I Bet You Learned It Wrong...

On Monday, our teachers attended a Professional Development workshop. One of the presenters was Dr. Jeff Borden, the Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning at St. Leo University. He delivered some shocking news to teachers: most of us have been tying our shoes inefficiently for most of our lives. There is even a TED talk to confirm this:

Click Here for the TED Talk

Alright, this is not the most shocking news to rock the educational world in the past century. Dr. Borden used it as a lead-in to how the brain is wired and how education in today's classroom should be the place where neuroscience, educational psychology, and educational technology meet. For a much deeper--and better--explanation in Dr. Borden's own words, check out an article he wrote for Wired about Education 3.0. Without quoting much heavy science, here are the three things I learned when I tried this shoe-tying experiment on my own this morning:

1 - Learning--and especially re-learning--takes time 

I fell into the large category of people who tie their shoes inefficiently, so this morning I was determined to right the wrong that had become an automatic part of my day. The result: tying my shoes the proper way added about 5 minutes to my morning routine. I had to stop and think about each step of the shoe-tying process. Hopefully I can make up the time by not having to re-tie my shoes throughout the day. So far, so good. 

2 - Learning takes perseverance over failure

Part of the added time to my morning was spent in futile attempts to actually make a knot. I sympathize with all our kindergartners learning (and probably re-learning after their parents read this) how to tie their shoes.  Just when you think you've followed all the steps properly and you pull the bows expecting a tight knot, failure. Let's try again. 

3 - Learning takes repeated experience

It will take continued practice and experience with tying the knot for this new learning to stick and become automatic. This is the KEY take-away for educators. When students learn material in isolation from REPEATED practice that applies the learning, it is forgotten. 

As we all reflect on the end of the 1st quarter and look ahead to the beginning of the 2nd quarter, I am encouraging our teachers to create learning experiences that are meaningful for our children. Although it may take more time, as well as perseverance through failure, it will ultimately make our children better prepared for the changing world in which we live. 

At the very least, they will know how to properly tie their shoes!