Learning Comprehension
In the book, “What the Best College Students Do”, Ken Bain claims that good grades do not indicate that people are comprehending the material being taught. Bain’s claim on classroom comprehension is presented when he argues, “someone could get an A and still not understand motion...good grades don't necessarily mean you really comprehend anything”(9). In the society we live in grade point averages are the determinant of triumph in our educational careers. Our achievement is dictated by this number, supposedly representing the so called success of academic learning. Bain refutes this idea by quoting the conversation he encountered with a chemical engineer who had taken a course twice, he explains, ”To this day… I don’t …show more content…
Bain belief that when you embrace failure you are able to reflect and take a new approach to understanding is presented when he argues, “People who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge their failures, even embrace them, and to explore and learn from them”(100). Bain reinforces his claim by harnessing the power of Tom Springer’s inspiring life story. As a child Tom was an extremely intelligent young man; his fascination with reading a large variety of books is what set him apart from other children . He and his brothers intelligence was nurtured by their mother because she always provided books for what they were interested in. Then, something big had happened that sent him into a “cultural shock”. His family had moved from Florida to Michigan. His grades plummeted all the way into high school ending up with a C- average. After high school Tom went on to be an air conditioning mechanic where “Failure accumulated on every front”(114). This highly creative individual had learned through his failure that he was not a mechanically proficient person, and that he should try something else. Tom’s life changed after he had taken a freshman writing class that “spoke to his childhood in Florida and all of those books he had read over the
In the book, “What the Best College Students Do”, Ken Bain claims that good grades do not indicate that people are comprehending the material being taught. Bain’s claim on classroom comprehension is presented when he argues, “someone could get an A and still not understand motion...good grades don't necessarily mean you really comprehend anything”(9). In the society we live in grade point averages are the determinant of triumph in our educational careers. Our achievement is dictated by this number, supposedly representing the so called success of academic learning. Bain refutes this idea by quoting the conversation he encountered with a chemical engineer who had taken a course twice, he explains, ”To this day… I don’t …show more content…
Bain belief that when you embrace failure you are able to reflect and take a new approach to understanding is presented when he argues, “People who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge their failures, even embrace them, and to explore and learn from them”(100). Bain reinforces his claim by harnessing the power of Tom Springer’s inspiring life story. As a child Tom was an extremely intelligent young man; his fascination with reading a large variety of books is what set him apart from other children . He and his brothers intelligence was nurtured by their mother because she always provided books for what they were interested in. Then, something big had happened that sent him into a “cultural shock”. His family had moved from Florida to Michigan. His grades plummeted all the way into high school ending up with a C- average. After high school Tom went on to be an air conditioning mechanic where “Failure accumulated on every front”(114). This highly creative individual had learned through his failure that he was not a mechanically proficient person, and that he should try something else. Tom’s life changed after he had taken a freshman writing class that “spoke to his childhood in Florida and all of those books he had read over the