Self-Education in Children

                                                         

Taking the “teach” out of Teacher

                                                               Amanda Byrd

           

“But how do you know when they are ready?”

“You don’t, but when they know, you’ll know, you know?”

Marlin asks Crush, the sea turtle, about how to know when children are ready to move on and learn new things in the Disney movie “Finding Nemo.” Marlin who was so afraid of losing his son as he had lost his wife in the movie was very overprotective, trying to control everything his son did, and even wanted to do. Very often adults take control over children, telling them what to say, think and do. In the traditional method of education, teachers tell students exactly what to do step –by- step without thinking the children have the capacity to do it or figure it out on their own. Afterwards they ask their fellow colleagues, “How can I create more autonomous students?” The idea of children teaching themselves just seems impossible. If we took teachers out of the equation, would education continue to happen? Yes it would. Arthur C. Clark once said, “If children have interest, then education happens.”

Sugata Mitra has spent the last 13 years investigating the possibility of children teaching themselves through a concept he calls “Minimally Invasive Education” and defines as, “a pedagogic method that uses the learning environment to generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning in groups of children, with minimal, or no, intervention by a teacher.”(2) His investigation, named HOLE IN THE WALL, began in 1999 with one computer station secured in a hole in the wall in Kalkaji, New Delhi. (1.)

The idea is that the children work at their own pace fueled by their own curiosity. Through this study Sugata Mitra discovered the children began to organize themselves to have distinct roles within the group learning to take on responsibilities such are leadership, and connectors who bridge new learners to those who can assist them. The results of Sugata Mitra’s various studies throughout the years have all shown not only significant learning advancements in the subject areas but have also shown significant growth in the retention of knowledge learned. (2)

Sugata Mitra is not the only proponent in self-education. Many families in the United States have turned to home schooling as a means to improve the quality of education their children are receiving. One method frequently used in home schooling is self-teaching or self-mastery. Joanne Calderwood is a former schoolteacher from Tennessee, author, and mother of 8 home-schooled children who promotes, though various forms of media and seminars, the self-mastery technique to home schooling. The general idea is that the children must first have strong foundations in reading and writing and then they are left mostly on their own to move at their own pace and to not move on until they have completely mastered the topic at hand. Joanne has had success with her own children raising one with a perfect verbal SAT score and another with a near perfect score, both of whom are now in university studying for free. (3.)

Learning is not something that demands a classroom and a teacher in order to take place. Learning comes naturally from the moment we are born. Our brains are wired to perceive, interpret, and use the information that comes to us in our lives. Interest, curiosity, and motivation must be present for learning to take place, and these are not best found in a setting where large groups of students are forced into what is to be learned and how fast it is to be learned. They simply come naturally when given the right opportunity.

           

                                                           References

1. Sugate Mitra, TED TALKS, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk60sYrU2RU

2. Sugata Mitra, Hole-in -the –Wall Education Limited 2012, http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com

3. Joanne Calderwood, 2007 -2012,  http://www.joannecalderwood.com