Paul Sahlberg - We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how

We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.

Context

In the entire Finnish curriculum there is only one standard test required and that is in the last year of high school. Finland graduates 93% of its high school students compared to the 76% in the U. S. And Finnish students score Number 1 among all nations, much higher on International Math and Science Tests than American Students of comparable age. Test taking skills should not be confused with education. Tests are one indicator of student performance and the success of our home and schools in educating children. But in some areas we have improved test scores slightly but provided less education.

Topics

Citations

Paul Sahlberg, Official of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, Quoted in Smithsonian, September 2011

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

Related Quotes

Peter Ustinov

What is education but a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn?

Jerome Bruner

We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.

Brunner and B. F, Skinner were the two most preeminent learning psychologists of the day. They were intellectual opponents, but both agreed with this principle, Amazing demonstrations of this principle are available throughout history. However, apparently the cost to do it can be huge and as of 2012 there has been no overall success on a large scale of the general proposition. On the other hand, set theory has been taught to Junior High School students well, and calculus is taught in many American high schools. However. while there are these spectacular results, the American education system of the early 21st century has been unable to produce basic arithmetic and algebra skills in over 20 percent of the population.

Randy Pausch

The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

Tony Buzan

Memory and creativity are essential to education, but if you teach memory incorrectly, it is a total waste of time, and it will inhibit learning.

Leo Buscaglia

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.

John Dewey

Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

Ralph Ellison

Education is all a matter of building bridges.

Lou Holtz

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

Ken Robinson

Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests.

Peter Drucker

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

Simone Weil

The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know.

John Dewey

The human being acquires a habit of learning. He learns to learn.

Roger Deakins

I do think observing is important in learning.

Lawrence M. Krauss

Education is far less about a set of facts than a way of thinking, than learning how to critically think. And therefore, what I always think should be the basis of education is not answers but questions.

Confucius

To learn without thinking is labour in vain, to think without learning is desolation.

Mark Twain

I try never to let my schooling get in the way of my education.

Narendra Modi

Learning from experience and learning from education, both are important. Your education & values decide how you learn from your experiences.

Brie Larson

I didn't have a regular school experience and wanted a more abstract way of learning. I started exploring in lots of different creative ways. It gave me the opportunity to travel and play music, so it was good for me.