“The stars incline, they do not compel.”

One of the most interesting and awkward parts of school is placement tests.

Placement tests are really, really important. They help you figure out which classes you’re ready for, and (in a twist I did not expect) which class you have to teach yourself, if it’s not available, in order to get into and pass the class you want to take next.

The math class that I just took didn’t match my learning style. Although the theory of individual differences is still developing, for a long time learning styles have been broken down into various types. Visual, Aural, etcetera- you learn by a certain sense more than others. This may not actually be true; it may just be another way to typify students in a way that doesn’t help. It’s generally recognised that one’s learning methods aren’t static- everyone learns, to some degree or another, from all their senses. No one is exactly one type or another.

It would be more true to say that we each just have preferences, shortcuts we’ve developed to learn with. Getting around those can be hard, especially when we’re presented with difficult material, but they have to do with how we connect information inside our heads, not how it gets in there in the first place.

There’s actually evidence to support the idea that the limitations imposed by learning styles is nonsense. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2009/12/report_debunks_learning-style.html Daniel WIllingham’s actually taken quite a bit of abuse for talking about it openly: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/the-big-idea-behind-learning.html

My problem is simple- I am not a visual learner, or an aural learner, at all. In fact, learning is extremely difficult for me in some areas. I simply cannot learn a formula, and then spit it out, using it to recall my comprehension of the concept. I usually need to understand the concept first, and can figure it out from there.

I’m proud to say that that’s changed. Ye gods and little fishes, how that’s changed, but it hasn’t changed enough to make it easy for me to learn from a blackboard. So I’ll admit it: I went to an entire semester of math class, sat in the back, tried to understand, and when it went over my head, I simply stopped paying attention. I wrote three short stories, corrected an essay, and read four books during the course of this math class. I wasn’t ignoring the material; I went home each time, sat down with my calculator and the internet, and taught myself math.

It was brutal, and I hated it. More than anything, I wanted to go in to the sections available for help- but I had other classes those nights. Even though the professor told us up front, “If you don’t go to the sections, we just assume that you don’t care about the class,” I couldn’t go. The statement has meaning, though, and I can’t stress this enough: regardless of what your shortcuts are, and whether they work for that class, learning the material is your responsibility. It’s your job, not theirs, to make you learn. They are there to present material, help filter down the wilderness, provide guidance and the raw information. Your job, at the college level, is to get it into your head in a retrievable, comprehendable database.

So I learned math. And more math. Standard deviations. Probabilities. I worked on learning the basics of standard interest and rates of decay. I spent an average of eight hours for each two hour class, just learning, before I could tackle the homework. I can honestly say that I have never worked so hard, on so alien a subject, for any class in my life.

I didn’t like having to, but I found that I loved the material. I did well; I got an A minus. I’m sad about that; I know which material I was still shaky on by the end of class. But I did well, and felt I was really ready to tackle the next subject, hopefully with a better understanding of how to hook the informaiton up inside my head.

With that in mind, I asked the TA what I should take next, and she recommended college algebra. All right. Placement test? Oh, right, placement test.

The placement test advised me that I should take the class that I just passed, the one that I got an A- in.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that there is a gap in my understanding, a gap in my learning, that was not covered in that class (since I learned all the material presented) and so I am not prepared for the next class. As frustrating as that is, I’m stuck with the simple knowledge that this is my problem, and my responsibility. Lots of classes, and lots of things in life, are going to have a steeper slope than expected, and require some serious prep to advance for. I have to learn algebra… in order to get into algebra. It’s a little ironic (especially the part about being sent back to the class I just completed) but it’s also not atypical for the world. I scheduled a meeting with my advisor, and I bought some good textbooks. I have every intention of passing the placement test before the class begins, thus securing my seat.

I am insane. I remember how hard it was, I remember how much trouble it gave me. And I’m setting myself up, taking a hard math class alongside tech writing (with its ten page syllabus) and an Asian language. But you know what? I already learned how to learn this. So I can do it, and if I can’t, clearly I need the practice.

In the end, learning comes from us. I know that I’m in for a semester of hard work, of constant homework, and of struggling with my brain to try to get it to take the bit. I know it, and I’m doing it.

The stars incline, they do not compel. Paracelsus knew quite a bit about how responsible we are for our destinies. Regardless of my so-called learning style, I must take responsibility for the architecture in my own head. I don’t want to, but I will. That is what school is actually for, to pass the responsibility back to us, as individuals. I can complain all I want about the teacher’s style, but in the end, it comes down to me, with paper and a pencil, and neither of those can really take the blame.

January 15, 2010 • Posted in: Uncategorized

One Response to ““The stars incline, they do not compel.””

  1. blinder - January 15th, 2010

    excellent! yeah i’ve never figured out my “learning style” and have over the years just ditched the notion that i had a particular “style.” i guess i learn-by-doing but that’s not completely accurate either.

    learning is organic in many respects, so trying to categorize it and type it, is actually pretty useless for the most part (oh sure, i can see how it’s useful to those who try to help those with learning disabilities.)

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