Did you hear the one about the little old lady (why is it always a little old lady?) who after walking her toy poodle in the rain wanted to dry it quickly? She put the poodle in the microwave – it used to be the clothes drier – and cooked it?
Such a story is called an urban legend; an often fictitious story that’s broadly circulated, seen by the teller and listener as true, that we want to believe, but that there’s no proof for.
Education is rife with myths which undermine learning. Many can be dismissed as tangential or exotic (e.g., listening to Mozart makes your baby smarter), but some are pernicious. Take the idea that kids’ brains now are different from previous generations and that teaching should accommodate this.
We look at three pervasive urban legends in education which actually are variations on one central theme, namely, that learners know best and should be the controlling force in their learning.
The first is the learner as digital native who instinctively know how to learn from new media, and for whom ‘old’ media and methods used in teaching/learning no longer work. The second is that learners have specific learning styles and that education should be individualised so that the pedagogy matches that style. The final legend is that learners ought to be seen as self-educators who should be allowed to control/determine what they are learning and how.
Myth 1. The Digital Native
If you see kids with a tablet, you might think they really know what they’re doing. They search for videos and effortlessly use all types of social media. People call them digital natives and call us (parents and teachers) digital immigrants.