Do you have a "hole in the wall" in your classroom? (Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education via TED)

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education | Video on TED.com

 At the end of a video about teacher vs. educator that a colleague shared with me, there was a Socrates quote that I believe addresses the "hole in the wall" experiment and echoes my favorite education quote by William Butler Yeats. The Socrates quote, "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel," speaks to the constructivist philosophy that Mitra maintains and promotes.

 As educators, we (hopefully) understand that students rarely learn anything when we just explain something to them or pour information into their "vessel". Yet, even with proper modeling and emphasis on a topic, it does not necessarily translate into learning. A student will not learn information if it is not meaningful and important to them. Stressing the importance of material you are teaching does nothing for them but perhaps create a stressful situation in which they feel obligated, out of respect to you or their success in your class, to learn something that has no relevance to their own livelihood. Pertinence is key. Students must be able to connect the learning to something that is real and of genuine interest, or learning will suffer.



 In order to keep the student as an ally in the classroom, an educator must provide learning opportunities that enable the student to acquire essential skills and abilities by means of a personal journey and discovery process. The teacher should provide the spark and step away. To cultivate a "flame", it is essential for the conditions to be just right. If there's not enough oxygen, it will die out, so don't smother it! Let it burn. The teacher should be ready and waiting in case the flame needs to be re-lit or re-directed. Yet, the teacher cannot make the "flame" burn; only the student can do that. Passion for learning a topic comes from within and outside interference from a teacher only suffocates it. Thus, as educators, we must allow students to find the vein in which to tap so they can successfully show us what we need to see for evaluative purposes of their learning.

 Now, due to the fact that we have students with a seemingly natural reluctance to the education that we are trying to provide to them, it should be obvious that we to modify our approach and allow for more student creativity and control. Students should be the primary stakeholders in their education. If the student assigns no value to what you are teaching them, they will not learn it, regardless of the consequences that may result. Students have more attraction to rewards than they have fear of consequences. Nothing is more rewarding to a student than the opportunity to explore choice topics and engage in learning that they find to be personally satisfying and pertinent.

 We have a curriculum, yes, but that does not necessarily dictate the fashion in which we address essential learning. In most classes, there is not an excess of technology, but there are gifted educators that are capable of utilizing a philosophy of education that promotes student leadership in the classroom. I believe that the goal of the student and teacher are one in the same: student success. The learning that leads to this goal can be negotiated and individualized accordingly. In essence, the teacher has in turn created an ideal learning environment for each specific student in which learning can flourish and mutual goals can be met. It's win-win! I'm an idealist by nature, but I do understand the reality of our situation. It is my understanding of our circumstances that makes me even more confident that a constructivist design is possible and will lead to greater student achievement. Nothing burns brighter than passion. Spark their interest, add some fuel to the fire, and watch it burn into something truly magnificent. You don't need a "hole in the wall" to provide your students with a window of opportunity.