Memorable times, not just memorization, needed in schools

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta

"I can't sleep at night. I'm so worried about all of this. I can't seem to think properly." These are comments from a final year high school student preparing for his final tests.

Certainly these are common enough experiences -- students all around the world will understand only too well such sentiments but here in Indonesia the stresses of going to school and preparing for tests seem to be added to by the nature of the education system, along with the modes of teaching applied by Indonesian educators.

Everyone seems to recognize that the Indonesian schools curriculum is over-burdensome and so is a likely source of stress. Even with recent overhauls and adjustments in orientation towards a more competency based format for the curriculum, students remain in the unfortunate position of facing a heavy workload and difficult path to follow. The curriculum may change but it will take a lot longer for teachers to change their ways.

Unfortunately many teachers are too tied to their curriculum targets, too limited in their approach which leads them to just "follow the book" and regurgitate dull and uninspiring information that changes little year after year. Too many teachers remain unimaginative and inconsiderate of their audience -- the students.

Consequently student life, even with a redesigned curriculum, is likely to remain stressful and dull.

Teachers need to take to heart and be trained to incorporate the notion that schooling should be memorable not just about memorization.

Take the observation from a second year high school student on his chemistry class, "I have to follow all these calculations and memorize all these symbols but it all meaningless to me. I just do it. I try to follow and do as I am told but I don't really understand it at all."

The fact that schooling might be described as "meaningless" is revealing. Education, at its heart, should be full of meaning because then it may become memorable and so valid. But meaningful and memorable lessons are often lost in the humdrum, dull mentality that suggests that mere attendance and exposure to the knowledge or information is sufficient.

Students can be hit by the double blow of having to study too much.

Students may often be caught in a learning environment and experience that leaves them bored, disinterested and inactive in their learning habits. What results, then, is not only a stressful experience but also one that is not demanding or challenging of their intellect.

Consistently classes have been observed in which the teacher's role is little more than presenter of knowledge and the students' role is one of an almost entirely passive audience. This model of a classroom is not really that of a school classroom; instead what we may be viewing is a lecture theater but school students are not equipped with the necessary skills to be successful in a lecture-like setting.

In a lecture theater teenagers will inevitably feel misplaced and uncomfortable. Being youthful they will have a natural restlessness and energy but a lecture does nothing to capitalize on this energy. Leaving school students inactive in class sets up the likelihood of them being inattentive too and so less productive and able to learn. Being active in class actually directly improves learning potential and the possibility of memory gain instead of memory loss.

Brain protein, that is a crucial aid to enhancing memory and so increasing learning ability, reaches higher levels when we are active. In this sense getting students active and participating in classroom activities is a direct way of activating their brains and so their memory and learning ability. Through activities, we make their learning processes more efficient.

If we expect students to merely memorize, we are guilty of overburdening them and so stressing them again. Educators must recognize that students cannot and should not be forced along a path on which they are expected to remember everything. Instead students need to be encouraged to engage in, what psychologists call, "memory selectivity and storage".

This is in effect a thinking skill that when applied allows students to select the most important bits of information and learning and store it, in their memory, for future and appropriate use.

This kind of selectivity and sensitivity to the abundance of information that a student may daily be exposed to is also a way of relieving stress and so opening up greater learning efficiency. Ultimately students need to be engaged by their learning experiences. They need to be given the opportunity to interact and participate with their teachers in a learning mode that enjoys discovery and learning by doing. Also, students need more room and time in which they can cope with the learning that they must accommodate.

Teenage years are, after all, quite stressful, as people experience growth and change that they must both physically and mentally accommodate. To add excessively and unnecessarily to this through an overwhelming system of education is neither fair nor useful in the long-term.

Psychologists are agreed that stress, fatigue and any ensuing lack of attention are all causes of memory loss. A failure to engage mentally with what you are encountering means that it is less likely to enter into your memory. If you are interested in or by something, you pay more attention. This is little more than a biological reaction of the brain. In turn, if your brain is attentive your memory benefits because human memory is derived from the act of paying attention.

There is, then, a reciprocating effect in progress here. Interest triggers memory, but a natural and lasting memory not a forced memory of learning by rote. A memorable learning experience becomes a valuable learning tool. By sparking interest teachers can draw students willingly into the act of learning. Stress and absent-mindedness can be pushed aside.

Moves to redesign curriculum materials are to be applauded but they should be supported by efforts to encourage teachers to change and improve their methods. Over time school life may become more memorable and less stressful. One of the greatest thinkers in history Albert Einstein once said that, "it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." With such joy school students may benefit from a more effective and efficient education.

The writer is Executive Principal of the High/Scope Indonesia School. The opinions expressed above are personal.