Spoon-feeding In Learning: What Are The Harmful Effects?

When students are learning through repetition and memorization, they could only work hard through constantly doing just that with no clarifications or questions about the concept. When students aren’t encouraged to think for themselves, they wouldn’t have the sense of independence in learning, thus developing a feeling of “learned helplessness” that makes them reliant on spoon-feeding.

Because spoon-feeding is more teacher-centered, the educator puts in more effort in the learning process rather than the student and this can still result in poor outcomes. 

When students are spoon-fed, they wait for knowledge to happen. 

But when they feel they have not learned something they blame the teacher for not teaching them. 

The teacher then blames the student for not learning or listening. 

The cycle is painful and goes on and on. 

This is why there are many people who still claim they also haven’t learned anything in school.

The students who are used to spoon-feeding are also less responsible for their learning process. 

They can often misplace their workbooks, answer sheets, forget their homework, get easily distracted, etc.

Being used to spoon-feeding can also cause damage to the students when they reach higher education levels. 

They may get good scores from their younger years but when they are pushed into an environment that encourages independent learning, they may take time to adjust and may even suffer then.

It should also be considered that tutors who aren’t spoon-feeding or lessening the spoon-feeding they do to students are still teaching their students. 

There are some who would argue that they aren’t doing their job, when in fact, teaching students to develop their skills and learning process is more important than just giving them knowledge. 

It’s also important to teach students how to learn.