Should students always think on their own?

[krisgil_aguila]

Should students always think on their own?
What if they don't know what to do?

[The Comedian]

Well, yes. They should think on their own. Of course in an academic setting they should be guided and helped. But almost all original thought contains an element of risk (of failure), especially if you're just learning something for the first time.

Just his weekend we taught my five-year old daughter how to tie her shoes; she didn't know what to do and our showing her only helped so much (sometimes it made the complicated process look too easy). But her first attempt, even with that instruction, was a loop in the dark, so to speak. In time an with practice she got pretty good at it. But she needed to think the problem through and go through several risky attempts at solving the problem before she mastered the skill.

If we didn't let her think on her own in this matter, we'd still be "stuck" with Velcro. ;)

[Katy North]

Students should be taught by their teacher or others with more experience than themselves to think on their own.

[Jozanny]

If a student "doesn't know what to do" they have to think about what level of educational training they want; college and university isn't for everyone, and there should be no level of stigma attached to that. I was segregated in special ed as a young girl, and my teachers fought like hell to get me integrated, and in high school my history teachers fought like hell to get me to take pre-Harvard level entry courses, and in private university I was discriminated against by professors who refused to teach me but wound up with a 3.8 average, and here I am, an online community flukie testing the patience of otherwise delightful school marm moderators--my sister once took car mechanic training, so maybe you need to look at other learning models.

[Gladys]

Should students always think on their own?
What if they don't know what to do?

With two sons starting university, this is a question close to my heart. Years of primary and secondary education did little to make my sons think. Early readers, both always do brilliantly on comprehension and maths aptitude tests but neither can synthesize enough to understand a novel, a maths unit or, indeed, any other text.

In literature they look for a ready-made links, while in maths they look for a method. Schooling has done little to engender in them an appreciation of the plethora of resonances - patterns and indications - which are the key to finding meaning in text: the key to thinking.

In vogue in psychology is a view that humans are like scientists in that they constantly construct and embellish their own narrative of how the world works. That narrative may be at variance with reality but suffices for the individual - up to a point. My boys have been allowed to get by with a trite narrative, leading to third-rate thinking, for which I share some blame.

What's the answer? I'm betting on a combination of growing-up, combined with ongoing explicit instruction and painstaking role-modelling in how to think. Am I on a winner?

[Jozanny]

Gladys, on the gender divide issue over verbal and mathematics, I had unusal highs in math in certain subjects: Euclid geometry, chemistry, algebra, and yet I very nearly flunked biology, which doesn't make sense, logic nearly drove me crazy, and I had to struggle in high end math and physics, just like my aunt did with statistics; she was a good terminal degree student but for that.

I like sciences and equations, but beyond a certain point I guess I cannot conceptualize the methodology. Logic was the worst, and I never want to go near it again, which limits how much philosophy I can truly tackle, because you need logic beyond a certain level of inquiry.

[applepie]

I think that students should always think for themselves, but it is up to the teachers and their parents to teach them how to think properly. My son is only 6 and all too often his thought process is illogical and brings him to the wrong conclusions. He'll have a wrong answer not because he can't think it though on his own, but because he does not know how to think it through on his own.

Even with older students, they don't always know how to attack a specific problem or question. This is where I think help is needed. I think it is more time consuming to do this since it is easier to get some people to a conclusion than others, but I think it is more helpful than leaving a student to flounder on their own or just provide specifics of what you want them to think.

[Aravona]

I think the environment for people learning is key, and the environment should encourage their own thought processes and develop the skills required to learn.

When I was at school, fair few years ago now, we had split classes to enable people to learn at their own paces. This meant teachers were able to give the right amount of input without making student feel like they weren't getting enough/too much attention. It works quite well and because of this system I feel I got to the point I'm at today where I can ask if I need to but most of the time I can research and answer or solve a problem on my own. And I do this now at work having gone past uni and school.

I had a lot of teaching me how to do things as well as being taught the subject matter. I took many lessons on how to write an essay from English teachers, Geography teachers, Science teachers. Which allowed me to jump right into university with a great knowledge on writing essays and how essay writing differs with subject. Same with exams: I learnt to be descriptive and analytical in English, but short sweet to the point answers for Biology.

This is because my teachers decided to teach us how to do things for ourselves along with the subject matter. I got to my exams and I was quite please with myself even if I didn't get the grades I wanted.

[caddy_caddy]

Yes for sure they should think on their own since an early age .
But what really makes the students not thinking for themselves is the " terror of errors " . I think it's a real terror . A more positive attitudes from both parents and teachers towards doing errors as sth inevitable in the learning process could encourage the students and make them more independent .
I taught my kids that it is not a problem to err if we learn from our errors and try to avoid it the next time . I always emphasised their personal effort and the individual achievemnt. That made them like to think and do their homework by themselves . Now if I try to help them they refuse .

[Scheherazade]

Good heavens, no.

What's the point?

