Marking Education

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Humans are by nature social creatures. Humans are also naturally curious. Hence, the nosy neighbour, gossip, reality T.V., and those brightly coloured magazines in the racks bracketing the grocery checkout line. Our schools, however, are oddly anti-social. They are predominantly designed for individuals to work individually on their individual assignment or test. Talking is often a no-no in class, and can get you kicked out of a test.

Web 2.0 and social media have evolved (relatively quickly) the Internet from a largely individual-receives-information-from-computer model to an intensely dynamic interactive online world where everyone is free – and often encouraged  - to participate. Schools, on the other hand, tend still to follow and archaic system dating back to the industrial revolution: an “expert” stands at the front of the room and imparts knowledge to the others in the room. The emphasis in this model is telling rather than teaching and learning.

This “telling” model dominates largely because it represents a teaching style you, your children, your parents, and even your parents ‘ parents most likely experienced. This is the model we know best, and so we have gotten in the habit of believing that being lectured at is the way to learn. Humans are creatures of habit, proven best again in an academic settings where students – even post-secondary where seating is typically self-selected – will sit in the same spot (or general area) for the entire semester. What if we gave up the habit of being told and regained the habit of asking?

Many theorists and great thinkers (Lev Vygotsky perhaps most notably) have studied young children in order to explore how humans learn.  We can do the same. Just watch a child interact with her or his environment; invariably (whether spoken or acted upon) their interaction is one of inquiry, exploration and discovery: Who is this? What is going on? How did that happen? Where are they going? And (worryingly) Can I eat this?

Case study: At the age of three, my brother’s vocabulary shifted from that typical for boys his age to one word: “Why?”. Regardless of the complexity and depth and completeness of the answer he was given, my brother’s invariable response was “Why ?”. My six-year old self found this perfectly natural, yet noticed adults were initially charmed yet ultimately annoyed by my brother’s quest to seek the answers to all in his universe. My parent’s frustrations came because they soon realized that not only did they not have all the answers, but even if they did there would always be more questions.

For many educators their relevance depends on their (perceived) role as expert, even though they too will never have all the answers.  In a telling model of education, questions are dangerous because the can undermine authority. In a telling model of education questions are often seen as best when contained within a Socratic system where questions may be asked ,  yet only as a means to reach the (known-by-the-expert) answer.

Curiosity is natural, and leads naturally to questions. This is how we learn. What if educators adopted the question mark as the symbol of education?  What if education dropped its preoccupation with experts trying to fill students’ heads with facts? What if education invovled inquiry and investigation and discovery leading to even more inquiry and investigation and discovery? What would we ask? What would we learn? Why?

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