Teaching never results in learning

Do you think you have been taught much in your life? In fact, you most likely discovered everything yourself. I believe that no one can be taught; everyone can learn, though; just needs the right environment.

When reading a very interesting book "When teaching becomes learning" from Eric Sotto I stumbled upon an interesting statement based on findings of Carl Rogers - On becoming a person:

It seems to me that anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential and has little or no significant influence on behavior.

After reading this statement we may think that all teachers should give up their jobs. Rogers other interesting findings are the following:

I have come to feel that the only learning which significantly influence behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning.

Such self-discovered learning, truth that has been personally appropriated and assimilated in experience, cannot be directly communicated to another.

As a consequence of the above, I realize that I have lost interest in being a teacher.

When I try to teach, as I do sometimes, I am appalled by the results, which seems a little more than inconsequential, because sometimes the teaching appears to succeed. When this happens I find that the results are damaging. It seems to cause the individual to distrust his own experience, and to stifle significant learning. Hence, I have come to feel that the outcomes of teaching are either unimportant or hurtful.

Rogers gave up being a teacher, however, he didn't give up his efforts related to helping people learn and was quite successful at it.

No one can be taught
The above statements are highly controversial and widely dismissed by teachers showing proves that at least some of the students in their classes have learnt and understood the topics that were taught. I stand by Rogers and believe his statements are correct. How is it possible that some of the students learn when a teacher teaches?

The learning does not happen through the teaching but through the visualisation that the students create in their minds. They think about the possible applications of the taught topic, context in which  it is delivered, possibly even mentally solve the some simple problems they make up relevant to the topic. This is how the actual learning occurs. Not through teacher's teaching, but within the student mind through "self-discovered, self-appropriated learning".

This explains why many students have trouble learning from teaching. They are not able to grasp the topic in their minds, relate it to something and play with it in their heads.

Consequences for the classroom practice

I believe that the teacher needs to be aware of the need for grasping the new topic within students' mind. Some students are able to visualise and relate almost any topic to something they already know. These are the ones who don't have trouble within standard education models. However, other students need the teacher to give them the appropriate context, a familiar environment where they can play with the new topics and concepts and test their hypotheses themselves. In engineering, which is the field I do most of my teaching in, the students do practical work and discover some of the mechanical principles or material behaviour themselves.

The aids can have a form of a game, which will again help the students create concepts and test them whilst playing.

Creating the environment that helps the students to create better connections and test their concepts is the real job of a teacher. It starts with assuring that the classroom supports learning (Eg. an old classroom with variety of tools and equipment relevant to the subject in sight is much better than a hyper-modern classroom with bare walls and no equipment); continues with careful lesson preparation, choosing variety of activities that will help the students to see more connections and let them play with the new ideas; ends with appropriate assessment that will help the students to keep the playing with ideas on the right track.