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What can be taught to students unwilling to learn?

Francisco Miraval

This week, millions of students all over the country go back to classes at schools and universities, where teacher will try and pretend they are teaching and where many students will not even pretend they are there to learn.

I know the current education system doesn’t meet the needs of all the students (and I am not sure it ever did it). And, of course, different students learn in different ways. At the same time, demographic changes, new technologies, and social transformation are all impacting education practices.

Yet, what can you teach to somebody unwilling to learn?

In the recent past, I have had students coming to class just to sit in a corner of the classroom, with the earphones plugged in and isolated from everybody else with the same level of isolation they probably live all their lives. And it seems the number of those students keeps growing.

Sometimes I wonder how they were able to register in the class. Then I remember that they probably did it online, where there is no need to talk with a real person. An online map and schedule will tell them where and when to show up.

Regardless, once in the class, they don’t even pretend to be interested in any topic. They seldom, if ever, interact with others. They don’t ask anything. To be clear, they don’t interrupt the class and they are usually very respectful. But they self-imposed isolation and their “Leave alone and don’t disturb me” message becomes a distraction to others.

As a teacher, I assume that if an adult student comes to my class, he/she will have a minimum desire of learning, that is, of expanding his/her knowledge, deepening his/her understanding, developing new skills, and applying the new knowledge to situations outside the classroom. However, I doubt it is proper for me to keep assuming student still have such a desire.

To analyze this topic in detail goes beyond the limits of this short column. Yet, we can share a few observations. First, I think there is a growing confusion between knowing where to find information and knowing what that information means. Knowing how to do an online search and knowing are two very different things.

Also, many students seem to live in a perpetual state of “technological isolation”, preventing them from knowing what to do if they meet a real person who may not share the same level of intense and constant use of technology.

And there is also a genuine and understandable feeling of apathy in many students who know everything keeps changing so fast nothing makes sense anymore. So, there is no point in studying anything.

If we accept that’s the case, then even those like me (with several decades already on this planet) will probably act and react with the same apathy. Then, who should change? Who should be teaching whom?

After all, teachers are no longer the only vehicle of instruction and textbooks are no longer the only source of academic information.

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