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Educators know the importance of training students to connect the dots instead of collecting them. Connecting the dots involves going beyond memorizing data or procedures. It is about helping students understand how concepts relate to each other and how to apply them creatively in different contexts. Why do we spend so much time encouraging our students to connect the dots instead of connecting them?
To explain this phenomenon, we must consider that we are heirs of a Traditional Education where achieving success means having a greater capacity to remember specific information and reproduce it in standardized exams. For decades, we have been echoing a theory of repetition and schematization deeply rooted in our culture and learning environment. Another significant element is that it is easier for a teacher to follow these repetition standards than to create lessons that promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity skills essential for success in today's modern world. From my point of view, one of the problems that the education system creates is that we have yet to be able, through our class lessons, to interrelate one subject with another and inclusively with the world around us. We go to the classrooms to teach very academic concepts and theories. We do not teach our students because it is essential, for example, to study physical phenomena and how to put them into practice to solve real-life problems.
On the other hand, school districts measure the success of a school year (teacher) by the numbers collected in databases. Something that forces the school management and the teacher to emphasize, for example, the importance of memorizing fifty frequently used words by the end of the school year in kindergarten. However, over time and not as quickly as we would like, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of teaching students to connect the dots. How to do it should be a red alert for every teacher.
Today, on this learning journey, I find myself in the constant search for knowledge. I want to learn everything I can and improve myself more and more. I want to be nourished by the different points of view of authors and educational trends that emerge according to the needs of today's world. I want to update myself with technological innovations to offer tempered classes to the 21st-century student. All of this will undoubtedly lead to the students. The better prepared the teacher is, the further he will take his students.
Improvement + Consistency + Passion = Student Success.
The importance of creating effective learning outcomes is vital. How to do it? It would be a good question and an excellent start to promote changes in the educational system. There is a famous proverb from my town that says planes crash! Referring to the exciting thing about spontaneity. However, in the educational system, making plans for projections of activities, results, and evaluations is significant. Considering them will avoid a gap between what is taught and how it is taught. By considering them, students could feel more clarity about what is expected of them. Aligning outcomes, activities, and assessments helps students have meaningful opportunities to practice and demonstrate their understanding and feedback for their academic and personal development.
References:
Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1994). Built to last: Successful habits of visionary companies. HarperBusiness.
Harapnuik, D. (2016). Mapping your learner's journey [Blog post]. http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6420
Learners Mindset. (2021, September 15). Collecting Dots vs Connecting Dots [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_7o3Jh1KZLw
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