Is that what we want? Independent individuals who are able to think for themselves and, heavens forbid, start questioning the authority as adults???

No, I say! No, no, no!

This is exactly the kind of behaviour that should be discouraged; nipped in the bud before it gets out of hand.

[Gladys]

But what really makes the students not thinking for themselves is the " terror of errors " .

My 17-year-olds have been brought up free of the "terror of errors" but still don't think. I wonder if the problem is more the schools' attitude to errors: errors don't matter?

But errors do matter; we should focus on them because it's fundamental to learning, to thinking!

[blazeofglory]

I feel students have their way of judgment. They can discriminate between things. They know their values as we do. They also witness things the way we do and we simply trying to intrude their domains of interests, passions and freedoms. Of course they see both good and bad. We do not have to teach them what compassion, love, sensibility and the like. They have all ingrained within them. Let them have their own thoughts and we with our stale and passive emotions must meddle

[LitNetIsGreat]

My 17-year-olds have been brought up free of the "terror of errors" but still don't think. I wonder if the problem is more the schools' attitude to errors: errors don't matter?

But errors do matter; we should focus on them because it's fundamental to learning, to thinking!

Yes absolutely, though don't you mean errors don't matter instead of errors don't matter? :incazzato:

[Revolte]

Good heavens, no.

What's the point?

Is that what we want? Independent individuals who are able to think for themselves and, heavens forbid, start questioning the authority as adults???

No, I say! No, no, no!

This is exactly the kind of behaviour that should be discouraged; nipped in the bud before it gets out of hand.

I think I'm proof its too late on that one :(

@OP: I do think they should always think on their own, I did when I was in school and it worked out for the best. That doesn't mean they cant be helped if they don't know what they are doing. There is a difference between learning and repeating. They can be taught by their teachers the subject, but still come to their own conclusion. I will admit I didn't pay much attention in school, and i questiond everything I was told ( aside from math, I'm stupid when it comes to math ), but I still passed the classes and came out with my own thoughts on every subject.

[caddy_caddy]

My 17-year-olds have been brought up free of the "terror of errors" but still don't think. I wonder if the problem is more the schools' attitude to errors: errors don't matter?

Maybe he thinks but not in the way we expect or suppose.


But errors do matter; we should focus on them because it's fundamental to learning, to thinking!
I think it's sth that has to deal with carefully because the students may stuck there and couldn't go forward . With time students can overcome their problems as a natural development in the learning process . Sometimes you focus on the error , correct and explain it many times but still the student do it .

[Katy North]

Whenever I did slightly below what my personal average was in school growing up and I had a bout of the "terror of the errors", my dad always said, "that's okay, just do better next time", and I always did.

I'd recommend that as a cure for the terror of the errors that isn't overindulgent on the parent's part any day.

[Gladys]

Whenever...I had a bout of the "terror of the errors", my dad always said, "that's okay, just do better next time"

I preferred to say that losing a contest or making errors "is best because you've learnt the most".


With time students can overcome their problems as a natural development in the learning process. Sometimes you focus on the error, correct and explain it many times but still the student do it.

Agree absolutely. The trouble is that high school and university exams won't wait for that 'natural development' - the dawn of reflective thinking - in most young students.

[Musicology]

A student who thinks on his own has obtained some maturity. But a student who has learned to think on his own and who has learned not throw his pearls before swine will finally meet mature teachers. They will allow him to see both sides of his subject.

[Katy North]

Also think Gladys, that your kids are 17... they're not independent yet (or if they are they're just starting out). I'm quite sure I was young and foolish until I was somewhere between 20 and 23... give them some time for reality to hit them and they'll probably start thinking on their own. :nod:

(ha yes, a 26 year old giving sage advice...) :smilielol5:

[blazeofglory]

Children are always watchful of what is going around, and we do not have to put enforcement on them and they use their own conscience and judgment when they have to make a decision. I do not think too many dos and don'ts will help, despite the fact that a little guidance at the outset will not be an over overstatement. But most of love or are at least accustomed to behaving with our children and think that we must mold them and change them blurring their own natures

[stephanson]

i am a student myself. in fact earlier today i posted a thread on what people thought about the comparision between a book i have read and a novella i have read. i asked purely out of curiosty of what people think. i think discussion is key to learning because ones idea maybe correct however it may not be the only interpretation and others opinions can give a better or different outlook. i dont think students should think on there own especially when it involes literature or english as it can be interpretated in so many ways.

[blazeofglory]

i am a student myself. in fact earlier today i posted a thread on what people thought about the comparision between a book i have read and a novella i have read. i asked purely out of curiosty of what people think. i think discussion is key to learning because ones idea maybe correct however it may not be the only interpretation and others opinions can give a better or different outlook. i dont think students should think on there own especially when it involes literature or english as it can be interpretated in so many ways.

You'r right. Taking others' views will broaden your mind indeed but what you must do is have your own thought guide you ultimately. Others can only help you with their ideas but ultimately it is your ideas that count