FAGGIANO, 1

Essay on an idea about Learning

Rosaleen Faggiano
Boston University, School of Education, SED ED 100
Professor Tate and Sherri Sklar
Also Edited by Veronica Rios
October 14 2014

FAGGIANO, 2
Learning will not take place in a students life unless he/she is motivated to
accept the knowledge and stimulated enough to continue his/her education. When
this moment in a students education occurs it is the responsibility of the teacher to
frame the students learning so that the student feels challenged and enlightened. In
both Platos (trans. 1956) article The Republic and Cliffords (1990) article Students
need Challenge not Easy Success the importance of the role that the teacher plays in
ones education is clearly identified and explained. Both articles say that without a
teacher motivation present in the learning process the student will recede to
accepting the inability to learn and stay ignorant to the knowledge he/she could
have gained. Whether it is forcing students to see the light or increasing their
motivation to learn in the classroom, both articles believe that the teacher must be
part of the students learning experience in order for a positive outcome to take
place.
For someone to be enlightened he/she must be pushed to the moment of
seeing the truth. Platos (trans. 1956) article The Republic talks of a man who is
stripped of his ignorant chains and forced to look into the light by someone who has
done the same. Each student believes in an illusion while staring at the shadows on
cave walls. It is up to the teacher or philosopher in Platos case to create a new
reality and help the student to be exposed to real things rather than only seeing
false images with misled interpretations. The shadows on the wall do not give a
clear understanding to the outside world. The objects seem to float in the air and are
all man made interpretations of what the world is. Plato explains that the initial
reveal of learning may have to be forced. Once someone compels you to see the light

FAGGIANO, 3
and the beginnings of what the world truly is, you can then adjust to your own pace
of learning the rest. Plato (trans. 1956) explains this as a process, Take a man who
is released and suddenly compelled to stand up, turn his neck around, to walk and
look up toward the light (p. 194). Once the man is shown the initial blinding light he
moves through a series of steps to learn what the truth means to him. He sees the
actual objects that made the shadows he has been staring at his whole life, he learns
of seasons by first seeing the outside world with light of the stars and the moon, he
learns about the reflection of the sun before finally coming to terms with the real
sun and feeling fully enlightened by knowledge. Plato claims that the reason the man
is able to do so is because he was first forced away by his inexperienced sedentary
life. Once the initial motivation was sparked he was able to continue learning the
truth while the philosopher continued to guide him to the end goal of looking up at
the sun. In Platos mind it is imperative that a ruler see the light and not be a slave to
lies and misinterpretations. The only way to reach this goal is if someone already
enlightened forces another onto the path they previously followed.
A teachers job is to increase a students motivation to learn by instilling a
challenge into their education. Clifford (1990) believes that the idea of teachers
including risk taking in their teaching practices will help to ensure the success of
students and with certain conditions the student will be motivated to continue
his/her learning experience. One of the conditions that Clifford (1990) points out is
that the, Benefits of risk taking can be anticipated (197). A student must be able to
identify what goals he/she can reach on their journey of learning. An end goal
stimulates the student and it is the responsibilities of the teacher too not only instill

FAGGIANO, 4
that idea, but to help nurture it. To Clifford (1990) risk in a students education will
increase students performance, persistence, perceived competence, selfknowledge, pride, and satisfaction (p.196). All of these features in a student will
increase because of the teachers initial steps in planting the challenge into the
students mind. Once the challenge for the student is presented he/she needs to be
allowed to take control to reach his/her full level of success.
Combining the two readings both Plato (trans. 1956) and Clifford (1990)
determine that it is the job of the teacher to make the student take the first steps in a
his/her education. Once the teacher sparks that light in his/her student he/she
creates the framework for seeing the students enlightenment and education to
continue. Plato (trans. 1956) frames learning by having the student take gradual
steps to the end goal of his lesson. To Plato (trans. 1956), Virtues of the soul can
only be reached through education with habits and exercises (197). These practices
need to be instilled in the student by the teacher. Using the man in the cave example,
after being shown the fire and the objects moving behind the wall the man is the
guided outside at night, then to water, then finally to the sun. These steps were not
made at random, but instead were created by the teacher so that the student would
stay motivated to reach that end goal of enlightenment. Cliffords (1990) concept of
risk taking in education is very similar to Platos. When a teacher adds challenging
tasks to a students learning he increases the chance of the student following
through to the end goal of that curriculum. Once this idea of risk is presented to the
students the teacher then becomes a guide to the students. He/she creates a stable

FAGGIANO, 5
framework for the students to continue with their learning process. Clifford (1990)
explains that this framework is broken into three clear steps:
Students must be allowed to freely select from materials and activities that
vary in difficulty and probability of success. As the task difficulty increases,
so too must the payoffs for success. And an environment tolerant of error
making and supportive of error connection must be guaranteed. (p.198)
The importance of these steps is that they show how hands on the student becomes
to their learning experience, but how the role of the teacher is still prominent. For
both authors the goal of the learning experience is that the student needs the initial
push, but then must feel in control until they reach the predetermined goals.
The ability to learn rests in the hands of the student. However it is the
responsibility of the teacher to stimulate learning in the student and help guide
his/her students throughout the process. With this set process both Clifford (1990)
and Plato (trans 1956) believe the student will find success and his/her goals are
reached.

FAGGIANO, 6
References

Clifford, M. M. (1990/2013). Students need challenge, not easy success.

In K. Ryan & J. M. Cooper (Eds.), Kaleidoscope: Readings in education
(13 ed., pp. 256-263). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
th