Imbuing students with the knowledge to get by is an old-school belief. Leadership is tapping into human resources to provide the highest level of service. Of course, that means doing everything necessary to support students and teachers. Finally, some individuals look at school in a more holistic manner. It means motivating and educating. Celebrating The National Day on Writing® with Texts from NCTE – Part 2! Leadership is not believing your own press; and leadership is never forgetting the why and the ethics of the mission and all those individuals—teachers and students—who have placed their trust in you. It means keeping up on the latest knowledge in teaching, content, and organizational theory. Effective questions can facilitate this. She shared her arc of learning as a student, and gushed about the joy she had as a member of both our after-school band program and our extracurricular drama program. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. These lessons are reinforced on a daily basis in schools around the nation. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, How to Facilitate Learning and Critical Thinking, Choice Motivates Students When Rewards and Punishment Don't Work, Curriculum Design: Definition, Purpose and Types, What to Do When the Technology Fails in Class, 10 Ways to Promote Self-Directed Classroom, ELL Students' Background Knowledge as an Academic Fund, Prior Knowledge Improves Reading Comprehension, M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Florida. As students tend the garden of self-discovery, new curiosities will naturally arise. In Hamlet, Polonius famously advises his son, Laertes, “To thine own self be true / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man.” But what if our students do not know themselves? Effective leadership is always understanding and probing the audience to inform oneself. We have a “bottom line” in education: it is student learning—and standardized exams don’t reflect student learning well enough to be reliable measures on their own. The Importance of Purpose in Education Facilitating Self-Reflection. A standards-driven education can be both highly productive and personally rewarding. While it's important for students to have a firm grasp of each subject, this can sometimes be problematic. These are the core topics that form the foundation of a student's education. These beliefs are often difficult to dismiss. The form need not matter. “The main purpose of the American school is to provide for the fullest possible development of each learner for living morally, creatively, and productively in a democratic society.” “The one continuing purpose of education, since ancient times, has been to bring people to as full a realization as possible of what it is to be a human being. In education we’re very good at devising benchmark assessments to collect formative data, but what of the innate and essential learners who are before us? She planned to continue her pursuits in the arts, but she was clear that her love for science was going to drive her efforts. Of course, that means doing everything necessary to support students and teachers. Schools need to teach students how to find the information they will need once they leave school. What if the student was given an opportunity to reflect on what they’re worried about in an effort to understand what stops them from fully following through? I recently met with an eighth-grade student who had been accepted to a specialized high school focused on science. . Pen and paper suffice, as does a rubric, or a Google form. What is your proudest achievement? For example, teachers who are unwilling to compromise their own subject matter for the good of the students can cause problems for the school by not being open to cross-curricular activities. The point is for students to have a process and a space to consider their life as learners. Learning how to learn is one of the key elements of education. and what is possible when we prioritize relation and connectivity over achievement and certificates. I’ve seen teachers seamlessly incorporate these reflections into student conferences. Teachers should mindfully craft authentic learning reflections along the way for their students. During our discussion, I asked about her experiences in our school. Students can discover a sense of purpose in their learning through questions that lead them to think about their interests. While it's important for students to have a firm grasp of each subject, this can sometimes be problematic. Students need to develop a consistent, self-regulated feedback loop. The insights gained from reflective questions can be used by students and teachers to develop links between various subjects and spark interests in multiple curricular areas. It's the idea that schools need to provide students with the knowledge they need to be functional adults in their day-to-day lives.