Hello. In this education post, I would like to cover the topic of learning from each other. No one knows everything on their own. We all learn what we know and develop our skills with the help of others. The transfer of knowledge, ideas and skills comes from teachers, bosses, trainers, coaches and also from classmates, students, friends, strangers and the people we meet along the way.
Main Topics
- Classroom Learning From Teachers
- Classmates As Learning Partners
- Students Can Teach Us Stuff Too
- Learning From Family & Friends
- Sports, Martial Arts & Extracurriculars
- Learning From Others On The Internet & Hive Blog
Classroom Learning From Teachers
A lot of learning comes from teachers in formal and structured education. The main duty of a teacher is transfer knowledge to students along with helping students build knowledge and skill. Teachers are either a generalist teacher where they teach multiple subjects but don't specialize in one or two topics or they could be a specialist teacher where they focus on teaching one or two subjects only. There are also substitute teachers who fill in for teachers who are away from illness or a work related trip/event. Substitute teachers may teach or just assign homework and supervise students.
The quality of education does vary between schools, between teachers, between cities, between countries and so on. Some places have better teachers than others, some schools may have more specialists in certain subjects, some places may have a better learning environment and or a better course structure. There is a bit of luck of the draw when it comes to learning experience as students don't have much control over teacher assignments.
Classmates As Learning Partners
One of the best learning resources comes in the form of classmates. As everyone is different in their own way and in how they learn, it can be beneficial to learn how other students do things.
Group work allows for students get to know classmates and practice with working in a team. Some teachers allow for students choosing their own groups while other teachers choose the groups for the students. From a learning perspective, having the teachers choose the groups for the students does somewhat simulate a work environment. The students are not in their comfort zone in choosing to work with friends in group projects.
Classmates make for great study partners. If the teacher is not around and you need help, the next best available person would be a classmate. Assuming the classmate is kind enough to help, ideas can be shared in trying to understand concepts.
Students Can Teach Us Stuff Too
As much as students learn from teachers, teachers do also learn from their students. Teachers can learn about student personalities, how they learn, their hobbies, what they like and don't like. In addition, teachers can learn about what kind of technologies and mobile apps they like to use.
There are times when students love to do storytelling on their hobbies, families, pets and such. Normally, I do not ask people about their family lives or personal matters in my Mathnasium work unless I have established a good connection with the student or if they share some details.
Learning From Family & Friends
A lot of the learning outside schools and inside the house comes from parents and family. Parents teach us not to play with our food, clean up after ourselves, respect your elders, make sure to brush your teeth and the list goes on. The main role of parents is to provide for their children and to support them as they grow into independent adults. How parents teach and support their children does varies as everyone is different and have their own philosophies in teaching.
Sports, Martial Arts & Extracurriculars
There are many learning opportunities for those who do extracurricular activties and sports outside of school. Activities outside of school allows for meeting other like minded people, meeting new friends for sharing ideas and fun times. Many of the extracurriculars outside of school contain activities that you do not normally find in regular day school. In addition these activities are designed to be fun in order to compete for the children's time and their parents' money.
Activities such as sports and martial arts teaches us the value of practice and strategy in order to win and obtain results. As winning is not always possible, failure does happen in sports, martial arts, hobbies and in life. I do think that is important for youths to be exposed to setbacks and failure early on. Not everything is easy and youths have to develop skills to be able to rebound from setbacks, failures and difficult times. If everything is easy then once something difficult happens at a very late stage of life then the reality check becomes too big to handle.
Learning From Others On The Internet & Hive Blog
The internet along with the Hive blog contains an abundance of information. You do have to be careful though as more does not mean better. Some of the information on the internet and on here may not be useful or relevant for you. As there is a wide variety of content on the web, there is pretty much something for everyone. People do like to share ideas out there on the internet regardless of whether the content production is motivated by money or not.
Over the years on Steemit and then Hive, I have learned quite a few things and new perspectives from other users. Being aware of what going on outside your local bubble is helpful. I say this as I do not listen to my local news in the Toronto area. My local news does not cover much on crypto nor international news. I find more diverse news and information on the Hive blog and on the internet.
Peer learning is a critical way to advance learning. It is an important style to perfect as so much learning happens at the peer level.