I’m finding many interesting instances of “misunderstanding” in this year’s fall tour of educational workshops and seminars. Mostly they arise from audiences of lay and volunteer teachers, sincere and passionate people who step up to engage in the noble and important work of teaching others. But I still find many tenacious misunderstandings about teaching and learning even among experienced and professional teachers. One misunderstanding I’ve addressed twice in recent workshops is the idea that learning is an outcome of teaching.
The notion that learning is not an outcome of teaching is challenging to those who teach. Perhaps for two reasons, first, it’s counterintuitive, and second, it begs the question, “Well then what am I teaching for if not to bring about learning?!”
While teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin the reality is that often what learners actually learn in a given lesson or course has little connection to what the teacher does or is trying to teach. We can imagine that some of this has to do with poor teaching. A teacher who does not understand principles of learning, neglects to prepare well-designed learning outcomes, and fails to apply sound instructional practices will likely not bring about meaningful learning. But the concept that “learning is not an outcome of teaching” goes deeper than that. The idea has to do with the fact that learners (students and pupils) are active participants in their own learning. Regardless of our particular educational intent as teachers, students bring to the learning experience their own expectations, felt needs, goals, assumptions, frames of reference, and limitations related to the learning experience. Those factors often are more determinative of what will actually be learned than will anything the teacher intends or works toward.
Experienced congregational ministers are familiar with this phenomenon. Regardless of how well they craft a sermon for the congregation and despite how intentional they are in being clear about the purpose, function, and objective of the sermon, the fact is that the “real” sermon is the one that is heard by each parishioner in the pew and not the one preached from the pulpit. The preacher may be preaching the one sermon he or she prepared on a Sunday, but there will be as many sermons heard as there are people in the sanctuary. This phenomenon always makes for interesting conversations at the door as the pastor greets the parishioners. If five people comment on the sermon on their way out the preacher will be left wondering how and when it was that they heard those five different things in the sermon!
The concept that learning is not an outcome of teaching can challenge certain educational approaches, like “teaching by telling,” lecturing, or an exclusive diet of direct instruction. If learners are active agents in their own learning then we need to use those educational approaches that tap into what students bring to the learning experience:
- Facilitate ways for students to discover their own learning and insights
- Help students identify their own learning goals and negotiate ways for them to achieve them
- Focus on problem-posing rather than problem-solving
- Focus of learning how to ask questions rather than getting good at answering teacher’s questions
- Facilitate ways for students to construct their own knowledge rather than giving it to them
- Help students articulate their prejudices
- Help students identify their misunderstandings
- Help students identify their resistance to new ideas
- Allow students the options of approaching learning in the ways (modalities) they need.
