Teach Less To Empower Learning
We are guilty of spoon-feeding our children and students with knowledge that they did not discover on their own.
We assume we need to teach in order that our children can learn.
They should just obediently listen and do what we tell them to.
Most of these obedient kids learn like robots and they would only be able to do those that they are taught during assessments.
There are little ownership of their own learning since they acquire knowledge because their teachers and parents have downloaded the information into their brains like a computer to execute the solution accordingly.
Teach Less
The truth is children find learning meaningful and engaging when the tasks given can relate well to their interest.
Just imagine a kid who plays Pokemon Go everyday. As an English teacher, I can design a writing activity that this kid would write an instruction manual to teach others how to play Pokemon Go successfully and effectively.
I believe this kid would feel extremely motivated to write as it relates to his interest.
We do not even need to teach the child how he should present it as this child would probably want to find ways to present his information in the best possible way for his readers.
Teach less can also allow more hands-on activities for abstract concepts to be discovered by themselves.
A Math teacher can get students to run for 5 minutes and get students to find the amount of distance they run as an average in a minute. Through this activity, students have just learnt about speed that is related to rate.
Empowerment
Let students feel responsible for their own learning. They can acquire knowledge on their own without parents or teachers.
We should be around to provide guiding questions so that they can move towards the correct direction.
Empowerment allows pupils to gain ownership of their own learning and they would remember what they discovered a lot longer than what we tell them.
There are many ways that we can empower students to help other students to share concepts learnt in their own words to their peers through peer coaching.
Empowerment is a modern tool for teachers to let students to learn without the need for us to scold or force them.
We want our students to love learning and be engaged to discover knowledge on their own.
In Conclusion
When we teach less, we need to plan more since we want to set good boundaries for learning to take place naturally for our students.
We may talk less since we monitor and guide more. We leave students to discuss and conclude their own learning.
They can verify what they understand through debating and constructive discussion with their peers.
Learning comes alive in our classrooms.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2019/04/25/teach-less-to-empower-learning/