Learning vs Schooling

I started thinking about this post when I read Will Richardson's post -

August 11th, 2011

And What Do YOU Mean By Learning (Part 2)

In this post and one other Will wrote some of his thoughts on learning and how many of us do not know exactly what learning is. My knee jerk response was - of course I do. Then I thought about it for a while and realized I had vague ideas but no solid ideas. So I pondered that concept and read a bit and thought a bit. I expect that is what Will was hoping folks would do after reading what he wrote.

I am now of the opinion that there is a great deal of difference between learning and schooling. Will did imply that as well. When we had Orientation for our new students this week at SVGS I discussed this a very briefly with some of the students. I asked how many had memorized information for the Virginia SOL testing. I got smiles and hands raised. I told the students that we hoped that they would learn material they studied. By that I meant that I hoped that they would internalize some of he information and understand what they we studying.

The more I pondered this idea the less I "knew". I started to think about what I felt learning was and then fell back to the verb - to learn. I realized that I feel that to learn implies more than just acquiring fact or information about something. To learn implies to me that you can do something with the information you have acquired. So if you have memorized PV = nRT that is nice, you now have memorized the formula for working gas law problems. But what do you know? What can you do with this equation? If you are learning chemistry you should be able to work some problems and you should be able to tell someone about he behavior of gases and how this law can be applied, what are the limitations of the equations.

For schooling you will have memorized the equation, you will know what the symbols stand for and be able to work simple problems. You will be able to answer the Chemistry SOL question.