This is Part V of exploring Professor Brian Cambourne’s 7 Conditions of Learning. Read the intro here and Immersion here, Demonstration here, Engagement here, and Expectation here.
Responsibility
“Positive emotions drive attention—which promotes both learning and memory.”
Brain Principle #5: Emotions, learning, and memory are closely linked as parts of the brain are activated in the learning process.
Cambourne's fifth condition refers to the student's innate ability to take responsibility for their learning. How does this responsibility relate to those who are left behind?
I believe responsibility and success can only be achieved when the learning task matches the learner.
I think of my former students, Christian, Twayne, and Amy (I dive deeper into their stories in my book, Reversed) who failed for so long in school. Why didn't they take responsibility for their learning? Because they couldn't. The teaching was something that just happened to my students. In other words, my students were given a task, but they may or may not have completed it. But that is all they did. The learning did not stick. There were no positive emotions involved in this type of learning and education.
The philosophy appeared to be: "This is what you have to do, now just learn it."
It’s like our children are nails, and teachers are hammers—with the thinking, "if we pound that nail hard enough, they will learn it."
In fact, what has been created is a negative learning environment reinforcing that the "blame" lies with the child.
When I worked with my son Nicholas as a 7-year-old, his learning was not only transformative, but he was placed on a "love of learning path," which will last him a lifetime.
My goal, with all my students, is first to show them that learning is worth their effort, that knowledge is of value, and they can do it. It is only after this change that students can take responsibility for their learning.
The change is in the teaching, and not from within the student!
