Saturday, April 13, 2013

Learning to Unlearn

In the book The Connected Educator the authors talk about how as teachers we must learn to unlearn. This a hard concept to think about at first. When I first read about this concept I had a hard time understanding it. I thought about it as I am in college learning to teach so why would I unlearn? Aren't we supposed to build on our prior knowledge? The whole concept left me feeling lost.

After the initial shock wore off and I had time to think about this I saw where this can be useful as a teacher. I can see a few ways where it would be beneficial. First, I think that when someone decides to become a teacher they have preconceived notions about what a teacher does and who a teacher is. Through my classes and experiences in schools I have seen these beliefs challenged and in many cases shift.

We also have to unlearn how to teach in many cases. The ways that I was taught information in school, in most cases, are no longer acceptable. This has changed based on research that is constantly occurring to see if children can learn content easier if it is taught in a different way. I think that there is a constant cycle of learning that occurs as a teacher.

I also think that as teachers we need to unlearn every new school year. Every year we learn about our students. We learn how they learn and about their personal lives. We learn how to reach them and how to teach them. We have to unlearn all of this with each new year so that we can relearn about our new students. Some practices might carryover, while others need to be adjusted for the new students. It is the teacher's job to learn about their students and create a classroom that meets those needs. If they don't, then the students are the ones who suffer.

2 comments:

  1. Good post! I especially liked the last paragraph about unlearning each new school year. Great picture!

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  2. Rebecca, I agree with your first paragraph! Building on prior knowledge is a must! I feel that no matter what you learn, you may learn to think about things differently, but we are not talking about changing information that we have learned, we are talking about learning how to change or "unlearn" our preconceived notions! I still do not grasp the importance of learning to unlearn, I feel that someone decided they wanted to talk in riddles, or try to become a philosopher in order to restate what teachers should already know, EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT AND EVERY CHILD HAS A DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLE. Therefore, we must adjust our teaching to meet there needs!

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