The Passion and the Roadblock
I’ve always had a passion for education. Grappling with hard concepts, breaking them down, learning to make use of them, these were always really satisfying for me. And I’ve always wanted to share this experience and feeling with others! How can I make people realize that math or coding is really not that scary, that it just needs to be something that’s taught better or scaffolded? How can I make people see that research and theory and so on can actually be quite simple and elegant, as long as you take the time to establish the context and read and connect what you read to your life?
But I feel like I’ve had a roadblock here, especially recently with my groupmates. I’d always feel like people were just trying to complete the requirements, to just get by with what the teacher tells them to do. When I tell people my ideas, they don’t talk very passionately. They give off this feeling of, “Okay, so what do we do?” or “I don’t really understand what you mean.” It’s so incredibly frustrating. I’m not doing anything special! If you’re confused, let’s have a discussion about it! You just need to let go of being so attached to the requirements. There’s so much potential here! These moments led me to feeling really unmotivated to continue working with them. Out of all of my 5 groups, I ended up cramming everything for 3 of them, and feeling really detached and disappointed with 2 of them.
From Control to Collaboration
Looking back, I think I held on so tightly because I’d spent so long feeling like no one took learning seriously the way I did. Every groupmate who just wanted to ‘complete the requirements’ felt like confirmation that I was alone in caring. So I gripped harder, tried to control more, as if forcing my vision would somehow prove that caring deeply about ideas wasn’t pointless.
Recently, however, I’d been reflecting on my learnings from educational psychology and theoretical frameworks in instructional design. And I had a hard realization: I wasn’t being collaborative, supportive, or understanding of my groupmates. I was expecting them to fill in the gaps of my vision, without considering their perspective or needs. I failed to meet people where they were, and I need to balance my passion with honoring their autonomy and interests.
Cultivation Over Control
This realization led me to a central message that connects all of the theories I’d been studying: “Learning is about cultivation, not control”. In the words of Alexander den Heijer: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” In learning, you can’t directly control how your students think or feel. You can’t directly control the environment that they’ll be in outside of the classroom. But you can cultivate an environment that they can be comfortable in, where they can be themselves. And the fact that learning happens even if it’s outside the classroom, points to the fact that learning really is something that learners have to do themselves.
As a useful analogy, there’s two aspects here: capacity, and driving force. Capacity refers to the “infrastructure”, the environment in which we exist. It’s about psychological safety, feeling heard, being comfortable, having autonomy, and being given the space to be themselves. Meanwhile, the driving force is what pushes people to learn. It’s about intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and meaning-making, or maybe just compliance. Regardless, it’s important to note that we as educators can only ever manipulate the “capacity” of students to learn. We can never truly control why they like to learn, or why they’re choosing to learn, or what motivates them to do so. Education is not necessarily about making people learn, and more so about creating the conditions necessary for people to do so.
Theoretical Frameworks for Human-Centered Learning
Several learning theories say something similar. Constructivism says that learning emerges from learners and can’t be simply transmitted. Self-determination theory emphasizes the importance of respecting autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The universal design for learning framework highlights multiple means for engagement, representation, and action/expression. Each of these frameworks points to the same truth: you can’t force learning, you can only create the conditions for it.
But perhaps, most personally, I learned that this is what real learning looks like from seeing how my classmates interacted with different professors. It’s always with the warm, collaborative professors and instructors where people engage the most. Where people feel free to think, to reflect, to act. Sure, maybe some students will not really see the “big picture” of what these professors are teaching. But that’s fine! One day, they’ll look back at these lessons and learnings, in their own careers and experiences, and realize what my professors really meant. I have these professors to thank the most for making me realize what good education really looks like.
Integrating the Theory into Practice
Moving forward, I’ll apply this personal learning theory both in my long-term career and in my next experiences with other classmates. I’ll make sure to value everyone’s input and ideas, and I’ll put in the time and effort needed to make sure we’re actually cultivating something valuable and long-lasting. As a future educator, and as someone who wants to contribute to research and innovations in education, I have to learn the importance of meeting people where they are without getting completely lost in my own world.
In a way, we are all learners and educators. We are all constantly discovering and observing and learning from each experience we have, and who else are we experiencing these with if not other people? I realize that my exact behavior is a reflection of why education has failed so many learners for so long. Math anxiety and people saying they’re not good at math is a result of years of education that tried to control competence and outcomes rather than cultivate curiosity and engagement. How many people could’ve studied math coming out appreciative instead of scared or dismissive?
Conclusion: Cultivating a Better World
In conclusion, what I’ve learned about learning, education, and even my life in general, is that we should all learn to cultivate instead of control. It’s why we design learning through instructional design and frameworks. We don’t design students themselves. Perhaps because of rejection, pain, or our previous vulnerabilities, that we try to be more controlling of our circumstances. And that’s fair! We shouldn’t be just going through the motions and saying “this is just how things are”. But I realized that that pain, that suffering, is something that we shouldn’t let take control of us. It’s why I keep going, why I love to learn, but I shouldn’t let it blind me and my judgment. What else am I doing for anyway, if not to make the world just a bit better for me and for everyone else I care for?