According to the Internet American Life Project we have become 'an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.' This means if we don't get our answer immediately we get frustrated, forget about it and move on. What would have happened if the apple fell on Newtons head but he wasn't bothered to figure out why? These life changing discoveries, like evolution, DNA and medicine, would have never been found if people weren't curious. Recently we have lost this curiosity and become so independent on the internet.
A few months ago, for a humanities assignment, Grade 7 students were asked to complete an essay on the Vietnam war. It was a dull day and the students were already getting bored, sitting in their seats. As the task was announced, the students burst into conversation amongst their friends, complaining and moaning as they knew that this task would be a lot of work and would force them to do a lot of research. Mr Murray, the humanities teacher, continued to explain the project while the students fidgeted in their seats and doodled in the corner of their books. Already the students were dreading the research as they knew it would be extremely boring and the information would be hard to find.
“On the bright side,” Mr Murray continued “I have created a planner that should make the research easier,” Some of the students faces lit up as they were looking for any possible way to make the project effortless in any sense. “Here is the summative planner, in the first column you can come up with specific questions that you would want to answer in your essay and in the second column you can gather some information that answers those questions.”
This idea encouraged the students as it meant that they could just copy the question into google, click the first couple links and jot down just about enough information to form a sentence or 2 answering the question. Still the students procrastinated till the last minute, dreading to the start the research.
As if doing their chores, the students finally began their work. “I don’t get this!” said Sophie, a girl in the humanities class who was re-reading the assignment. “Do you think I do?” Aditi, who was sitting next to her replied. “I don’t get why we have to do all of this research, can’t they just tell us, I’m not finding anything,” frustrated Sophie, banging on her computer keys. “Have you tried searching the question yet?
“Ya, I typed in ‘Did Ho Chi Minh make decisions that would benefit the people?’ and nothing came up. There’s just this long essay and I don’t want to read that.”
This sort of research is not useful for anyone. When asked how much students remembered from this project nobody said more than 70% and still there was a very small percentage that remembered that much. Teachers found that when students were given research topics they enjoyed they were able to go into full detail because there were so many resources online but in the same sense when students did not want to research the topic, they were easily capable of searching in Yahoo answers and getting information from un-credible sources.
When middle school students were asked what they think the definition of research was most of them replied by saying that it was finding information. Seika, a Grade 8 student said it was “Using resources to gather information for an assignment, project or just for fun,” to which Patrick replied which a laugh “Who does research for fun?” This is the perfect example of how research has turned from a ‘intellectual curiosity and discovery’ to a ‘fast paced, short term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.’
Back at the humanities class on the next day, the students walked into the classroom and sat down in their regular seats with a fixed mindset. Mr Murray, encouragingly repeated the instructions again before letting the students continue their research. Grudgingly the students opened their laptops and began looking for the document where all their information was. They began searching for more information on their topic but still failed to see the point of the essay.
By this lesson Aditi had found a couple solid and reliable sources to gather her information from. Sophie on the other hand was still confused and kept sneaking looks at Aditi’s computer. “Where are you getting all your information from? The only website that comes up for me is shmoop and there is nothing good about shmoop!” Sophie irritatedly demanded. Aditi began reasoning with Sophie by reminding her that “You won’t get any information if you just search up the question, you need to understand what you are really asking and break it down.” Aditi explained “But that sounds like a lot of work and I don’t really care.”
“Yeah neither did I, but over the weekend I really started understanding the topic and I started liking it and that helped me want to find out more and then I was able to do it properly,” Aditi said. “Okay... but I don’t want to do it so then how can I get my information?” Sophie had begun to understand what Aditi was getting on to but was still very confused. “Just try to focus and be curious! Your from Vietnam so it shouldn’t be that hard,”
Sophie represents about 75% of our population these days. They are unable to understand the point of research and are not interested in finding out more. Aditi on the other hand represents that smaller population that understands why curiosity is important.
Back at the humanities class on the next day, the students walked into the classroom and sat down in their regular seats with a fixed mindset. Mr Murray, encouragingly repeated the instructions again before letting the students continue their research. Grudgingly the students opened their laptops and began looking for the document where all their information was. They began searching for more information on their topic but still failed to see the point of the essay.
By this lesson Aditi had found a couple solid and reliable sources to gather her information from. Sophie on the other hand was still confused and kept sneaking looks at Aditi’s computer. “Where are you getting all your information from? The only website that comes up for me is shmoop and there is nothing good about shmoop!” Sophie irritatedly demanded. Aditi began reasoning with Sophie by reminding her that “You won’t get any information if you just search up the question, you need to understand what you are really asking and break it down.” Aditi explained “But that sounds like a lot of work and I don’t really care.”
“Yeah neither did I, but over the weekend I really started understanding the topic and I started liking it and that helped me want to find out more and then I was able to do it properly,” Aditi said. “Okay... but I don’t want to do it so then how can I get my information?” Sophie had begun to understand what Aditi was getting on to but was still very confused. “Just try to focus and be curious! Your from Vietnam so it shouldn’t be that hard,”
Sophie represents about 75% of our population these days. They are unable to understand the point of research and are not interested in finding out more. Aditi on the other hand represents that smaller population that understands why curiosity is important.
Even though students are capable of doing in-depth research for topics they are interested in, still very few people would go, experiment and find out new information without being prompted. Sometimes that spark of curiosity comes in our heads but we just brush it away because we are not bothered. Technology has turned us into thoughtless creatures who expect answers straight away and give up if their expectations aren’t met. We have to fight against this and bring back the curiosity.
Written by Aditi
I enjoyed reading your post Aditi. There is so much to think about and digest.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't agree with your statement that "technology has turned us into thoughtless creature who expect answers straight away." I would say that technology has allowed us to be able to quickly find answers to factual questions.
When I was growing up without Google, facts were the things we were taught in school. Now that facts can be accessed easily, schools need to be asking students better questions. Questions that require the student to find out information, collate it, synthesize it and make their own judgements and conclusions.
I think one of the bigger problems is that 3/4 of the students are unable to understand the point of research. The "Why" behind the research needs to be clearly articulated for anyone to care. Research was always challenging for students, even before technology. Especially when they were researching topics that weren't interesting to them. Maybe it is more of a case of students being more resilient when researching regardless of the way they are choosing to research. If these students were given books to use for their research, would they be more engaged? I don't think so.
Thank you Mr Caleb. Reading what you had to say about this article really made me re think what I was trying to say. I do agree that students just generally lack the will power to do proper research, but I still believe that access to Internet does play a role in this since not only does the internet give us the option of in depth research but also the option to slack of. As you mentioned it would be definatley valuable if teachers asked better questions that required more work so that the students could understand the topic better.
ReplyDeleteI think you both bring up great points about needing better questions, but really the issue here is student inquiry and agency. What we really need is a system that allows the questions to be generated by the student who is doing the research, based on her interests and curiosity. How do we build a school like that Aditi? What do you want to learn about? What questions do you have? Forget the teacher, what do you what to find out? That is true research. That is real learning.
ReplyDeleteI am just not sure how we fit that into the context of a larger school as an institution.