Educon, for me, has always been such a hotbed of fresh ideas.
This year, the theme of Educon 2.8 is EMPOWERMENT.
Here is part of the Friday night panel conversation that seriously resonated with me. I didn’t ask the question, but I am thankful to the person who did.
How do we transform students from learning for their grades to learning for knowledge?
College in some ways hinders that opportunity for growth when it comes to ideas. I have said to my sister, “Don’t go to college. I will help you create an idea instead”.
Will your fails from your ideas be bigger than the debt from going to college? When you go to college you come out with big debt and then you have to work for someone else to pay it off.
“It isn’t that important to have good grades. The work ethic involved in getting those good grades, though, will help with building your own company.”
Jeff Boodie @jboodie @jobsnap
I definitely think that children love to learn, they love knowledge, but I think students have become a victim, a monster of sorts, that we create, and they are the ones…
the culture we create, creates the kind of student that only understands learning in terms of grades, and so it’s not that young people have to fix that, it’s that we as educators and school administrators and as a culture have to figure out…
which is what Jeff was exactly alluding to…
which that we have gotten to such a narrow path of understanding.
I would really think that it is our ultimate challenge as the educators of children and leaders of learning to understand that we are we on a very, very narrow path of knowledge, and defining it, and reducing it, and measuring it, and KILLING it, ultimately.
And so that is the thing that has to change on OUR end before we can expect our kids to do it.”
Helen Gym @HelenGym2015
(Shouldn’t this be a priority in our teacher education programs?)
How do we transform students from learning for their grades to learning for knowledge? What do you think?
Breaking the cycle of grades vs learning should not just be relegated to faculties of education. Needs to be done at all levels of learning or it’s like whistling in the wind – you end up with spit on your face! Small changes in the face of the Marks Monster along with open, honest questions can make a bit of a difference. Having a ‘fluid syllabus’ where marks are less of a focus and connected to student initiative can be a start. Don’t have all the answers cause grades still matter at so many levels!