How to Learn? From Mistakes
By Diana Laufenberg
Mrs. Laufenberg has
been teaching for a long time. In her speech, she told us about her life
experience, especially in educational side. She began her speech by telling us
how the people got to school a long time ago. Her grandmother used to school in
1931 only to get the information, because that’s where the information lived.
Then, turn to her father who traveled to the schoolhouse (Oak Grove) to get the
information from the teacher. That’s how people could get the information at
that time and they had only memorized it in their mind. The information is
getting more accessible in her generation because the information was closer to
her. She had a set of encyclopedias at her house where she didn’t waste much
time to get the information.
From Wisconsin, she
moved to a small town in Kansas where she had an opportunity to teach in a
lovely rural Kansas school district. She taught her favorite subject American
government. But, not all of the kids in 12th grade enthusias with the subject,
so that she changed her tactic in the year two. She put an authentic experince
in front of them that allowed them to learn from themselves without telling
them what to do and how to do. She posed a problem in front of them, which was
to put on an election forum for their own community. They produced flyers which
called offices. They done it very well, they also got accolades from the old
teachers there.
From Kansas, she moved
to Arizona, where she taught in Flagstaff for a number of years with middle
school students. Fortunately, she taught more exciting topic of geography.
There, her students on 7th and 8th grades produced a little movie that created
by themselves which inspired by Paul Rusesabagina who is the gentleman of the
movie “Hotel Rwanda” whom they met in one opportunity.
In Pennsylvania, She
teaches at the Science Leadership Academy, a partnership school between the
Franklin Institute and the school district of Philadelphia. She moved there
basically to be part of a learning enviorenment, and she wanted to investigate
what was possible when people are willing to let go of some of the paradigms of
the past, the lack of information that people had experienced a long time ago
and to a moment when they have information surplus.
People have a
one-to-one laptop in Philadelphia. The kids are bringing their own laptops everywhere, they can access the information
easily. This is the comfortable thing for teachers to get the information from
the students and ease them by giving the tool. So that, teachers have to be
comfortable with the idea of allowing kids to fail as part of the learning
process. She clarified that the beliefs and educational culture that one right
answer can be properly boosted on the average multiple choise test, it is not
learning. That is absolutely wrong thing to ask, and to ask them to always have
the right answer doesn’t allow them to learn.
Then, her students
produced the info-graphics as a result of a unit that they decided to do at the
end of the year to respond the oil spill. She asked to take the examples of the
info-graphics that they have on the mass media, they have to take a look the
interesting components of it and produce one of it. They were not comfortable
to do it because they had never done it before. She gave them a room to do
their project. The first visual product that they have produced didn’t
disappoint, so they tried to evaluate each of the products. It allowed them to
fail, so that they can learn from it and create a better one. It’s a process.
The main point is, if
we keep looking at the education as if it’s only coming to school to get the
information instead of experiental learning, empowering students’ voice and embracing
failure, we miss the mark. It will not working if we still having the
educational system that doesn’t value those qualities, because the goal is not
with a standardized test or with a culture of one right answer. We know how to
do this better and it’s time to do better.
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