Tired of telling students to ask questions and to think about what they were doing, Damien Hynes, a high school teacher, decided to do an experiment to test what he had long been thinking. He wrote some well-organized nonsense (谬论) on the blackboard. The students simply copied it but very few asked any questions. This shows that students are willing to believe anything given by teachers. The story is repeated in support of the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL).
PEEL was carried out by some teachers and researchers in Melbourne who had discovered that normal teaching methods seldom achieve their intended goals: what the teachers think they are teaching is one thing and what the students actually learn is something else. Students' lack of an over-all view of learning goals and their concentration on test scores make them see each lesson as a separate activity.
Researchers realized that many students do not come into class empty-headed but have their own explanations of how the world works. Their own ideas can remain important to them even when they conflict with scientific explanations that are learned later. In fact, such ideas are hardly affected by traditional teaching. Students accept the teacher's scientific explanation, but do not drop their own. In a class test, they copy the teacher's idea, but in real life they use their own.
Clearly what was needed was to make students aware of their learning process, and this is what the PEEL teachers set out to deal with. In the class being taught by PEEL methods, there are some meaningful changes. Students are given much more time to express their views, and teachers don't make immediate judgment. The students are allowed to guide what is done in class and their own ideas are always respected. This draws their attention to the actual learning process, and they become responsible for their own progress.
The PEEL researchers believed that their experiment would be proved valuable if the experiences of children and teachers in different classes using PEEL methods were similar. So far, all teachers and students who have worked with PEEL methods agree that their approach to teaching and learning has really changed. The students are far more ready to question what is presented to them, while the teachers have realized that the traditional methods are not good enough.
