Teachers as Models for Learning Teachers are generally conscientious, hard-working people who give freely of their time and energies to help their students gain basic knowledge in their discipline. Yet, in their zeal to impart fundarnentdfactual knowledge, how many teachers ever teach students how t o learn? Learning, as anyone who has done independent study a n d o r research recomizes, involves false starts. ambieuities. and uncertainties. ~;?arningcan he a slow, ofteb loneiy, and a t times discouraeing exercise. On the other hand, learning is intellectually inGig&ating and can he fded with exritemeit and engender feelings of acmmplishment and Instinn personal satisfaction. But toexperience the challenge and r&ards of learning, one must know how to learn. Students, especially undergraduates, are treated in such a wav in todav's educational environment that thev are seldom co&iousl;exposed to the process of learning.-~eforenew knowledge is presented to undergraduates, it is tidied up and incorporated into highly polished packets which give the impression of being finished products. Gone are the rough edges and ambiguities that might suggest less than absolute and complete understanding. The intellectually illuminating sparks generated by conflicting ideas are extinguished. The utility of striving to obtain perspective is generally ignored. We teach our students what we know, but not necessarily why we know it or how we came to know i t t h e processes involved in our knowing it. Undergraduates are seldom exposed to the indefinite and uneven boundaries, the uncertainties, or the incompleteness of our answers to important questions. These would distract from the neatness of the package-the fait accompli-being offered to them. This point of view of the formal system of education seems distorted because good teachers possess skills in learning that their students have not yet acquired. I t would seem natural to attempt to teach these skills. Yet this doesn'i seem t o happen very often. Most would agree that to understand the nature of a successful learning process is far more useful than to learn what we collectively !&;ow. Teachers, in general, know
how to find out what they don't know, and they know how to learn. Knowing how to learn involves understanding what it means to know something. The uneducated are unaware of what they do not know, and they do not know how to go about finding out. Thus, i t would appear that teachers should give students an idea of what it means to know something. Knowing how t o learn requires perspective and acquiring an understanding of the limits of a discipline. Knowing how to learn also requires an appreciation of the utility of more or leas allied disciplines. For example, the successful modem techniques for assessing the existing chemical literature, as described in this issue, are not really chemistry, yet such knowledge can make a meaningful difference in students' ability to cope with chemical problems. Knowing how to learn is essential to success in continuing one's education after the period of formal education. Seldom do undergraduates have the opportunity to experience false starts, ambiguities, and uncertainty. These experiences are resewed for graduate students, if for anyone. Few students are allowed to see their teachers as learners. Why has this reluctance to teach undergraduates how to learn arisen? Is there some inherent belief that the learning process is too difficult for contemporary young minds? The point of view was certainly not true in the German Gymnasium in the mid-19th century, where it is reported that learning how to learn was a part of the formal education of students. Perhaps modern teachers do not believe that learning can be taught. Maybe one needs a certain level of maturity in a subject before he begins tounderstand how to learn about it. Or, maybe it's just easier to present neat packages of (apparently) polished and finished ideas and let students discover on their own that the packages really aren't so neat. Somewhere in the recesses of the mind there is an objection to this point of view. Surely as teachers, we ought to be able to do hetter than leave students to acquire the skills to learn on their own-by trial and error or, in many cases, the sink-or-swim approach. JJL
Volume 59
Number 12
December 1982
989
