Are You a Master Learner?

An article by Darin Wagner    1 Comment

Will Richardson says,

“More and more, though, as I look at my own kids and try to make sense what’s going to make them successful, I care less and less about a particular teacher’s content expertise and more about whether that person is a master learner, one from whom Tess or Tucker can get the skills and literacies to make sense of learning in every context, new and old. What I want are master learners, not master teachers, learners who see my kids as their apprentices for learning. Before public schooling, apprenticeship learning was the way kids were educated. They learned a trade or a skill from masters. When we moved to compulsory schooling, kids began to learn not from master doers so much as from master knowers, because we decided there were certain things that every child needed to know in order to be “educated.” And we looked for adults who could impart that knowledge, who could teach it in ways that every child could learn it.”

My oldest son will be entering Kindergarten in less than two years. I, too, share the thoughts and concerns expressed by Mr. Richardson. In my 20+ years of education have seen the transformation of the classroom from an isolated space where the knowledgeable were in the front of the room, to the anytime, anywhere learning of a connected world. Teachers are no longer the guardians and disseminators of knowledge.

“We can’t teach kids to learn unless we are learners ourselves, and our understanding of learning has to encompass the rich, passion-based interactions that take place in these social learning spaces online. Sure, I expect my daughter’s science teacher to have some content expertise around science, no doubt. But more, I expect him to be able to show her how to learn more about science on her own, without him, to give her the mindset and the skills to create new science, not just know old science.”

With the amount of information growing exponentially, teaching students how to learn on their own will be increasingly important. Teaching kids to be “lifelong learners” will not just be a catch phrase by a critical requirement for success. Leading this must be the teachers, who like the “masters” of old, must be sure to model the skills of learning for our apprentices.