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