[Neurons] Neurons #20 FOR THE BEST LEARNING

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #10

March 8, 2021

 

FOR THE BEST LEARNING

 

Question:  What have we learned during the last year of the pandemic about
schools, education, and learning?  Several things, among them is that the
best learning is not done in front of a computer screen!  And there's lots
of reasons why that's the case.

 


1) Most children have not learned how to concentrate their attention, so to
ask them to sit in front of a computer screen for an extended period of time
is asking them to do what they are not prepared to do.  I even know adults
who have difficulty concentrating on a screen for an hour or two!  "An hour
or two?"  "How about 10 minutes!?"  Ever wonder why Ted Talks are 18 minutes
in length?

 

2) Most children and adults have not learned how to listen or gather
information.  Listening is a skill in and of itself, and from my experience
in training professional Coaches how to listen- schools don't have a clue
about how to teach that.  Demanding energetic little kids to sit still and
listen, especially to what doesn't seem relevant, often teaches them that
school is boring so that they come to hate it. 

 

3) Most children and adults have not learned how to gather information.
Listening is just the beginning, it is a tool for gathering information and
gathering information is a precursor to learning.  Yet if a person doesn't
know how to gather relevant information, that person will not know which
data is important and which is not.  The result again is finding school
boring and distasteful, something to avoid.

 

4) Most children and adults have not learned how to learn.  Just gathering
information is not learning.  Just thinking is not learning.  Learning
involves more.  Yet schools are notorious about teaching content (the what)
and avoid teaching process (the how).              Consequently, children do
not know the process of learning any particular subject- how to learn to
read, to write, to do mathematics, to learn history, to learn geometry, etc.
In each domain, there's a different kind of thinking required for a
different kind of learning.  

 

Yet such meta-learning is not taught in schools and so when a child is stuck
at home during the pandemic looking at a computer screen- they are often
bored to death, anxious to tears, and completely stuck.  And because
meta-learning is not taught, even parents and other adults often do not know
how to help. 

 

5) Most children, and even adults, need guidance in learning.  When it comes
to learning anything new, learning is always accelerated if you have an
informed guide.  If you have a teacher who is intelligent, caring, and
engaged.  That always makes it easier to learn.  Such a teacher will be
skilled first and foremost in creating a positive learning environment, set
up expectations for learning, and create a sense of the relevance of the
learning.

Everything is harder to learn, and sometimes impossible, when you don't see
the point.  "Why should I learn this?  How will this help me?"  Relevance of
the materials and its value to a person's life is what transforms a learning
from being boring to being interesting and exciting.  And again, most people
don't know how to do that for themselves.  That's part of meta-learning -
learning how you learn best and why it is important.

 

Given all of that, no wonder mental disorders in children has skyrocketed in
the past twelve months.  No wonder anxiety, depression, and even suicide has
become an even larger problem.  What I hope we have learned is that - it is
not good to shut down schools.  That was a mistake.  Private schools for the
most part stayed open and have done just fine.  Today only 44% of children
in the US are back in school.  That means 56% are still at home and waiting
to return.

 

Since the best learning does not occur in front of a screen, but in person
in the classroom with a competent and caring teacher, and since science says
it is safe to open the schools, then it is time.   Who would oppose that?
Who is preventing the children from returning?  Paradoxically, the Teacher's
Unions!  Not the teachers, but the Teachers Union.   

 

My guess is that most teachers want to return to the classroom.  It is the
Teacher's Unions that are ignoring the science that says it is safe to
return.  Worse of all President Biden is catering to the Unions rather than
to the parents, children, and teachers.  He has shown no courage to stand up
to the Unions and order them to get back to work.  That part of it is
nothing but political dysfunction.  And it is time for all of that to
change.  After all, learning is the heartbeat of humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

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Making smart decisions is not easy--- many, many cognitive biases work
against us and it is far too easy to default to pseudo-decisions: emotions,
gut feelings, intuitions, circumstances, others.  

Executive Decisions (2021) offers a way to decide intelligently and wisely.

 

130969 Neuro Semantics Executive Decisions Book Cover

 

 

 

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