Teach children to learn: Guidance on fostering independent learning in children

Author: (Japan) Hirose Kanshi, translated by Shi Yanling et al.
Translator: Shi Yanling, Zhang Ruyi
Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Chapter on the Relationship Between Education and Learning Methods
Section 1: Exploring Education
1. Past Understanding of Education
A teacher-centered education is perhaps predominantly defined as "teaching and nurturing." Generally, "teaching" is the focus, while "nurturing" is considered supplementary. Today, this teacher-centered view still dominates. People once categorized teaching activities into three aspects: lectures, training, and management, with lectures at the center. To ensure teaching proceeds as planned, adjustments to the surrounding environment are necessary, this is called management. Additionally, maintaining the established state under this management is referred to as training. Under this perspective, Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) is recognized as the pioneer who systematically and academically explored the concept of education. However, Herbartian scholars argued that mere teaching is insufficient—even if knowledge is increased, without improving its quality, the ability to innovate in culture cannot be cultivated. Thus, in the 19th-century educational view centered on teaching, there arose the idea that not only must knowledge be expanded, but the ability to innovate in culture must also be developed.
The Education of Innovation in the 20th Century
The early 20th century saw the emergence of educational theories that forced a fundamental shift in traditional views, impacting society as well. John Dewey (1859–1952) advocated in School and Society for an "earth-shaking transformation" of education (Iwanami, p. 45). "In a word, traditional education places the center of gravity outside the child. The center of gravity lies with the teacher, textbooks, and other external factors, all outside the child's direct instinctive activities. Today, the transformation we face is the transfer of the center of gravity. Just as the center of the celestial system shifted from the Earth to the Sun, the earth-shaking change necessitates the revolution of education. The child becomes the Sun, with all educational efforts revolving around them. The child is the center, and all activities revolve around this center." It can be said that today's new educational perspective does not view the teacher's teaching activities as the center but prioritizes the child's own activities, organizing them to develop the child's abilities.
2. What is Education
The Meaning of "Education"
The etymology of the word "teach" is explained in dictionaries as "loving care." Thus, teaching behavior arises from love. Additionally, "nurture" originates from "filling." Combined, the two words suggest "to educate in love," which indeed feels accurate. From the etymology, one can infer the roots of education in human society. Human life is finite; everyone will eventually die, yet humans miraculously survive within these limits. The loving hearts of parents for their children are an example. Because they live in a finite world, their prayers for their children's happiness (parental love) infinitely expand. Is education not born of humanity's shared desire to resolve this contradiction? In the roots of education lies human compassion, but today, parental love—humanity's highest form of love—seems to be gradually fading. Parental love is a blend of gentleness and sternness, or "parents earnestly hope for their children's growth." This is the lifeblood of education. With this parental care, nurturing becomes possible.
The Lifeblood of Education
Education must contain the sincere hope of "crawling and standing" and the strict demand of "standing and walking," embodying the spirit of human sincerity in unity. Recently, people often say, "Education is dying," "Schools are dying," which perhaps reflects the concern over the decline of this spirit. Education must be a journey of mutual progress between teachers and students. The teacher must advance in coordination with the child, embodying a passionate and enduring teacher's mindset. Friedrich Paulsen (1790–1866) once said, "Only by constantly improving oneself can one educate others." Indeed, without self-improvement and refinement, one cannot enable others to progress or educate them. From this famous quote, we should grasp the lifeblood of education.
