True Learning- Multiple Ways to Learn

I decided to overview Evergreen State University in Olympia, Washington. The academic program consists of one comprehensive “program” rather than several courses. Everything from math to physics to economics is covered under the instruction of a team of professors. This program is new and fresh every year. The goal of this style of learning is to grasp how different disciplines intertwine and affect one another. No letter grades are given for coursework. Detailed evaluations are given by the professors and are put on transcripts rather than traditional letter grades. Students are also involved in evaluating their own work. Students are also able to “create their own course of study” through a program called “learning contracts” which enables them to “explore whatever and wherever their curiosity leads.”

This approach may help me learn more thoroughly because it would force me to critically analyze my work as a part of the grading process. However, as for “ungraded” work, the idea may sound wonderful on first impression, but, I predict that a positive evaluation from a professor could easily replace grades as a student’s motivation for performance without bringing about an essential change in the type of learning in which he or she engages. It would be just as easy for a student to go to class at Evergreen simply to get a quality evaluation for their performance to go on his or her transcript as it is for students in other schools to strive only for a “good grade.”

For me, the very act of reading John Tagg’s article “Why Learn?” in combination with researching another college’s methods of teaching has motivated me to re-new my focus on being a student who sets learning goals and not just performance goals.

Questions:

1.) If there are several successful ways to learn, why are only a few ways implemented into schools(in all levels)?

2.) What are some practical ways that we can become students whose understanding of course work is qualitative and not just quantitative?