Learning to think

You've done all the preps, you know the textbook back to front, up down, right to left...then you get into the exam room and none of the questions look anything like the 1000 past papers you've done. Your confidence goes into a coma and your guaranteed pass slips with. 

Sounds familiar? Well I've experienced this a couple of times in my life and over the years I've grown to understand the root of this problem, rote learning. 

The problem I have with rote learning is that it fixes your thinking to what you've only memorised so once the plot is twisted, you're completely thrown off. Yes, there are some instances where it's pure medicine, like basic education maths (remember how we were taught time tables?) but I think schools and sometimes even parents get it all wrong! They focus on getting the child to simply memorise rules and such when what is more important is understanding the thinking behind the rules. 

I have recently been involved in two organisations that are trying to change this, Junior Achievement SA and ENTACTUS (google).

On my first project with JA, we visited a school in Alexander, Johannesburg where we taught kids about money. How to save, make deposits, withdrawals and general financial decisions. We played a game similar to Monopoly but instead of being property based, it was financial, involving bank transactions and business acumen. At the end, the group that made the most money from their transactions won. With my group, instead of simply pushing them to make as much money as possible I would ask them to justify each and every transaction. Want to buy a business? Why? Not planning to run an ad campaign? Why? Are you going to spend or reinvest the profits? Why? 

With ENACTUS, I sat on the judging panel for their nationals. Here a representative team from different higher learning institutions from around the country would present two to three projects (existing small business) they have adopted. They would then have to take the audience through how they have improved the business economically and socially. Let's just say, I was the Simon Cowell/ Randal Abrahams of the panel because I was not going easy on the questions. Don't get me wrong, I was not "the mean judge", I just wanted the contestants to THINK instead of regurgitating what they had rehearsed/advised by their mentors. Overall it was an amazing experience with a group of smart, forward-thinking students. This type of involvement will definitely make their transition into the working world that much smoother. 

So guess what I'm trying to say is...

1. We need to encourage kids to think   and question. I find that in traditional black homes, questioning is not encouraged and this feeds through to the child's learning behaviour and ultimately the kind of adult they become. This separates leaders from followers. 

2. We need to make learning more interactive. We need more active learning.

If we can get this right, then half the job is done.