I was a Teenage Mindless Learner

It started in high school. My primary goal at the time was to get into a “good” college, and I knew how to do it- get good grades, and fill my time up with lots of “extra-curricular activities” to tack onto my application. I also knew that the material in my classes was not really that hard for me- I could pay attention 10% of the time in class, memorize a bunch of stuff, and get A’s. I got very good at efficiently allocating my time to maximize my GPA. I literally felt sometimes like I was cracking some kind of formula. In class last Wednesday, we lamented the question “Will this be on the test?” I don’t think I ever actually said these words aloud, but I would certainly pay attention if anyone else did.

This kind of learning more or less got me through my master’s program, as by that time I had gotten really good it. This isn’t entirely true- along the way, there were plenty of classes or topics or assignments that truly engaged me. Writing papers was usually more engaging than studying for exams, for instance, and anything that required some creativity often got me thinking more “mindfully.”  Sometimes, the topic was complicated enough that I actually had to sit down and understand it. I would notice when this happened, so I really appreciate having words for it now. Mindless learning was fast, efficient, and not a lot of fun. Mindful learning, on the other hand, was slow. I would read a few sentences or paragraphs, then stop and think about them. I would solve a math problem, and then come up with another way to solve it. Even when I was 17, when I thought about “learning,” this is what I meant.

Everything changed when I entered my PhD program. I realized after my first midterm that I couldn’t rely on mindless learning anymore, and that now, the most “efficient” thing for me to do was to actually, mindfully, learn the material. In order for me to do this, I had to stop thinking about my grade- the outcome- and focus on the process. The great irony here is that my grades improved once I stopped caring about them, and I realized that it was more enjoyable and in some cases easier to engage with the material than to memorize it.

I firmly believe that schools should promote mindful learning.  Ellen Langer, in “The Power of Mindful Learning” discusses the importance of critical thinking and the dangers of “overlearning” or simply memorizing processes. Not only can mindless learning be dangerous (and she lists many convincing examples of this), it is also thoroughly unenjoyable and does not prepare you either for the workforce or a fulfilled life. It reminds me of a quote from the song “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon – “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”

Students may always try to “maximize,” since they have limited time and attention. But as teachers, maybe we can shift what it is they are maximizing. Ellen Langer also discusses, as does Michael Wesch in his article “Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance”  how she promotes mindful learning in her classroom. As she writes in “Mindful Learning,” “‘what we teach’ may be less important than ‘how we teach.'” If teachers promote the idea in the classroom that the purpose of the class is to be engaged and to learn how to think critically, rather than to memorize a bunch of stuff and do well on exams, then I think the students will absorb this message. It may seem like an uphill battle at first, but I believe that if it is done well, students will thrive in this kind of environment.

I’m curious to hear about other’s personal experiences with mindless vs. mindful learning. Share your stories!