New Perspective on learning

I get a newsletter from a Christian college professors' organization. The one from yesterday talks about listening to students.  Good idea. 

It references a rather common technique of asking students about their best and worst learning experiences. When I have used it, it sometimes shows more about their emotions and personality preferences than their objective learning. 

I think we should interrogate that exercise with "did you really learn what you were supposed to, or was it just a good emotional and social experience?" For too long we have confused learning with fun or pleasantness rather than really restructuring the brain and acquiring skills. 

I can make my students like me and my class environment when I teach public speaking, or I can guide them to acquire skills. Or I can do both, but they are going to encounter some things they don't like about it in the process. It's a trade off. 

My point is that just asking them "best and worst learning experience" is not a well phrased question. The question needs to ask "most efficient, most effective, most brain impactful, most skill-inducing" etc.