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Why students hate school?- 8-Aug-2009
Many parents or teachers are yet unable to find the answer to one frequently asked question-Why students hate school?
Now, a psychologist has tried to answer the question; why students hate school? through recently written book.
Aptly titled " Why Dont Students like School?" the book by Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist from University of Virginia explains how the mind works - and what it means for the classroom.
"If you ask 100 high school students if they like to learn new things, almost all of them will tell you they like to learn. But if you ask those same students if they like school, many of them will tell you they dont," said Daniel.
He explained: "The mind actually is designed to avoid thinking. Thinking is a slow process; it needs lot of effort and even uncertain. People naturally want to avoid that process, and instead rely on memory, the things we already know how to do and are successful at."
Using cooking as an example, he said: "If you want to make new sauce, you could go onto the Internet and search out new recipes. You could go through all your cookbooks. If you really want to do something new you would do that. But most people will just make the sauce the way they always make it, because they already know it. And so its a lot easier this way."
He claimed that one of the reasons why students dont like school is that they are forced to think, to accept new challenges, to learn new things, and therefore do the thing their mind most wants to avoid - thinking.
However, the reason is only applicable to a point, because people are also curious.
"People actually enjoy thinking - when it is at a level that is not too simple, and not excessively difficult. Thats why we read books, watch some movie, do some thing with that we are little comfortable with. So, there is a sweet spot, a level where learning is neither too simplistic to be interesting, nor too difficult to be enjoyable. This is the spot that teachers should always try to find for their students in the classroom," said Daniel
And thats where creative teaching comes handy, a combination of storytelling that evokes emotion and thought, and exercises that put lessons into context and that build upon previous learning.
"We want to create learning experiences that last," he said.
While teachers keep asking how to work with students different "learning styles," Daniel said that such styles dont really exist.
He said: "There are different abilities, but really, we all learn the same way. Its not left brain versus right brain, or visual or auditory or kinesthetic. We learn using a combination of skills, and we are more similar in our learning styles than different."
Therefore, students learn better in the areas or disciplines where their abilities lie.
He urges the teachers and students to find that "sweet spot," where learning is the wonderful challenge that inspires us to do more than simply make sauce the same way weve always made it.
