Why we need to rethink how we learn

[Applause]

and

i lead a team right now and we’re trying

to solve a pretty hard problem

we want to prepare students

to be the scientists and technologists

of the future

and we’re starting in the primary

schools starting from

the first grade and it’s a pretty hard

problem

because how do we teach

the science of the future when we don’t

know what that science will be

how it used to work is if we teach them

all the science that we know right now

and we hope right some of it

a little of it might still be relevant

when they have a chance to put it to

work

but it doesn’t work very well i mean if

only

we can teach them all the science we

know right now

and then send them back a couple hundred

years

and wouldn’t that be fantastic right

they would know everything they would

know all the cutting edge

they would be able to come up with all

kinds of invention because they would

know way more than everyone around them

but we can’t really do that right

instead of sending

instead of teaching kids a lot of

science and sending them into the past

we will actually have to send them into

the future

10 years 15 years into the future

everything

they learn now we hope they will be able

to use

when they graduate from college when

they enter the workforce

and so if we think about science as just

a lot of facts then we have a huge worry

what kind of science is not going to is

is not going to be obsolete by the time

they try to use it

right what will the future look like

15 years from now i mean to get a feel

for that

let’s think about what was

the coolest thing the highest tech 15

years ago

remember this all right did anyone

remember the first time they got got

their blackberry and how cool that was

but it’s not so cool anymore right

science is changing so fast and

technology is changing

so fast and it’s actually changing

faster and faster every day

there’s no way we can tell what’s going

to be

the hottest thing the most relevant

thing when our students

need to start applying what they learn

all right we know what’s cool today we

know ai’s cool today

we know autonomous vehicles are cool

today we know genetics are cold today

but what’s going to be cool in 15 years

and if we can’t

tell what’s going to be cool if we can’t

predict what’s going to be

the hottest thing in 15 years from now

how do we go about preparing the

scientists and technologies of the

future

we turn the problem around maybe it’s

not as important to teach them a lot of

things a lot of facts

that might become obsolete

why don’t we teach them

to be scientists and we do know

how scientists work right

scientists start with the question and

then they try to do a lot of research

and they try to come up with discoveries

we know scientists

work in large teams right sometimes

across the whole country sometimes

collaborating with labs across the world

right and we also know that scientists

are not afraid to fail

when they come up with an idea they plan

an experiment and they go do it they

don’t expect it to work the first time

not in real life not real science

right and this this is pretty obvious

we have to ask ourselves this is not how

our students are learning right now

right they don’t start with the question

we start by doing a lot of lectures and

explaining and explaining and explaining

whether or not they have a question we

want to keep explaining

right and they don’t work as teams right

if they don’t understand something

and they look at the person next to them

and ask them

we call that cheating

and in terms of failure that’s even

worse

if a student gets something wrong we put

a big

red mark on it right and they learn to

fear that they’ve learned to fear that

oh if you get it

if you don’t get it right the first time

it’s bad

what if we turn that all around how

would we

give chance give kids a chance to learn

science

the way scientists do science

and you do start with a question

and it comes as a shock

to students who are who who first get to

our labs

right we ask them a hard question they

say teacher you can’t ask that

you haven’t given us the answer yet how

can you ask

and that we’re like we know we don’t we

know you don’t know the answer we don’t

we know you don’t know the science

but think about it what do you think

why do you think it’s that way what do

you think will happen

and then they get to thinking and if

they if they think really hard

and they can’t figure it out we might

tell them just a little just a little to

get them going further

and we want them to think some more so

it’s important to start with a question

start with good hard questions

and then keep asking even more questions

more and more questions

it’s much less important to explain

than to get them to think get them to

figure it out

and what does it look like when a

student

is actually learning this is

a student frowning but it’s actually a

happy from

because when students just listen

to teachers lecturing they actually have

a completely blank look on their face

some of you might remember that from

the people next to you in the classroom

it’s completely blank you’re just

trying to absorb and memorizing and

memorizing but when you actually have to

think

we’re a little frowned and you’re

struggling and that’s what real learning

looks like

taking challenges tackling challenges as

a team

this it’s not just about working

together or doing something together

the most important part of students

learning as a team

is learning how to think together right

when we want our students to share what

they think we don’t want them to share

with the teacher in a traditional

classroom

the teacher will ask questions right

people raise their hands and

you know share with the class what they

think

or or else the teacher will just tell

you what to think

but that’s you need to flip that around

right don’t just share with the teacher

actually share with each other

and if you find that something is hard

to explain in words

draw it out make a diagram i don’t think

you can see that in this picture

but at our labs all the tables are

