Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Learning about learning from the London Underground

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I've used the travel analogy in the past to characterize different approaches to (more or less guided) learning. This is a good version of the same anaogy. "Many teachers, including myself, often hold our students' hands and lead them from A to B; just like how I was led from A to B. We give our students scaffolds that tell them exactly what to do. We work through questions in worksheets as a whole class so all students have to do is copy the answers from the board or write down what they heard from another student. Students look like they know what they are doing, but really they were like me, just following someone who knows what they are doing. But what if we just let our students get from A to B by themselves? Why are we so scared of letting them find their own way?"

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 08:41 a.m.

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