SSj4Wingzero posted...
It's definitely a result of having access to technology. It is difficult to foster problem solving skills when students don't have to actually struggle to learn information. A lot of exercises that I had to do in elementary school, such as looking up 10 vocabulary words in the dictionary and copying down their meanings, were actually incredibly valuable. Having to peruse a dictionary in order to find where a word belongs teaches a level of pattern recognition, and having to actually copy something down from a book onto a piece of paper teaches attention to detail.
But nowadays, I don't know if students do this anymore - more often than not they probably have access to technology that tells them what a word means, sounds it out for them, uses it in a sentence for them, and so their learning is all about instant gratification due to technology.
It makes life very difficult for them when they get into high school. So many students struggle with math because unless they encounter a problem that they know how to solve from start to finish, they don't even dare to *start* it because they're not used to struggling through failure. A lot of parents have a hard time with it too, because they're not used to their kids experiencing challenges, and I'm of course the bad guy because I'm trying to teach them how to grow.
Yeah, technology is certainly a major factor. It affects adults too; I know plenty of adults who now cant watch a film or an episode of TV without needing to look at their phone.
The failure thing too. Its so important that children experience failure and learn not just to cope with it but also to use it as a positive experience because its an opportunity for learning and growth, but so many parents seem to want to protect their children from it.
The thing Im noticing more these days that Ive pointed out to a few colleagues and they all seem to agree is that children now only have one voice, one tone or mode of communication. Even Grade 5 children seem to be talking to their parents, their siblings, their teachers, head teachers, all in the same way, regardless of circumstance. They struggle to realise that saying bruh to a head teacher is not appropriate, for instance. I feel like Covid was a big part of this because so many children just werent getting that variety of social interactions at an important developmental stage.