Learning Loss?

When educators throw around the term ‘learning loss’, they are using the term generally. As educators, we understand the importance of education. We talk to students about it all the time. We also understand that from our viewpoint, there has been a massive learning loss due to the pandemic. The virtual education we have been providing, though needed, is not equivalent to students being in class. We try to uphold the same rigor, however, it just hasn’t happened. The nationwide organization that administers the Advanced Placement (AP) exams, the College Board, has also acknowledged that this year is different. They are allowing students to take the exams at home. That is a far cry from the rigid environment that we usually use for the tests on campus.

That being understood, though educators acknowledge this year is different and have identified a gap in the learning from what would normally be covered, students are not searching for the learning. I say that because when any of us lose something of value, it is a loss because we care. If we lose our car keys, we immediately begin searching for them. To that behavior, we can add our wallets, purses, cell phones, and anything else that we care about. When we lose something we care about, we begin searching for it. Why isn’t education the same way? Students don’t seem to care about the loss, because we have not made it valuable to them. Yes, everyone cares about learning, but to a certain extent do they really? Do they really care about how they excel in academia? Because if they did, then the learning loss would trigger an emotional response.

For me, education has always been about the search for knowledge. A quest for developing knowledge. When I lost learning because of my behavior or such, I never really cared about it because I never owned the knowledge in the first place. In the post-pandemic education world, we have to change our thinking about learning. Our students are hungry for knowledge and it is incumbent upon us to cook up the feast that the students cannot refuse. To borrow a sports analogy, our goal should be to meet the students on their turf and play a better game. We cannot continue to deliver our lessons the same way in the post-pandemic world.

Excitement breeds desire. If we can build excitement with the students about learning, they will have a desire to learn more. If we place them on that path, then if we find ourselves in troubled times again, our students will never lose their learning simply because they care.

Until next time...