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Jordan Maust
Dominic Borowiak
ENG 111
4 November, 2014
The Problem of Informational Learning
A problem that is growing and growing in schools around the country is students leaning
towards informational learning. Informational learning is when a student is grade oriented and
strives to just receive good grades and get a diploma rather than actually learning and
understanding the subject of a class. I have seen this problem within my own school and
occasionally in a class I felt disinterested in I have used the memorize and throw away approach
just to get through the class. After the semester, I could not recall anything that we had gone over
apart from a few large main points. I had gotten a good grade in the class but I did not gain any
understanding of the topic being taught. Memorizing and cramming for tests and then forgetting
all the information basically defeats the purpose of getting an education. Sure students can get
away with a memorize and throw away approach to learning in school and get their diploma with
good grades to show for their time. But really what good are a diploma and a high GPA when
these students are getting thrust into the work force semi illiterate? Key skills needed to land a
good job and keep it the students never actually understood and really learned. The
memorization of information and cramming also affects the students abilities to think critically
and assess a problem from a broad perspective. Most students tendency towards informational
learning has become a growing problem that can produce semi-illiterate graduates with inferior
critical thinking skills and the necessary skills that they need for the job market. They are semiilliterate in the way that they only possess a little bit of the knowledge that graduates are

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supposed to have learned. The semi-illiterate students are also lacking critical thinking skills they
were supposed to have obtained.
The problem of informational learning starts with the focus society and our current
educational system has put on performing in the classroom to get a good grade. Students are
pushed to get an A on the next quiz or pass a class at all costs, even if the cost is exchanging a
deeper knowledge of a subject for a cheap and easy A. John Tagg, distinguished professor of art
history and comparative literature, presents a question in the article Why Learn? What We May
Really Be Teaching Students of who is a better student; Jack that gets an A in the class but
forgets everything they were taught and never really understands the deeper meaning of the
subject, or Jill who fails the class but a year later has pursued more information and study on
the topic and has gained a deeper and full understanding of the topic that has changed their way
of thinking. On paper it looks as if Jack is the better learner, but Tagg says If the difference
between Jacks and Jills grades is quantitative, however, the difference between their
understandings is qualitative (Tagg 4). The point of an education and learning is to receive a
qualitative understanding rather than to pass a quantitative test. The better student is Jill for her
understanding that changed that she applied to her thinking (qualitative goal of education), but
our society would lead people to believe that Jack was the better learner because he actually
succeeded in passing the class and received a good grade. With just the grades being shown,
people would assume that Jack actually understood the topic which led to his good grade and Jill
did not understand the topic or attempt to understand it, while really it is the exact opposite. This
way of thinking pressures and pushes students from their early days of school to memorize
information, and cram it in so they can remember for a test. If a student got a bad grade it just
meant that they did not memorize enough or forgot the material to fast.

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The grading system tries to use quantitative tests with many questions on facts and
methods discussed to gauge whether a student understands what is being taught in the classroom.
Tagg quotes an experiment done by Eric Mazur that tested whether students who did well on
quantitative multiple choice exams could also do well on a short qualitative test on simple
Newtonian physics. Many students, Mazur concluded, concentrated on learning recipes or
problem solving strategies as they are called in textbooks, without considering the underlying
concepts (Tagg 4). The research showed that students can go through physics classes using
informational learning and not understand basic underlying principals at the end or think for
themselves on the topic. Another major problem students face that pushes them towards
information learning is that grades matter later in life when trying to get into a higher school of
learning. The bad grade a student gets in a class can follow them by bringing down their GPA
and restricting what colleges they can be admitted to. Society also judges people based on the
grades they earned for an indication of how intelligent a person is. Laura Rediehs, Assistant
Professor of Philosophy at St. Lawrence University, explores the problems with grading in her
article Trust and Distrust: The Problem with Traditional Grading. There are many
qualitative ideals underlying the purpose of liberal arts education that cannot be measured on a
comparative scale of quantifiable achievement (Rediehs 1) is an idea she presents that goes
back to what John Tagg was saying and supports the idea that students have learning in
education that cannot be measured with the quantitative grading scale our educational system
uses. When students push themselves to get good grades they often just skim past or overlook the
underlying ideas that would give them an understanding of a topic that they could take with them
outside the classroom.

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Students need to become engaged in the classroom or they will have no drive to actually
learn. Without a drive students will just fall back on to memorizing because the deep
understanding of the topic does not matter to them. Another reason for students to be disengaged
is when a teacher will take a totalitarian approach to their teaching and demand that everything
that they say is the right way to do something and the only good way to do something. Instead
teachers need to foster an inviting learning environment in their classroom in which students feel
comfortable opening up to discussion and allowing to be challenged on what they think about a
topic in order to learn a better and deeper understanding on it. Bell hooks, well known author and
professor of Ethnic Studies, introduces and explains a teaching style to engage students in her
article Engaged Pedagogy. Hooks explains the style of engaged pedagogy by saying, That
means that teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes
their own well-being if they are to teach in a manner that empowers students (hooks 255). This
idea of teaching towards self-actualization and empowerment works towards the learning
environment that is needed to foster real learning that Laura Rediehs described. Teaching with
these goals gives students a drive to learn and engage in the classroom in a way that they are
authentically learning and understanding the materials deeper subject. The students need to
receive guidance towards reaching their self-actualization and need to be in a good environment.
The environment is created by the teacher stepping down off of their level of dominance and
coming down to the level of the students to better relate to them and make them feel more
comfortable in discussion and critical thinking. Rediehs states the problems of a teacher not
stepping down from total control, If, on the other hand, students feel that they cannot trust their
teachers or their environment, they become guarded and try to play it safe (Rediehs 1). Students
playing it safe results in them not challenging the teachers and their own thoughts or concepts

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on the subject. This in return can lead to a student developing poor critical thinking skills, as well
as the student not understanding the broad idea and underlying themes of a subject. Hooks states,
While it is utterly unreasonable for students to expect classrooms to be therapy sessions, it is
appropriate for them to hope that the knowledge received in these settings will enrich them and
enhance them (hooks 256). In this passage hooks is talking about a classroom in which students
feel energized and motivated to learn and engage in discussion and discourse. This shows
classroom technique of engaged pedagogy could help bring students back into qualitative
learning goals.
Informational learning may help students get the A that they desperately wanted but in
the long run it hurts them severely. Students who just memorize for tests and then throw away
the knowledge can get through high school and get their diploma but at the cost of not
understanding or remembering any of the information they were supposed to be authentically
learning in school. When the students are in the real world and only partially literate and lacking
of workplace readiness their good grades do very little to help the situation. Students tendency
for informational learning is becoming a more prevalent problem in todays education system.

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Works Cited
hooks, bell. "Engaged Pedagogy." Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the
21st Century. Custom Edition for Mid Michigan Community College ed. Boston: Pearson
Learning Solutions, 2013. 253-259. Print.
Rediehs, Laura. "Trust and Distrust: The Problem with Traditional Grading." The Problem with
Traditional Grading. 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
<http://it.stlawu.edu/~lrediehs/grading_files/problem.htm>.
Tagg, John. Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students. About Campus 9.1
(2004): 2-10. Eric. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.