This is one of my favourites. It was published by APPI
Between giving away the fish and teaching how to fish
Learning strategies? Well, it's something like teaching how to fish, instead of giving away the fish. (Yes, this is another allusion to the most worn out of all Chinese proverbs.) And that explains it all, or not!
After the first week of the course on Learning Strategies organised by APPI in Viseu, I decided to pay special attention to the awareness of learning strategies of two ninth grade classes, I'll refer to as A and B. Based only on the information provided by other teachers and written documents, as I didn't know any of the classes, I learnt that class A students had lower marks and were less skilled whereas class B ones had good marks and were reasonably skilful. Yet, when I asked them some questions such as What do we have to do in order to answer reading comprehension questions? or How do we memorize irregular verbs? the students from each of the classes reacted differently.
After the first week of the course on Learning Strategies organised by APPI in Viseu, I decided to pay special attention to the awareness of learning strategies of two ninth grade classes, I'll refer to as A and B. Based only on the information provided by other teachers and written documents, as I didn't know any of the classes, I learnt that class A students had lower marks and were less skilled whereas class B ones had good marks and were reasonably skilful. Yet, when I asked them some questions such as What do we have to do in order to answer reading comprehension questions? or How do we memorize irregular verbs? the students from each of the classes reacted differently.
Class A ones seemed quite at ease and gladly shared their experiences and mentioned several stategies, some of which were quite original, that would allow them to solve their problems effectively. Class B ones, on the contrary, were quite unconfortable and seemed unable to identify any strategy they could use, besides looking up all the words in the dictionary if they had one.
Facing such unexpected results, I asked myself several questions:Who are the good students after all? Why aren't the so-called good students, apparently, good learners?How to evaluate? What to evaluate?
I the presence of new situations, students B, despite the higher level of their knowledge of English, easilly “get stuck” on an unknown word and feel unable to fulfil a task such as answering a reading compehension question, unlike students A who try to answer, even though they make mistakes. Students A take the risk, students B lack the confidence to step out of their safety range. While students A accept failing as part of the learning process, most students B don't even admit the possibility of taking the chance.
Does this mean students A are good learners and students B aren't? I think it is not accurate to assume that class B students have no learning skills. I came to the conclusion that they haven't yet been driven into reflecting upon them, taking into consideration that most of them have regular study habits that have probably led them to the development of some skills.
Otherwise, considering the dynamic character of learning a language, how would they be able to get their good marks? And if students A show tthey are aware of learning strategies, why don't they achieve good results? Being questioned about the way they learn better, most students B said they learn better from the teachers in class and aim at acquiring and reproducing contents and knowledge, undevaluing their role as learners. Most students A said that they learn from the teacher, from their own and friends' experiences, from songs, films, etc. In spite of valuing their active participation in learning, students A have no regular study habits, thus, they don't know vocabulary or structures well enough and, when tested, they achieve worse results whereas students B study hard and ultimately get higher marks.
And for me, as a teacher, which is the best class? In the classroom, students A are interested and curious, wonder and ask questions while students B calmly expect me to pass all information on to them accepting it as processed knowledge they have to acquire. B lessons are mostly teacher- student oriented and the students' attitude is quite passive, wheras A lessons are lively, atractive and interesting, and more authentic, I would say. Teaching students B is like watching a televison programme while teaching students A is playing an interactive game. I definitly prefer teaching students A because they care about learning not about the marks they'll get, they are interested in the process, not in the final test results.
Now, in an exam and ranking oriented country, what should a teacher value, after all?
It would be interesting to investigate the path students in both classes have taken in the process of learning English, the teachers they had and the resources they used in order to understand the different levels of their awareness of learning stategies. Unfortunately I don't have the time or the means to do it.
All I know is the good students are not the better learners and the good learners aren't the better students. Students A know how they learn but they don't work hard enough to consolidate their knowledge, while students B work quite hard but they don't seem to care about how they learn! Some know how to fish but don't eat the fish, others buy the frozen fish at the supermarket and don't even want to know how you fish it!
Regarding the situation anyone would say I should raise awareness of learning startegies in class B and stimulate the development of systematic study habits in class A in order to level classes A and B. Right! But how do I do it, in a 90 minutes a week schedule being urged by all to teach the whole of the holy national curriculum, just in case someone decides to blame me for unsuccessful results? (By the way, what is success?)
Well, it can't be too difficult! It seems to me I'll just have to find, by means of magic or alchemy if needed, some balance, yet precarious, between giving away the fish and teaching how to fish...
(If you happen to know Merlin's address, please do send it to me!)
Sara Vieira 2006