actually whiteboard surfaces

and the students are drawing and drawing

and arguing with each other about the

science

and that’s how they figure things out

instead of saying hey is it right is

that what the book said

and lastly working as a team

we expect our students to

try to convince and be convinced

and i want to take a moment to explain

what that means

because in traditional learning there’s

a right answer and a wrong answer

right and it’s very clear what the right

answer is the right answer is whatever

the teacher tells you it is

right it’s whatever is in the book when

we do the problems or whatever is in the

back of the book

but that’s that’s not real learning we

expect our students

to actually challenge each other

and it’s not good enough to say i think

that’s the that’s how the science works

and that’s just the way it is

i think that’s the way it is that’s not

enough

we want them to be able to defend their

thinking

provide the reasoning i think it’s that

way because

this that and the other i and that’s

very important

to allow them a chance to build deep

understanding

and convince and be convinced

because as they work in a group

sometimes

you think you understand what’s going on

you want to convince your team members

but you also have to listen you have to

try to figure out what they’re trying to

tell you

and that’s what effective learning and

effective learning in the team

looks like you have to listen is what

they’re saying making sense

and lastly it’s okay to fail

when you’re learning when you’re doing

something new

as all scientists do right it’s okay to

fail

so at our labs we don’t give our

students

simple little things to do that

everyone’s gonna get right the first

time

we actually give them really hard

problems real science

really tricky stuff stuff maybe

they might not even see in high school

and we don’t worry

that they don’t know it we don’t worry

that they’ll fail

we actually expect them to fail right

there’s a lot of reasons they’ll fail

right if they don’t understand it yet

that’s the whole point right if they

don’t know

how to do something that’s the point you

have a chance

to find out a chance to figure it out

right and with working with tools and

working with new materials

if you don’t know if you don’t have the

skills yet then you have a chance

to learn it figuring out learn it

together

right it’s not about just reading about

what someone else discovered

hundreds of years ago science is about

figuring things out

so we have a topic

one of our many topics we challenge our

students

to design and build

a small airplane with an airplane

that can fly away fly out of the line of

sight either so high or so

far that you can’t see it anymore and

they have to do this

from scratch we don’t give them a kit

that they just

assemble together with the instructions

and then fly it

that’s a toy that’s not learning

they start with nothing and they have to

figure out

why why why something would fly

and they can ask for materials and we

give them all raw materials

basic materials no preform pre-cut

materials

they have to figure it out you want

something how much of it do you want

what kind do you want how big if you

want it in a different shape

form it yourselves right if the student

asks us

hey can you give us a propeller

why do you want a propeller well because

airplanes have propellers we’re like

okay

so we give them a propeller but

sometimes we give them

a boat propeller and they run off and

they’re happy

and they’ll find out it doesn’t work but

along the way

they’ll find out hey what is a propeller

why do airplanes need propeller and

what’s the use

and that’s real learning because if you

just assemble something that someone

else has already picked apart from

or designed for you every piece just has

to fit together

and it’s guaranteed to work there’s no

exploration

and over the course of eight weeks of

continually

trying building a plane

figuring out how it works flying it bam

hits the ground

pick it up figure out why it didn’t work

try again

make some changes fly bam hit the ground

again

failure after failure after failure

and there’s students learn that it’s

okay

you don’t when you’re trying to do

something new and something challenging

you’re not expected to succeed the first

time

or the tenth time the most important

thing is you keep trying

and you learn every every step right if

when something doesn’t work it’s not a

setback

it’s actually a step forward

so does this type of learning work

is it creating the scientists and

technologists of the future well we

don’t have a time machine so we can’t

really tell we hope so

because our students they learn some

very critical things

that are not going to become obsolete i

don’t care

how the technology changes how the

science changes

but these things are fundamental it’s

okay

not to know as a matter of fact it’s

great

when we know that we don’t we don’t know

something because that’s the first step

to learning first step to figuring out

figuring it out

second imagine

if learning something means you have to

be convinced that you don’t just

believe it because it’s in a book or

because some experts said so

but you actually have to be convinced

you have to it has to make

sense to you we completely change

how our students feel about learning

understand

what it means to really get something

versus if they were if they think the

answer matches the book

right and working together not just

doing things

as a team but thinking as a team

and being able to do more than you can

do by yourself

and make making the best use of each

person on your team

those are skills and those are abilities

that are going to apply no matter how

the future changes

and the most important thing of course

is to never

ever give up right you put your heart

into something

it’s something challenging especially if

it’s challenging

and you never give up you will never

fail

and we believe that if we’re able to

provide this kind of learning for our

students

this is how we will have the leading

scientists

and technologists of the future

thank you

you