Should teachers or students be responsible for learning? This is a question that is seemingly easy to answer but very difficult to put into play. If you ask any teacher, they will say that they need to develop out of this world lessons that reach every student in their classroom, but the students must also put forth effort in the educational environment.
The Struggle
Teachers spend hour upon hour coming up with ideas on how to engage learners. A great teacher knows that a lesson must be engaging in order for the greatest amount of learning to take place. The most difficult challenge is that in a classroom of 30 students, these students could very easily have 30 different learning styles and abilities. No matter how much thought and time is put into creating a spectacular lesson, teachers must consider the ups and downs that could occur when trying to reach more than one type of learner, otherwise their thrilling lesson will go down the pipes. The goal is for all students to be successful, not just a select few. Teachers have to also keep in mind that not all content is as invigorating as we would like it to be, and there is not always a thrilling lesson that can go with it.
Equip Students’ Learning Toolbox
So how do we get a classroom with so many different types of learners to reach 100% success? We must equip the students with the skills necessary to reach their own success. Students of course, must be motivated to learn and oftentimes this motivation is driven by the teachers, but it is also so much more than that. Students must know how to learn; more specifically students must discover which strategies help them learn effectively. We spend hours training teachers on how to differentiate in a classroom, but we don’t take the time to teach students how to be strategically flexible. Students need to be taught and shown multiple strategies on how to learn so that they have the ability to use the strategy that works best for them at any given time. Just as teachers differentiate a lesson, students need to know that they can try several different ways to learn specific material. We must help students develop a learning toolbox with different strategies to use across all subjects and concepts. Once students equip their learning toolbox with these strategies, they will have the ability to strategically choose the one that works best for them, and they will be flexible enough to switch to a different strategy if one proves to be unsuccessful. When students develop their strategic flexibility, the results are astounding. Rather than being discouraged when something just doesn’t click, we enable students to find a different way to approach the learning. It gives them the opportunity to really see and feel the greatness of learning because they are taking the time to really measure their own success.
True learning can only happen when teachers and students share the responsibility of learning. This means students have much more to learn than just mandated concepts; but once they learn how to learn, the stress of school slips away. The benefits of the Take Us Higher Learning courses are endless. These courses will take your student to new heights by teaching them the executive functioning skills they need. We specialize in teaching: organization, time management, goal setting, how to take notes, effective study habits, tips to ace tests, memorization, and writing skills.