A Rant

There are times when I wonder if pursuing a doctoral degree is really for me. Reading the last few chapters of “How People Learn” once again flared up those feelings. I have mixed reactions to the tone of HPL. On one hand much of the information presented in the book is engaging and appropriate. On the other hand, I have always been bugged by the book’s seeming detachment from the practice of teaching. Much of the research seems to be about one step removed from the realities of teaching. The phrase, research for the sake of research, consistently rang in my head.

However, I mostly tamped down these impulses. After all, as stated in the book, and many other sources, the practice of teaching should become more “research based” then it is presently. I fully agree with that statement. Even if one sees teaching as an art, the teacher is an artist that should be fully versed in technique. Yet, this statement, “Research must be done on effective methods of communicating these ideas to teachers, administrators and policy makers” truly got my blood boiling.

Kids all across this country are in terrible schools, right now. I am not interested in the future directions of research; I am interested in the current state of practice. What amazes me is that we largely know how to help these kids. The reasons we don’t are largely political and cultural. The fact that we still have more to learn about how people learn, has very little to do with the quality of education that students are currently receiving. However, too many of the “experts” in education are busy researching “effective methods of communicating these ideas” in other words performing “research for the sake of research.” Believe me there are plenty of people who are quite effective communicating their ideas. Perhaps, the proceeds of the book should go toward hiring them and not on more research.

This focus on growing healthier trees while ignoring the health of the forest may be a reason changes are so slow to be enacted in schools. Reading HPL, it was difficult even in the scope of one owns mind, to draw a complete picture. Imagine trying to apply such wisdom across a school of 2,000 pupils while facing budgetary constraints. It is no wonder that these techniques tend to be tried piecemeal, since that is largely how they are presented (despite all best intentions). It is therefore, small wonder that these piecemeal implementations often fail causing teachers and administrators on the ground to be suspicious of “fads.”

This is not to say that the study of human learning is not important. It is critically important to know how humans learn when designing instructional systems, and curriculums. These are after all the building blocks of our educational system. However, effective instructional systems and curriculums cannot exist in a vacuum. We all answer to the system in which we function. Research itself is not an agent of change, only an ingredient. All students deserve a chance to learn now. We cannot hesitate.