Instill

Instilling good learning habits is what we, as educators, do. I say ‘learning habits’ because we can never hope to teach all there is to know. Our world changes at such a pace, keeping up with new knowledge is impossible.

What is a learning habit? It’s a method for acquiring new knowledge. Our learning habits can only take us so far. In today’s world, we need more than knowledge and information.

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know I have written many posts about deep, critical thinking.

We need the ability to synthesise, analyse, evaluate, keep, and discard information. Deep thinking is at the centre of our learning habits. Is it okay to teach knowledge? Of course, knowledge is more relevant with a system of onboard analysis.

I once taught a student who could name the capital cities of nearly every country. They could rattle them off without hesitation. It was something they had become interested in. I hadn’t explicitly taught it or set it as a research topic.

Another of my students asked, ‘Why do you need to remember that?’ The capital city student was lost for words.

Until that moment, the capital cities were important, but why they were important wasn’t clear. I encouraged the student to think more deeply about their knowledge.