Learning facts, or learning to think...

We've all had the conversation before...

Should we focus on teaching facts, or should we focus on teaching kids how to think?

We can all agree that simple facts and information have become increasingly easy to obtain. The world has had a fundamental shift that has resulted in the value of facts and simple information going down drastically.

Now, I think there needs to be a clear distinction that recognizes that facts and information haven't lost their value in the sense that they are no longer necessary or important. We still need facts and simple information to do things. But, they have lost value in the sense that memorizing a ton of facts is no longer necessary.

So, the question is... do we focus on teaching facts or do we focus on teaching kids how to think?

From where I sit, I believe there needs to be a balance.

I don't think we can completely ignore simple facts and simple pieces of information. Now, don't get me wrong, I feel very strongly that classes that focus just on memorizing facts and simple pieces of information are doing a huge injustice for students. But, in the same breath, I think we need some simple facts and pieces of information before we can properly and effectively create, design, innovate, explore, and discover.

When we talk about kids learning how to think, we are reaching far beyond just knowing simple facts. Kids are going to learn to think as part of the process when they create, design, innovate, explore, and discover. However, for these higher levels of thinking to be the best they can be, kids will need to have some basic foundational pieces of information.

I may be wrong with these thoughts, but I don't think we can go all-in 100% one way or the other... there needs to be a balanced mix.

5 ways to make your classroom more student-centered

A student-centered classroom allows students to be an integral part of the assessment development process. This doesn't necessarily mean every assessment is created and designed by students, but it does mean there is a collaborative and joint venture of teachers and students in the planning and implementation stages of assessments. Students who help to design and create their assessments will find the assessments to be more meaningful, and typically students end up creating assessments that are more rigorous than what teachers would have created anyway...

A student-centered classroom focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems. Too often our classroom focus is on solving problems that lack relevance and purpose in the eyes of students. The student-centered classroom addresses real-world problems that affect or will affect students. This in turn will provide meaning and context to student-driven learning, which then will increase levels of engagement and overall student involvement.

A student-centered classroom is not about what the teacher is doing or what the teacher has done; it's about what the students are doing and what the students can do in the future. We all have experienced the teacher observation model that focuses just on what the teacher is doing, but more and more models are now focusing on what the students are doing. Obviously what the teacher does affects and impacts what the students are doing, but the most important piece is what the students are doing or are able to do as a result of what the teacher is doing.

A student-centered classroom embraces the notion that there are multiple ways to accomplish an individual task. When we limit and confine students to following a certain and specific path, we ultimately end up limiting their levels of ownership, innovation, and creativity. A student-centered classroom allows, encourages, and embraces the multitude of paths one can take to solve a given problem. This also allows for students to follow their strengths and their interests when completing a task.

A student-centered classroom firmly believes that there is a partnership and a strong level of trust between educators and students. The teacher no longer is and hasn't been for a while the 'smartest' person in the room. Because of this we need to continue forging a partnership between the teachers and the students and accept an equal playing field when it comes to learning, exploration, and discovery. This partnership is built on trust, and trust happens when we are vulnerable and open to learning with and from others...