As a new teacher, I thought that “hands on” learning was a great goal. But I had a wise mentor who pulled me aside and pointed out:
Often “hands-on” can mean “brains-off.”
They encouraged me to consider the level of thinking I had stopped at in order to do the hands-on activity. I realized that so many of my “hands-on” activities limited students to mere memorization.
A few examples:
I had my students make a “hands-on” version of the earth’s layers. But all they were showing me was that they knew: the core, mantle, and crust. That’s bottom-of-Blooms thinking. Mere memorizing of facts. Our fancy models were just glorified fill-in-the-blanks worksheets. Better to ask: Which layer of the earth would the sun think is most important?
In 3rd grade, we learned about the planets. My students made illustrated guides of solar system which, you guessed it, just showed the order of the planets. Again, total bottom-of-the-barrel thinking. Just remembering the order. Why not ask: Which planet is most under-appreciated?
As we learned about the various units of measurement for volume, I had my students construct Measurement Man. You guessed it. It’s just a way for students to tell me that there are 4 qts in a gallon. Only it takes 100 hours of class time to finish. Why not ask: Which unit of volume should we remove? What would be the consequences?”
My own child already knows his numbers. His teacher made him glue buttons onto a worksheet! 🤦♂️ He had to glue one button on the number 1, two buttons on 2, all the way up to 8 buttons go on the number 8!
My kid hates gluing tiny things. His fine motor skills suck. But he’d LOVE to discuss which number is best, or what’s the most interesting way to get to 9, or why subtraction is more important than addition. We ended up pulling him from the school because all of the hands-on activities were leading to behavior problems because he was SO BORED by the low-level of thinking.
So beware. Are your hands-on activities also brains-off activities?