What It Means to Appreciate Learning

As I was perusing my usual websites and blog collections sites (I'm on study break), I came across a thought-provoking post on Teach for Us called "Test Day is Game Day". Because I'm pretty sure that the author's alias is her actual name, I won't post her name. Here's an excerpt:

"This summer, at Institute, I realized something important: my students must love learning in both of these settings. They must  be as engaged in the content in a testing environment as they are during my most exciting independent practice or engaging discussions.

When I used to think of assessments, I used to think that test-taking was not a transferable skill. I don’t need to sit down & answer a series of multiple-choice content-based questions to buy a cup of coffee or coach a team or do whatever else I love. But after this summer, I see that tests do more than assess content — they teach us perseverance.

When my students sit down in front of a test, they are not simply preparing to answer a series of multiple choice questions about math. They are attacking math. They are activating both their long-term and short-term memory. They are synthesizing content to answer questions. They aremanaging their time to make it through the whole test. They are looking at problems that feel impossible and using critical thinking skills to find alternate solutions, even if they can’t remember the formula. They are doing their best. They are showcasing their knowledge. They are confident. They are empowered.

Classroom engagement takes all different forms. Engaging students in meaningful discussion is incredibly satisfying as a teacher, and through discussion, individual growth becomes visible. But this success means nothing if it can’t be applied to high-stress, testing environments, where individual students are called upon to do thier best on their own, without any coaching or feedback. Test day is game day."

Again, I'm on study break, so I'm going to try to pin down my thoughts in a few minutes, so as usual, excuse the typos!

The first question that popped into my mind as I read was do students really have to love learning in an engaging environment as well as a testing environment? No, I don't think so, which brought me to question two, do they have to love learning at all?

As someone who has had an interesting academic journey that went from easy street, to indifference and boredom, to dogged determination to get into a really good college, to overconfidence, to defeat, to building back confidence, back to dogged determination to graduate on a high note, and finally to where I am now (BTW, that's "confident, very capable, but full of humility"), I get what it means to feel on top on my game and to struggle mightily (Linear Algebra, I'm looking at you). Apparently, I don't hate learning, because a) I'm a graduate student and b) I teach. Clearly, I have a high regard for the process of learning.

Yet, I don't feel it is necessary to love to learn. For example, I can gobble me up some biology. I love it. I can't, however, gobble up Dostoyevsky (heck yes, I spelled that right the first time!). Or calculus. Or physics, but I do appreciate the reasoning and processes behind analyzing a novel or learning that integrals basically deal with area (in fact, that's kinda beautiful when you think about that...). I don't necessarily love or even enjoy the process of calculating an integral, though.


I suspect this holds with most people about some topic. As much as I love science, I understand that most of my kids don't, and it's not my goal (or even my job) to get my students to love science. My goal is to get them to appreciate science and the processes that are behind scientific knowledge. Even if my kids aren't tripping over themselves to become scientists later on in life, if they can understand why they are learning what they are learning and are engaging in whatever we are doing in class, be it discussions, hands-on/minds-on activities, labs, whatever, AND they meet my learning goals, I'm happy at the end of the day.

As for testing, it's not anything that anyone I know, adult or child, likes. The CRCT sucked. The ACT sucked. The SAT sucked. The GACE sucked. The GRE really sucked. I did not love any of those tests. What I did love was that feeling of pure victory when I kicked all of their asses, so I completely agree with the assertion that testing, in part, teaches perseverance. I'll admit to taking the SAT and GRE twice, because I didn't think I did my best the first go-round. Instead of crying, in both cases, when I got to my computer in the evening, I went ahead and plunked down the $100+, reflected on where I went wrong, and got back studying to fix my mistakes. I was not excited about spending more money and time on those tests, but I wasn't about to let some test keep me from getting into school.

I'll end on this note: Part of appreciating learning means appreciating that, at certain points, you gotta show what you know, know what you know, know what you don't know, and how you can best address gaps in your learning (which is not to absolve teachers from this process, but I digress). Remember, that's only a part of appreciating learning, which means my job (and the job of every teacher that shares my goal) is a tall order, but it's one that I wouldn't undertake if I truly didn't believe in it.