Filtered Learning
image from https://hadoopi.wordpress.com
One of my GT ISP students made a side comment once that I believe is so profound it should shape how we learn. The comment was, "Is that really true? Or is it just something that showed up on your news feed already aligned with what you believe?"
We learn through filters. Everything we hear and process encounters the filter of what our ideas are of "how it should be." We accept one thing as truth because "it sounds about right", and then we reject something else because "I have never heard that before".
This filter probably gets thicker as we get older.
Does this mean we are less likely to learn?
Can't teach an old dog new tricks?
How are our students affected by filters as they sit in our class?
How can we best identify these filters and help students to overcome them as obstacles to our education?
Are all these filters "bad"?
The one I see while teaching high school level Geometry class is:
"I thought this was Geometry. When are we going to actually learn Geometry, like shapes and stuff?"
In case you have forgotten maybe 1 out of 12 units of tenth grade Geometry are what the students consider "shapes and stuff".
I have noticed that an insistence that I am wrong for teaching anything besides "shapes and stuff" is directly related to a students struggle with the material. In order to learn, the student has to be willing to put aside preconceived ideas and hear the new information.
What do we need to learn but wont flow through the filter? What about new teaching methods? Shouldn't we be learning constantly as teachers? Do we filter this learning--either intentionally or unintentionally--and inhibit our own education?
The comment from the student was in no way directed toward me or anything I said, but it has made me think, and re-evaluate. What good information am I filtering out with out realizing?
