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A most important learning skill

Apr 21,2016 - Last updated at Apr 21,2016

One of the most important, but least talked about, learning skills in our part of the world is that of independent learning. It is much needed at both school and university levels.

By independent learning skill, education specialists essentially mean the student’s ability to learn on his or her own, be it in the school/university formal setting (the class, the lab, the discussion group, etc.) or in the library, at home, in the workplace, etc.

Times have changed. Gone are the days when students were reliant on teachers for information, knowledge or skill development.

In our “post-modern” world, which rejects all forms of monopoly and hegemony, the student has become an active participant in the learning process, not a recipient. A player, not a spectator.

There was a time when the teacher was a major source of information, in some cases perhaps the only source; hence, the student’s reliance on the teacher for information and knowledge.

Now the teacher is no longer a source, except at university level, perhaps, when the teacher is a prolific researcher and generator of knowledge, but even then, he or she is a source, not the source. 

There was a time, also, when the textbook was a major source of knowledge. And this is why the students were also reliant on the textbooks, in addition to teachers.

At present, the textbook is at a best a source, and a small one at that, of knowledge.

In today’s highly developed and advanced world, sources of information and knowledge have multiplied and diversified in unprecedented ways.

They are in libraries, physical and electronic — on the Internet on formal and social media, in societal functions, in internship programmes, in the workplace, etc.

Precisely because the sources have multiplied and diversified in such voluminous and overwhelming ways, students need to develop and hone their independent learning skills, so that they can, on their own, cover as much as possible of the vast terrain of knowledge.

When students develop such a skill, they can learn a lot faster and be more efficient and effective in managing their learning.

For these reasons and others, students should take ownership of their learning, from the earliest stages to the most advanced.

In fact, unlike what some may think, students are capable of developing independent learning skills from kindergarten, even nursery.

For, just as we teach children, as early as possible, to hold the bottle to drink their milk or use the spoon to eat their cereal, we should train them as early as possible to be independent learners.

And just as a caring parent should stand by and let the child perform the task, so should the teacher.

Teaching independent learning skills should be embedded in the various courses taken by the students, and the curricula should be structured or restructured in creative ways to enable learners to achieve this objective.

But it can also be the subject of an entire course, whose only aim is to endow students with such a skill, which has been marginal in our curricula, in many cases almost entirely overlooked.

 

Time to give it the attention it deserves.

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