I have learned a lot in this class this semester. I've learned new ways of thinking about what I've been doing for years - teaching teenagers. Some of what I've learned has been new, some has been extensions of what I already knew, some has been a verification of what I've been doing for years by instinct. I've been grateful to learn that some of what I've done in the classroom is validated by those who are at the top of the field of education. I've also been grateful to be able to add extensions and finesse to some things I've been doing half-way. And it has been so good for me to get an in-your-face idea that never occurred me before.
So what is learning? The behaviorist in me says it is all about changing behavior; measurable, easy to see behavior. Skinner doesn't want to deal with what goes on in the mind itself - I'm not sure I want to deal with what goes on in the teenage mind either. But is this a cop-out? Maybe. I've got a kid right now for whom I am writing letters of recommendation to colleges. I taught him as a sophomore and as a junior. He is one of those students I've gotten to know well. To look at what is easily observable about him would lead one to think there is not much going on between the ears. Yet he is utterly amazing. He is the most intuitive learner I've ever known. He just absorbs information and it becomes part of him. He never forgets it either. He is quiet, shy, a little nervous, likes the skinny pants that only reach the top of his legs, big T-shirts, and long hair. And I've watched him focus laser-like attention on certain things for long periods of time resulting in innovative, creative, superior conclusions and solutions.
He has no idea how his own mind works and I doubt any one theory can fully explain it. I don't think any one theory is the ultimate and final theory for learning and education. Because of the uniqueness of every human mind, the complexity of the mind, no one theory can explain it all. I don't think the theorists are pretending their theory is ultimate answer to all education. But each theory adds one more layer towards true understanding and that is where their actual value lays.
This points out how important it is that teachers use a variety of teaching methods, incorporating many different theories. The use of all these theories we have studied for different parts of a teacher's curriculum is vital if we are going to reach every student. And perhaps we won't ever reach every student who walks in our door. But we have to try. Knowing that we will fail with some students doesn't excuse anything. We have to try. And be grateful that every student will have many teachers in their life. We teachers are just as human as our students and we carry with us all our issues, weaknesses, biases, foibles, and errors. Hopefully we know enough about ourselves to address these weakness.
In the end, I come back to the advice Mr. Jessop told me as a student teacher: we teachers do not just teach the students what we know; we teach them who we are. That is unavoidable. If we love our work, love our subject, love being with those kids with the blank stares, long hair, skinny pants that don't fit, and over-sized T-shirts, those kids are the first to know it. And even if they can't or don't learn a thing about history or biology or whatever in our class, they will know that a teacher thought they were worth caring about. It's an overwhelming idea.
