"I'll try if I know all the things I used to know..."

“I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!” 

~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Alice in attempting to reassure herself that she isn't Mabel, reasoning that she is much cleverer than Mabel, attempts to recite her multiplication tables.  She is of course horribly wrong (the effects of Wonderland), but what Alice is trying to do is prove knowledge and intellect, and that she is still herself, to herself by recalling information she has memorized.  The reader knows that Alice is quite clever, but if one had to make an assessment of her intellect based on her ability to regurgitate the facts and figures she memorized for school, Alice would not fair well.

In our reading for class this week we read the first two chapters of How People Learn, by the National Research Council.  A concept that is dealt with early on in the readings is the value of being able to synthesize information based on knowledge and understanding, rather than simply repeating diligently memorized fact and figures.  Since we will be using this text throughout the semester, I found this heartening.  As a student I have always been the kind of person that wants and needs to know "why," in order to learn.  I am never more frustrated than when an instructor isn't able to explain why something works or is the way it is. Furthermore, while I understand the usefulness of tests for certain subjects, I have always much preferred writing papers or essays to taking a multiple choice test.  I can memorize information for a test, but it won't stay with me long.  However, if I have to actually synthesize information for an essay question I am far more likely to remember what I have learned, and be able to apply that knowledge to other situations in the future.

It is easy for me to come up with examples of my own experiences as a student that were both good and bad when it comes to how I was taught.  However, for the purposes of this class and my own career goals I also tried to consider the information from these chapters from the perspective of an educator.  Much of what we read this week was familiar to me, in terms of the concepts of learning and the different ways in which people learn. However, even being aware of these concepts it can be easy to make mistakes as an educator.  I believe one of the biggest mistakes an educator can make is to cling desperately to a lesson plan and not take their lead from their students.  Organization and lesson plans are important, but if you are not in tune with your students you won't be able to teach them anything.  This goes equally for a two hour long workshop, and a semester long course.

To return to Alice for a moment, there were two examples from the readings that I found particularly interesting, and demonstrative of the difference between memorization and learning.

The first example was that of history students being able to more easily answer short factual questions about American history than historians, but the historians unsurprisingly being more adept at justifying their choices when asked to take on a task which required interpertation.  I found this particularly interesting because I think that very often in our society the ability to regurgitate information ad nauseam is seen as proof of knowledge, when in fact it reflects little more than an individuals ability to memorize.    

The second example given in the reading was of two historians being asked to draw conclusions about a specific topic. One was an expert in the topic and the other was an expert in a different historical topic.  I will spare you the details, but ultimately even though the second historian was not an expert in that particular topic, they were eventually able to reach the same conclusions as the first historian. This is because the second historian knew enough to recognize that his/her initial assumptions might in fact be due to his/her own lack of familiarity with the subject, and thus should be questioned. 

I can relate strongly to both of these examples, prior to beginning my library degree I had completed a MA in English specifically focusing on Shakespeare.  For a time I worked for a bookstore where patrons would, upon finding out about my English degree, regularly recite Shakespeare at me and then smugly ask me to identify which play it comes from.  This always bothered me because although I often could identify the quotation, I never felt it demonstrated any real knowledge either on my part of theirs.  My degree wasn't meant to equip me to identify random quotations it was meant to equip me to analyze, question, understand, and know where to seek out answers. As for the second example I need only say that the further I go in my education the more aware I become of how vast my lack of knowledge is.  

Understanding our limitations as educators, students, and librarians may be one of the greatest strengths at our disposal.  If we try to know everything we will surely end up knowing very little, but if we try to understand what we do know we will be able to recognize our weaknesses and work towards strengthening them.