Issue task Educators should base their assessment of students learning not on students grasp of facts but on the ability to explain the ideas trends and concepts that those facts illustrate

When you look at the wealthy, the first thing you want to know is what they did to get there. You start thinking about their education, and how they must have worked so hard to acquire that amount of money. Most of these people have the ability of being able to use that knowledge they learned in the past and put it into practice. When you look at big companies now, especially hospitals and clinics, you may start to wonder why some may be failing. This all tracks back to education, how these people were taught in school, and how they progressed through school. Was this by just knowing the facts? Or did these people actually understand the facts and put them into practice? The main company here that comes to my mind is Ortho South. This company used to be known for its hands-on work, great clientele, and exceptional physical therapists who genuinely cared about the needs and progression of each individual patient. This company then started to expand by taking on multiple interns at a time and allowing these individuals to move up in their practice after interning. When I visited Ortho South a few months ago, I noticed a severe decline in the way they treat individual patients. I was simply put on a machine, told what to do, and was never checked on again until my last 5 minutes of repetitive arm movements. This is not what our future of professionals should look like.

The ability to explain facts is not the same as putting them into practice. While memorization is key, the most advanced students who will be the best providers in the future are those who can put this memorization into practice. You can study flashcards all day, take a test over what you have been looking over, and immediately forget everything you studied by the end of the week. Many students are equipped with short-term memory; they study vigorously over and over about a certain topic, take a test, and forget about it. How educators teach students in school plays a huge role. Endless PowerPoints, tiny words on the projector, students trying to write down everything they see on the PowerPoint instead of listening to the instructor – these are all things that contribute to the way students learn, and how it is negatively impacting the progression of students’ knowledge.

For the sake of the future, educators should slowly start shifting away from reading off the PowerPoints and start incorporating activities that will stay with the student long-term. The mind retains information by doing, not by just memorizing and stating the facts. When you start talking out loud, using props and pretending they are the topics at hand, and being able to pinpoint and explain everything on that prop in great detail to what you are learning is when your brain starts to actively retain that information. Think about gymnastics: you do not proceed to level 2 until you can physically show your coach that you can do a cartwheel. If a student can walk you through the steps of a cartwheel but cannot actively perform the cartwheel themselves, this student does not need to progress to level 2. This is exactly how educators should look at the progression of student’s learning. While memorization is important, it is even more important to take what you memorized and start doing. Say it out loud, and understand the deeper meaning of what you have memorized and why it matters. How can you take that memorization and apply it in the future? This is a question everyone should be asking themselves after a lesson, and the educator should encourage that question and start getting the students to have a proactive approach to learning. All in all, while memorization is the first step, it does not end there. Making sure students can actively perform the facts is when an educator should feel comfortable moving on in their lectures.