After reading Professor Patel’s paper, I thought a lot about
the differences between schooling and learning in my own life. I consider
myself pretty good at schooling. I am able to figure out what I need to know
and I am able to study and reproduce it on an assessment. As a result, I have
been able to get through and succeed in classes in which I have not had much interest.
Although I didn’t learn a ton, I did know, for at least some point of time, the important things to take away from the
class. Furthermore, even if I had the desire to start but the material was too difficult or abstract, I have been able to school my way through the class to get an okay grade.
Really learning, on the other hand, takes a lot more time and interest.
In order to struggle, fail, and stick with something until you get it, one must
have the desire in some capacity to do so. If we want our students to learn not just school, how can we create the desire that might not already be present? Furthermore, if the desire is there at the start, how can we help students to persevere when the material gets more difficult and it is easy for desire to be lost. How can we create this culture in our classrooms? In addition, how do we reward students, like César, who do struggle and persevere,
but might not get the best grades in our classes? Finally, as teachers in a
teacher preparation program, how do we do our best to really learn in our year of graduate school,
instead of just school?
~Bethanne
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