’t need to give children all the answers then grade them on how well they retell that very same information. In another context we might refer to that as plagiarism. Children need time to figure things out on their own. Imagine providing children with the tools to learn in a prepared environment and then giving them the freedom to explore and experience that environment driven solely by their own curiosity. No adult agenda. No coercion. No instructions on how to use said tools. Open-ended discovery.

We want our children to thrive and possibly change the world and improve lives, and yet we don’t allow for curiosity to grow and develop in our children. Adults are most useful in a child’s life when they expose them to ideas, provide resources and then allow children the freedom to let their imaginations wander in a supportive environment. The imagination that children espouse is a beautiful and often short-lived characteristic that is rarely embraced in the context of a classroom. The importance of unstructured, pleasure-driven learning should not be understated. Children will have plenty of time to learn skills necessary for their future adult life. Give children freedom, support their curiosity, let them make choices and watch them experience organic learning that evolves effortlessly.

Learning is an all-day experience that doesn’t need to be pigeonholed into a specific set of content areas, for a prescribed amount of time, in one specific environment, within a narrowly defined approach which is then measured and evaluated extrinsically. Learning does not have to line up with traditional school subjects or lead to future pursuits for it to be worthwhile.

There are so many areas one can explore; however, not all children need to be well rounded in terms of what they learn despite prevalent thought. Exposure to many disciplines is wonderful but we do not need a society solely made up of generalists. Allow your child to be a specialist who learns deeply and see how they fluorish when they are in the driver’s seat of their own education. What children are passionate about presently may be short lived or it may become their lifelong direction.

Either way, they are experiencing so many valuable moments in their self discovery. Pushing adult expectations onto children, even if well intended, does nothing to shape a positive self image, and certainly does not instill self confidence. A child who can follow their chosen interests and learn independently will have the world at their fingertips.

It is infinitely more useful to be able to think critically, brainstorm ideas and figure out how to solve problems then it is to be able to recite a list of facts.

Amy Harrington, Esq. is an educational activist and a radical unschooler to two profoundly gifted children.