Section 2: Basic Concepts for Cultivating Learning Methods in Schools
1. The Behavioralization of Learning
Regarding the behavioralization of learning, as previously mentioned, this issue will be revisited here when formulating long-term plans. It is well-known that human behavior unfolds through a cycle of purpose, plan, implementation, and reflection. However, if this is adopted as the backbone of daily learning life, changing traditional classroom teaching and learning at home is not limited to mastering knowledge from a single class but must be elevated to the level of lifelong learning. Regardless, a long-term plan is essential. As a part of cultivating individuals, learning methods should be approached with a long-term perspective, seeking progressively more accurate behavioral states and accumulating education step by step. From the standpoint of planning learning methods, it is found that most traditional school curriculum plans are centered on textbooks. Perhaps for this reason, even students and high school students who have reached a relatively high level of learning, if their learning methods are examined, most are ultimately superficial learners—learning only for homework or exams without active learning or mastering independent learning methods. Recently, criticism of this trend has been widespread. In The Structure of "Learning to Learn" (by Sato Kanji, Dongyang Publishing), three types of people who cannot learn are identified: "those who have no intention of learning, those who rigidly stick to textbooks, and those who learn with tricks." These can all be seen as the result of today's textbook-centric education. If one observes general teaching methods so far from this perspective, even the most crucial "teaching of learning objectives" is merely a method where the teacher writes the lesson's objectives in the upper right corner of the blackboard at the beginning of the class. Even in schools that actively engage in comparative studies, although they may introduce "warm-up," they still do not break free from the practice of imposing external methods. As a result, even students with relatively advanced learning content are still "those who cannot learn" as described by Sato. Even the implementation methods in "behavioralization" cannot follow the correct steps but merely repeat past mistakes. Moreover, higher-level learning methods such as "planning for learning" and "reflecting on learning outcomes" are basically not taught in primary and secondary schools. Therefore, in the future, learning plans should be established according to students' growth stages, and classroom teaching should undergo qualitative changes to promote students' efforts in learning.
2. Utilizing Textbooks Effectively
After setting the goal of behavioralizing learning, the long-term, progressive "learning methods plan" should consider the following two issues: first, how to effectively utilize textbooks, and second, how to carry out comprehensive learning for children. Here, it is essential to establish a fundamental stance: these two issues must be unified. Among them, the contrast between "teaching from textbooks" and "teaching with textbooks" must be considered. We should consider whether the learning methods plan is about teaching students the textbooks or about teaching students to learn with textbooks. If it is not about teaching textbooks but about learning with textbooks, then it is necessary to:
(1) Fully utilize the content of the textbooks while actively using related life facts, books, regional issues, and seasonal matters.
(2) For each topic in the textbook, review previously learned knowledge and formulate future learning plans. For this, prepare textbooks from the previous year and the current year under the guidance of the teacher, constantly recalling learned content and imagining future topics. By effectively utilizing textbooks in this way, systematic learning can be achieved, logical interest cultivated, and the ability to learn with textbooks improved.
Notebooks play a central role in self-study, but in traditional schools, guidance on how to use notebooks has been extremely insufficient. In the book The Technology of Knowledge Production by Tatsuo Umezu, detailed explanations are given on the use of notebooks and learning methods for high school and university students, offering the following correct critique of traditional school education: "Some say schools teach too much. But on the contrary, schools also have a serious problem of 'being stingy with teaching.' In some aspects, schools teach us nothing about what we truly want to learn." "What is taught excessively, and what is taught stingily? Simply put, knowledge is taught, but the methods of acquiring knowledge are not fully taught. This is not just in junior high or high school, but unfortunately, even in universities, which are supposed to be the halls of learning, this is the case. People often say, 'Universities are not places to teach knowledge but to teach the methods of acquiring knowledge.' However, in universities, compared to teaching methods of acquiring knowledge, there is still more enthusiasm for teaching the results of knowledge." "When it comes to methods of acquiring knowledge, people easily talk about methodologies, but the issue raised here is not as profound as that. It is the basic research methods that those who aspire to academic pursuits should and must master." These are common questions for researchers, such as how to observe and record phenomena, how to construct and develop their own hypotheses, etc., but schools rarely teach us these things." "I have been traveling to schools for many years, and I feel that teachers only teach knowledge content, whether consciously or unconsciously, and are secretive about learning methods. For example, regarding note-taking methods, I do not remember my teachers ever directly teaching me how to take notes. Even the method of making reference cards was not taught. Everything was learned through 'watching' and 'imitating.'"