Education, Knowledge and Learning Essay Example

I find it interesting that the definition of education and the definition of learning, are quite different. Education focuses on “receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university”, whereas the definition of learning is, “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.” Learning is not merely based in a classroom setting. People learn things daily, through school, work, or even walking down the street. Now, I’m not here to write the best essay there is about education. I won’t be giving you all the information on which classroom setting is the best, or what you should do for a student that isn’t doing well on tests. The simplicity of my time here, is to share a personal view of how education, knowledge, and learning, is very individualistic.

Everyone learns in their own ways; your way of processing is different from my way. Yet, my educational journey, from kindergarten through the ending of high school, and now on to college, may have been similar others. I have been homeschooled my entire life, up until college that is. Being home schooled was different from public school. It took me out of a classroom setting, where teaching was impersonal, and gave me one on one time with my teacher. I found that I remembered things better when I was sat down and had it explained to me. Ravitch says in “In Defense of Testing,” that testing is the key to gauging people’s abilities, and when it comes to education, she said it was important to evaluate what grade a student should be in. Through taking numerous tests, with different ways of testing, (open book, memory writing, oral), I discovered that for the most part I wasn’t good at test taking. I would cram as much as I could and try to learn it, take the test, and almost fail it. I realized that, I wasn’t learning the information. I was simply educating myself on the word for word definition of things and not taking the time to genuinely learn the materials. I found through physical flash cards, writing and copying things on paper, not with the definition but in words that I understood, I started learning the things I was being taught. I was best at taking tests through conversation, where I could think over my answer, and speak it out and explain it in a way to my teacher, that she knew, I knew I understood the concept of what they were talking about. I wasn’t good at giving a word for word definition of things but if I learned it through, I could explain it in a way that both the teacher and I knew, I had learned the subject and its materials. 

Learning, apart from education, shapes one’s lives. Your thoughts, ideas, and morals, are not simply generated out of the blue. You have thought and seen through others what to do and sometimes, what not to do. The things you learn and the people you learn them from, influence your life in ways you may not understand or even realize. Growing up, my parents taught me things, and set rules and boundaries that I didn’t quite understand the meaning behind. They instilled in my life, things that I am noticing about myself more and more everyday. They taught me maturity and responsibility. However, it isn’t about what they taught me that stuck out it was how they taught it. Instead of telling me to not steal something from a store, they showed me why It was important to not steal, and lived it out. I watched my parents, day in and day out, give generously, love people, and influence them in ways I didn’t even know possible. They were examples of how we are supposed to treat others, and show them the love of Christ. They not only lived that way themselves, but they encouraged me to do the same. Show people love and kindness, don’t steal, give to those who have little. This affected me because they showed me through their own actions the way to do things. They helped me grow as a person, showed me how to do things and then made me do them, no matter the circumstance. 

Hard work and diligence were also established in my life at a young age. They would tell me that, nothing in life is ever going to be handed to you on a silver platter, you work for what you want and the only way you’ll succeed is through those two things. My parents showed me through their own lives, that you can succeed at anything you set your mind to. When I started working at my current job, I started using the skills, values, and dedication that I had grow up watching my parents live out, and had adapted into my own life. I found that watching my coworkers and bosses do their jobs, helped me grow as my own worker. I learned things faster by watching and then jumped in and finished the learning process with hands on experience. I knew by watching my coworkers and managers that they knew what they were doing, so I knew that once I started doing those things, I learned the correct way of doing things.  Once I grew to be skillful in my line of work, I started training others the way I was trained myself. I tried to show them examples, I gave them lists of the things that needed to be done. I helped them practice and get good at answering phones and putting orders together. I tried my best to explain things the way they would understand. I had one person who was better at learning hands on and jumping into it, so I let her take the lead and answer any questions she had.  I had another girl who worked better with verbal instructions, she wasn’t confident with answering phones after no practice, so I practiced with her and helped her understand what she would be doing. 

With working with different people, and from my own experience with teaching and learning. In “Why Do American Kids Learn so Little”, van den Haag questions whether tests “tell the teachers what their students have learned-and have no?” From my own experience with learning, I’ve come to the conclusion that the teacher’s ability to teach is a factor in learning, but also the student’s ability to learn is a factor. When it comes to my own teaching experiences, I’ve found that some people thrive on repetitive learning, similar to studying for a quiz, with the final grade being answering a phone. 

I feel confident learning something by watching someone doing it and trying my best to do it exactly like them. If someone tells me exactly what I have to do, chances are I won’t understand half of it and I have to ask a ton of questions. Also, asking questions is another thing that I learn from. Like I said, if someone tells me something, they show me how to do it, and I start doing it, I want to make sure I am doing it correctly so I ask questions. Some might be annoyed by it. All through high school I tended to need more structure established by the teacher themselves. Give me a deadline and due date and I will have it done by then. Entering college was a little different because I started having to make my own schedules that I knew would work for me. I needed to enforce that structure to ensure I got everything done. I learned how to rely on myself for getting assignments turned in, well done, and on time. 

Analyzing your learning and teaching experiences can be interesting. As I previously mentioned, education and learning are similar, yet different.  Once you learn why you do the things you do, you find yourself analyzing the things you do on a daily basis. Whether you are learning in a classroom setting or just from every day experiences, or you are teaching a student or a coworker, you can take from these things.