What are the historical reasons the theory was developed?
As stated previously, learning by doing is not a recent theory. In the 1700s, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasized learning by doing, explaining that the teacher’s job was to present problems to stimulate curiosity. His views were 180 degrees opposite to that of the educational structure of his time, which focused on memorization of the classics. John Dewey, born in 1859, is perhaps the greatest proponent of learning by doing. Dewey argued that "education is not preparation for life, it is life itself" (Duffy, 1996). Both Dewey and Rousseau lived during a time of great change, the Industrial Age, and saw a need for learning that was pragmatic, focused, and centered on the individual. Dewey said “that life, including the vocations, should form the basic context for learning” (Duffy, 1996).
Unfortunately, there are very few teaching methods that are used today in public schools that include the learners being able to actually do what they are being taught. Learning by doing has been talked about as a good idea in education for a very long time, but not often acted upon. This could be because of the complexity and time it adds to lesson plans, additional materials required, time allowed for assessments, inexperienced educators or traditions in the education field. Learning by doing allows a learner to practice and become confident in their ability to perform. It not only allows the teacher to assess if they are meeting the teaching goals of the course but also allows the student to be able to do what they have spent their time and possibly money to learn, so that they can use the skills they have learned after they have completed the course. Anyone can have students read from a book, hand out a test and give out grades, but every teacher can’t complete the tasks being taught themselves, let alone be experts in the field they are teaching in.
Of his efforts in promoting learning by doing in education, Schank was quoted by John Brockman in 1995 as saying:
One of the most interesting issues to me today is education. I want to know how to rebuild the school system. One thing is to look at how people learn, right now, and how the schools work, right now, and see if there's any confluence. In schools today, students are made to read a lot of stuff, and they're lectured on it. Or maybe they see a movie. Then they do endless problems, then they get a multiple-choice test of a hundred questions. The schools are saying, "Memorize all this. We're going to teach you how to memorize. Practice it, we'll drill you on it, and then we're going to test you."
Imagine that this is how I'm going to teach you about food and wine. We're going to read about food and wine, and then I'll show you films about food and wine, and then I'll let you solve problems about the nature of food and wine, like how to decant a bottle of wine, what the optimal color is for a Bordeaux, and so forth. And then I'll give you a test.
Would you learn to appreciate food and wine this way? Would you learn anything about food and wine? The answer is no. Because what you have to do to learn about food and wine is eat and drink. Memorizing all the rules, or discussing the principles of cooking, isn't going to do any good if you don't eat and drink. In fact, it works the other way around. If you eat and drink a lot, I can get you interested in those subjects. Otherwise I can't.
Everything they teach in school is oriented so that they can test it to show that you know it, instead of taking note of the obvious, which is that people learn by doing what people want to do. The more they do, the more curious they get about how to do it better — if they're interested in doing it in the first place. You wouldn't teach a kid to drive by giving him the New York State test manual. If you want to learn how to drive, you have to drive a lot. Most schools do everything but allow kids to experience life. If kids want to learn about what goes on in the real world, they have to go out into the real world, play some role in it, and have that motivate learning. Errors in learning by doing bring out questions, and questions bring out answers.
What are the historical reasons the theory was developed?
As stated previously, learning by doing is not a recent theory. In the 1700s, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasized learning by doing, explaining that the teacher’s job was to present problems to stimulate curiosity. His views were 180 degrees opposite to that of the educational structure of his time, which focused on memorization of the classics. John Dewey, born in 1859, is perhaps the greatest proponent of learning by doing. Dewey argued that "education is not preparation for life, it is life itself" (Duffy, 1996). Both Dewey and Rousseau lived during a time of great change, the Industrial Age, and saw a need for learning that was pragmatic, focused, and centered on the individual. Dewey said “that life, including the vocations, should form the basic context for learning” (Duffy, 1996).
Unfortunately, there are very few teaching methods that are used today in public schools that include the learners being able to actually do what they are being taught. Learning by doing has been talked about as a good idea in education for a very long time, but not often acted upon. This could be because of the complexity and time it adds to lesson plans, additional materials required, time allowed for assessments, inexperienced educators or traditions in the education field. Learning by doing allows a learner to practice and become confident in their ability to perform. It not only allows the teacher to assess if they are meeting the teaching goals of the course but also allows the student to be able to do what they have spent their time and possibly money to learn, so that they can use the skills they have learned after they have completed the course. Anyone can have students read from a book, hand out a test and give out grades, but every teacher can’t complete the tasks being taught themselves, let alone be experts in the field they are teaching in.
Of his efforts in promoting learning by doing in education, Schank was quoted by John Brockman in 1995 as saying:
One of the most interesting issues to me today is education. I want to know how to rebuild the school system. One thing is to look at how people learn, right now, and how the schools work, right now, and see if there's any confluence. In schools today, students are made to read a lot of stuff, and they're lectured on it. Or maybe they see a movie. Then they do endless problems, then they get a multiple-choice test of a hundred questions. The schools are saying, "Memorize all this. We're going to teach you how to memorize. Practice it, we'll drill you on it, and then we're going to test you."
Imagine that this is how I'm going to teach you about food and wine. We're going to read about food and wine, and then I'll show you films about food and wine, and then I'll let you solve problems about the nature of food and wine, like how to decant a bottle of wine, what the optimal color is for a Bordeaux, and so forth. And then I'll give you a test.
Would you learn to appreciate food and wine this way? Would you learn anything about food and wine? The answer is no. Because what you have to do to learn about food and wine is eat and drink. Memorizing all the rules, or discussing the principles of cooking, isn't going to do any good if you don't eat and drink. In fact, it works the other way around. If you eat and drink a lot, I can get you interested in those subjects. Otherwise I can't.
Everything they teach in school is oriented so that they can test it to show that you know it, instead of taking note of the obvious, which is that people learn by doing what people want to do. The more they do, the more curious they get about how to do it better — if they're interested in doing it in the first place. You wouldn't teach a kid to drive by giving him the New York State test manual. If you want to learn how to drive, you have to drive a lot. Most schools do everything but allow kids to experience life. If kids want to learn about what goes on in the real world, they have to go out into the real world, play some role in it, and have that motivate learning. Errors in learning by doing bring out questions, and questions bring out answers.
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