The Role of Teachers

I came across this quote by Piaget a few days ago, which pretty accurately sums up my teaching philosophy.  Everyone who has ever taken a child development course knows Piaget.  His studies of how children develop and learn are foundational.  Stumbling upon this quote reminded me once again of how many things we do in schools that contradict what we know about how students learn.

We spend too much time teaching students "stuff" and don't give them nearly enough time to figure out things on their own.  Most schools have a culture driven by content instead of process, despite the fact that we know that learning is all about connecting, doing, and discovery.

If future generations are to prosper, we need to find ways to change schools from places of information gathering to places of learning.