Seek And Find
Most children often expect everything to be provided for them.
They expect their teachers and parents to provide the solution and knowledge needed for the questions or problems that they have.
They often think that there is only one answer and there is only one way to solve those questions and problems.
As parents and teachers, we must let them know the brutal fact that most problems do not have only one solution anymore.
There can be multiple ways to solve just one problem but the decision of the best solution after weighing the pros and cons really depends on their own decision and no one should decide for them.
Open-Ended Task
Teachers and parents can provide open-ended task where there is no definite answer to lead their students and children to explore a large pool of differentiated answers.
The fact that most children nowadays are really IT savvy who can know a lot more than us for the things that they are interested.
They are definitely the generation where google is just a common tool and they know how to search for information when they want to.
The main problem is they are too lazy to find out things that they may not be interested especially it is not to their personal interest.
With this in mind, we need to set tasks that they want to know more. It is not impossible but it takes more effort over our side to do so.
Dive Deeper
With some information gathered, we need to lead pupils how to dive deeper into the information to have a more comprehensive understanding rather than the surface knowledge.
Just like we can identify an ice-cream when we see one but we may not know the ingredients in that ice-cream that we see.
The fact that there may be ingredients that may cause allergies for some so knowing more can have lots of benefits.
By having a comprehensive understanding, our children can use what they learn and understand in a more practical and flexible way.
The blind may be able to walk the same pathway as those who can see but the blind may not be able to appreciate the beauty of the surrounding during the journey on the pathway.
The journey of learning can be a wonderful and impactful experience.
Am I right?
Information found may not always be the facts or there may be areas for debate.
Our children must know that even information can subject to different authors’ opinion so they must make their own judgement.
They must learn to question themselves whether they have understood the information found correctly and evaluate the information further through other sources.
Through self-evaluation, they can finalise the best possible answer for their question or problem that they are investigating.
By letting them have the awareness of not following information blindly, we are nurturing critical thinkers for the 21st century demands.
In Conclusion
When they are willing to seek, they can find.
When they are willing to find, they can explore different possibilities.
When they are able to explore, they develop curious minds and critical thinkers.
Learning is not a fixed formula and ownership of knowledge can go a longer way than knowledge that is gained through spoon-feeding.
We must no longer be the all-knowing parents but we can facilitators of knowledge acquisition.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2019/04/06/seek-and-find/