I’m not the first to say it, but it’s time to look beyond the facts and figures students are taught in school and focus on how they learn. Incorporating more flexible learning approaches into their education gives students a clear stake in their learning process. Although educators are still exploring “student-centered” versus “personalized” or other flipped learning approaches, the biggest takeaway for me remains that teachers should step away from the chalkboard and make room for students to drive the learning process. Not only is that the ticket to helping students learn more effectively in the long run, it gives them ownership over their education and enables them to be lifelong learners. This is more important than simply stuffing them with facts.
Advancing in education is largely centered around and measured by the content students learn. If they successfully master middle school, they go onto high school and then college. Such emphasis on mastering content often leads students to simply memorize facts and figures to pass tests and forego a deeper understanding of skills and how to apply them later. And it’s showing. Thirty-five percent of US eighth graders are proficient in math, 36 percent in reading. Meanwhile, they lag behind their global peers, ranking 20th in reading and 27th in math and trailing behind countries like South Korea and Japan.
Move Beyond the Lecture
Now, putting students in control over their individual learning process doesn’t mean giving them the keys and away they go. As one advocate put it, educators are still an integral part of the process. In a more flexible learning environment, a teacher's role shifts to more of a coach or facilitator role than the sole content provider. And that can’t hurt. As research shows, it’s extremely difficult for students to successfully take in and process all the information presented in a lecture. Harvard University physics professor Eric Mazur experienced this firsthand and created the Peer Instruction method as a result. He now approaches teaching as a collaborative process where he guides the learning process but students equally engage with each other to arrive at a deeper understanding of the information.
This should start before the university level. Early research from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shows students with more flexible learning environments perform better than those in traditionally structured classrooms. Encouraging students early on to understand how they learn enables them to continue learning throughout their life, whether that’s mastering a difficult college course or changing up their career and say, learning to code.
Technology Not the Star, But a Supporting Role
For me, a big part of encouraging a flexible learning environment includes peer-to-peer collaboration. It’s a big reason why I created StudyBlue, not just to give students access to the best tools they need to shape the course of their learning but to provide an accessible avenue for collaborative learning. Rebecca Wolfe, Students at the Center director, a Jobs for the Future initiative, says peer-to-peer collaboration enables students to have a sense of ownership over their learning. “Most students say, ‘I learn best when I can talk about something with someone I know who really understands me’,” she says.
Technology plays an important role in encouraging this. The US Department of Education is increasingly emphasizing the role both technology and individualization play in education, as nearly 30 percent of school districts in New York encouraged Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) programs in 2014, with another 20 percent developing similar programs.
While it’s important for students to understand the basic tenets of history and how the world works, it’s equally important to make sure we’re providing valuable experiences and tools students can use beyond the semester and long after they’ve earned their college degree. And as more adults find themselves returning to school, the need to equip students with lifelong learning skills is now more important than ever. So let’s gravitate away from seeing how many facts and figures we can stuff into their 13+ years of education and instead equip them with the right skills to be lifelong learners.
