Learning is for life, not to score well in exams

As I reflect while reading about Assessment Tools, I realised how much of my education was targeted at scoring well for the examinations, which was largely what mattered to help one get into a school/course of his or her choice.

This just isn't right. For there are more tests that we need to pass than nationwide level examinations. There are other tests of life.

What do you do what a relationship turns sour?

What do you do when your loved one passes away or your good friend's loved one passes away?

What do you do when you sprain your ankle?

How do you plan for a major event?

What a waste of opportunities if all our school-time was used to merely teach basic facts and shallow level thinking, or meeting the objectives stated in the curriculum, knowing so much of these eventually are forgotten and not incorporated into our lives.

Surely, more can be done to teach students how to think in classrooms, more interdisciplinary work, more impartation of universal values.

Then again, our whole lives are a learning process. We don't just learn in class. But many students might not see this. They may not be in the position to sieve and pick and question more in classroom to over-ride a teacher's lack of initiative. This really calls for teachers to be more creative, more intentional to develop lifelong thinkers and learners.

And just not teachers, but a whole new system and structure that enables teachers to perform in this role. We cannot expect teachers to teach creatively when there are greater incentives to teach un-creatively.

I make a teacher sound like a mentor or disciple-maker. Maybe before I talk about this, I need to be clear what's the definition of a teacher, in Singapore's context. What is the teacher's role or calling?

“The learning process can be divided into the accumulation of bits of information (memory) and the movement of this into patterns (thinking).

The compulsive learner is incapable of thinking. There is always another bit to be memorized and, if they are all learned, there is little time to rearrange the bits. It is also clear that without any bits there is no thinking.”

Eugene Stead, MD Chair, Department of Medicine

"The compulsive learner is incapable of thinking."

I do think I know too much and think too little.

When I read books, I'm more eager to finish reading the book, than to apply the knowledge I've gained in certain chapters.

I wonder if I can take a new approach to life and learning by knowing less, and use that time saved to think and do more.