Good Students Always Want To Know

“I was always my own teacher.”

Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings

The Holy Grail for teachers and students has always been self-directed learning.  Teachers want students who want to learn and who are self-directed enough that the teacher facilitates and supervises the process while students dive in and work either individually or in groups to absorb the content and develop the skills necessary to achieve success.

This often happens by accident, a perfect positive storm of excellent teachers, highly motivated students, and a compelling lesson.  The student simply must know, and in that quest, the teacher provides the foundation and materials and then gets out of the way so the student can study, think critically, and find the answers.

We learn best when we must know.  Think about it:  how did we learn to use our digital devices?  How did we learn to drive a vehicle?  How did we come to understand languages or other cultures?  We had to know.  We wanted to use the apps; we wanted the freedom of a driver’s license and the ability to drive our car to our destinations; we longed to travel to distant parts of the globe and see how others live.  We had to know.

Whatever modality we will need to utilize to continue our education this fall and in the future, self-direction and a need to know will be paramount.  In the face of COVID-19, students will need to be more responsible for their own intellectual growth and progress.  Remote learning, or limited in-class learning, will require effort and discipline to get the most out of the experience.

Many students say they do not like online classes because they find themselves falling behind the class or struggling to study with all the distractions.  This overlooks the imperative that comes with entering a university.  It has always been up to the student to seek out an institution, register for a set of classes, study the material, complete assignments, and advance through the quarters or semesters to obtain a degree.  However, we have gotten away from the auto-didactical component of university education.

Students who do well in online classes share several key traits.  One, they are disciplined.  They set times for study, promptly log on to the class session, meet deadlines, and stay in close contact with their instructors and peers.  Students who struggle find themselves missing assignments, putting off projects, skipping some class meetings, and not studying and advancing through the course material week to week.

This fall, we may find ourselves only in online classes or in hybrid classes where there are occasional meetings online and some in-class instruction.  What form we find ourselves utilizing is not as important as how aggressively we apply self-discipline and self-direction to coursework.  It is most imperative that students take charge of their own learning.  For too long, we have fallen back on the teacher as the sage on the stage.  That is why the lecture method has been a classroom staple.  Too many students wait for cues from the instructor, for the assigned readings, for the announced test or paper due date.

There was a time when a student would “read for the law,” or “read for philosophy” as a method of study for a degree.  The student would read everything he or she could find on the subject, or from a reading list, and the instructor functioned as a tutor.  The degree experience culminated in an examination to see how thorough the student prepared.

Now, professors lecture the class, assign papers with rubrics that spell out what amounts to good writing standards, and post grades every week on a learning platform.  Without these actions, the students claim not to know where they stand in the course, whether or not the last piece of writing was good, or what progress they have made each week, but this is disingenuous.  Students know when they have not put in enough study time to do well on an examination; they know when they have not spent enough time writing and revising a paper.

One of the most effective things to do with a student when reviewing writing is to have the student read the paper aloud.  They immediately hear the lack of clarity, the confusing syntax, the slack ideas and stillborn insights they have copied from their sources and never fully developed.  If students believe they have not put in enough time or effort, they are probably right.  So this isn’t a case of not knowing what to do; it is imperative that the student recognize the deficiencies, put in more effort, and keep forging ahead.  They cannot wait for the professor to tell them what to do.

Being self-directed and motivated to learn has always been a pre-requisite to succeed in college.  COVID-19 offers an opportunity to revisit that pre-requisite and embrace it.  Whether in person or remote, learning takes place most effectively when students take control of their own educational destiny.

Eudora Welty is right; we cannot wait to be inspired to learn.  We must go out and embrace the opportunity to become an auto-didactic.  Our future success depends on it.