Answers about Education

In my experience as a student, acquiring automaticity is difficult due to the concentration and practise required to develop it. This is especially problematic when the set of skills or knowledge being learned is decontextualised. For this reason, it is important for the teacher to make the students aware of the application of what is being learned, its necessity in furthering the class, and its relationship to other concepts. For example, memorising the organelles of animal and plant cells in biology often seems a rote and meticulous task. The teacher should explain to the students some of the benefits of having such knowledge, and how it relates to larger operations such as cellular respiration, homeostasis, or Online SEL PRE-K Grade Program photosynthesis. Keeping these in mind, and the material relevant and applicable, they should be related back to when automatising knowledge of the organelles. These are all examples of how a student's pastimes and hobbies could be integrated into different subjects in a constructive manner. They demonstrate what Thomas Zane calls ‘domain definition', by "defining real-world, integrated tasks as opposed to listing a series of content topics or decontextualized knowledge components" (83 Zane, Part 1). The ‘domains' essential to student-relevant education are those that the student thinks are important to him. This kind of education benefits the student in at least two ways. First, he is able to reflect upon course material using personal experience. He is more likely to be interested in what is being taught, because the material is more relevant to him. Secondly, he is able to supplement his extracurricular interests with the knowledge that he learns in class. By making connections between what he learns in the classroom and outside of it, he has the opportunity not only to build upon his understanding of class material, but also of his own recreations and passions. This should be one of the primary purposes of teaching and learning: to build upon the students' existing experience and curiosity to provide a practically grounded and relevant education. Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to expect a student to have all of these skills when they first enter the classroom; the ability to learn is developed over time. Because of this, the teacher must not only teach the class material, but also help the student to grasp it. In Freedom To Learn, psychologist Carl Rogers describes the aim of education as the facilitation of learning (120-121 Rogers). In order to facilitate learning, the teacher has two core responsibilities: to evoke and guide the students' desire to learn, and to provide guidance and resources to help them do so. By upholding personal relevance and transferability as core tenants of education, a large degree of responsibility is placed upon the student's ability and eagerness to learn. The tenants assume that the student is mature enough to take his education seriously and tutor kindergarten online to challenge himself. The ideal student is self-motivated in fulfilling his own curiosity.