If+You're+Not+Learning,+You're+Not+Trying+Hard+Enough

=Myth: If You're Not Learning, You're Not Trying Hard Enough=

//Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand. - Jean Piaget//

The student failed to work hard enough
In the education world, a failure to learn is often seen as a lack of effort from the student. The student did not study enough, did not pay attention in class, did not attend class, did not complete the assignments, did not seek help, did not apply himself, and the list goes on... Often the student is blamed if he does not learn. It seems that in education people often think that if the student just tries harder they will "get it".

Does a bad grade mean you didn’t learn?
I remember (not so fondly) having to give students grades each quarter when I worked as a classroom teacher. Comments of some sort were always required. My favorite default comment to check off for students with lower grades was: //A more concentrated effort is needed.// Upon examining this myth, I wonder how wrong I was in stating this. Perhaps the student put in a lot of effort, but was not successful. Perhaps the student was not that interested or motivated and thus was not engaged in learning. Thinking back I wonder how I could have changed that? Is it always the learner’s fault? //(For further discussion on grading students, check out Lucy's myth: Grades are an accurate measure of students' academic achievement.)//

Struggle to understand
The classic view of learning, supported by learning theorist Frank Smith, states that learning is continual, unconscious, social, and inhibited by testing. He says, “Learning is not hard work. Something is being learned, whether we want it or not, all the time.” He feels that people can learn without effort if they are interested in what they are doing, are free from confusion, and seek assistance when needed. He even says, **"A struggle to learn is a struggle to understand, and failure to learn does not equate to laziness.”**

Effort is limited
A study conducted by Miele, Finn, and Molden concludes that effort can lead to //some// amount of improvement in learning, but it is not the final determining factor of whether someone succeeds in learning or not. They also mention that how someone perceives his or her learning ability affects his/her learning. Learners either posses an entity or incremental view of learning. The entity view is held by learners that feel they posses a fixed level of intelligence. The incremental learner believes that intelligence is changeable. Clearly, the learner with the incremental belief views learning in a different light than the person who thinks his or her intelligence has limits.

The right learning environment
Dewey, another learning theorist, states that learning should be experiential, open-ended, and social. He says students need to construct knowledge based on interactions with their environment and should be free to connect thoughts and knowledge. Agreeing with Smith, he believes we are constantly learning from others. The idea that students need to be intrinsically motivated is another tenet of his. For students to learn, they should be involved in this ideal learning environment, but is this learning environment always present in schools? Can we really blame the students' effort when they don't succeed?

Association for Psychological Science (2011, April 26). How beliefs shape effort and learning.//ScienceDaily//. Retrieved October 5, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2011/04/110415114004.htm Dewey, J. (2008). //Democracy and Education//. Complete and unabridged. Lexington, KY: Seven Treasures Publications. Smith, F. (1998). // The book of learning and forgetting //. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
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