Is Learning Observable?

To me, learning is observable most of the time. When you are teaching a class, you can sometimes tell if the students are learning by observing their facial expressions. A face with a question expression shows that s/he is not getting what the teacher is talking about. You can also tell if the students are learning when they are in small group discussions. Children who are trying to teach the others or explain the class material to others are usually learning. However, that does not mean that children who are not talking in small groups are not learning anything. They might learn and understand the class material, but they are just too shy to speak out. Rather, they just sit and listen to others in order to understand more before talking about it. You can also see if a child is learning by looking at the assignment s/he has done. If s/he has actually learned something, there should be no problem answering questions according to the learned material. On the other hand, if s/he didn’t learn anything, there might be some confusion and problems when looking at the answers on the assignment.

There are times when learning is not observable. There are times when a teacher can be unsure about whether the students are learning or not because if a teacher ask the question: “Do you guys have any questions?” and no one raises his/her hand, then the teacher can be unsure. The only way to solve this question is for the teacher to actually understand his/her students better, so when it comes to figuring out whether a certain student is learning or not, the teacher can tell right away.