"Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome," Arthur Ashe once said. (Searchquotes.com, 2014)
This quote is what came to mind when I listened to Uri Alon’s TEDtalk titled "Why truly innovative science demands a leap into the unknown". Uri describes the frustration and disappointment students feel when they are unable to go from the question (point A) to the answer (point B). Uri, himself, suffered from depression over this dilemma as a graduate student in scientific research. He spoke with other graduate students and found out they felt the same way.
Students start out in kindergarten and elementary school with questions that, generally, have only one right answer. I think this is necessary to build confidence and limit confusion. But there comes a time when it is not that simple. Students might not be able to find the answer they are looking for which creates an unsettling feeling.
I see this frequently in the Dental Hygiene Clinic. Treating patients requires critical thinking skills. There may be more than one right answer. Sometimes a student does everything right and does not get the intended result. For many students, this creates stress. The students sometimes have to learn by trial and error. They often learn more on a patient that they receive a poor grade on than on one that they scored high. Getting the students to value the learning experience is not easy. Many have always regarded the key to success in school as a simple formula; if they study enough they will receive an A. When they enter a program such as Dental Hygiene, they learn by practice and experience and they will fail before they succeed. For most, this is difficult to get used to.
Now, I will think of Uri and recommend to my students this TEDtalk about his “leap into the unknown”.
References:
Alon, U. (2014). TEDtalks: Why truly innovative science demands a leap
into the unknown. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/uri_alon_why_truly_innovative_science_demands_a_leap_into_the_unknown#t-338318
Ashe, A. retrieved on June 15, 2014 from:
I really like your blog. We do not want students to feel that they all need to find the same answer to a question. Students need to understand that there may be one answer but there may be many different ways to get that answer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to massage school, I knew that I needed to really think about how I could help the clients, I needed to understand that one answer is not the correct answer always. I knew that I would have to really think about how I could get the best result for the client in front of me. I knew that every client was going to need something different and that I could not just learn one way and use that for everyone. That was difficult at first but then you realize that this is how our world works. Through my frustrations, 'being in the cloud,' I kept finding my way to what I needed to know.
Students need to be able to critically think, like you stated. We need to build on the idea that we will not always come up with the correct answer, we are not always going to find the easy way around things. We need to really get our students to think about how they are working towards the answers, what they are learning on the way and not so much about the answer itself. If we are working in the right direction and understanding correctly, that answer will find its way.
Thank you for sharing this Pam!
I think this is a great thing for students (and teachers) to keep in mind when they are stressed over the right answer to a problem. I know my students struggled with this concept while preparing for Language Arts standardized testing. They didn't like hearing to "choose the best answer" when there were several plausible answers that could apply to the question. Also, as a teacher I think we could all benefit from remembering this while in the process of lesson planning, teaching, and working one on one with students. There may be many different ways to approach a situation, with non being exactly "correct."
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