Instruction Independent? Ban that expression!
Author: Eleonoor van Gerven
In January 2016 I wrote this blogpost. For a special project I translated it. At request I herewith post
the English version as well.
Sometimes you’re confronted with an expression that shows you how misconceptions and
misunderstandings are born. Those expressions represent a lack of understanding and narrowmindedness that makes me angry. The people who initially bring these words and expressions to life,
don’t have a clue how far reaching and damaging these words can be in a student’s education.
‘Instruction independent’ is an example of an expression that never should have been introduced in
the educational system. It shows a complete lack of understanding towards the concept of learning.
In the Netherlands, most schools use a three-tiered structure to differentiate between students. The
expression Instruction Independent is referring to the highest level: students who are able to achieve
above average. These so called’ Instruction Independent’ students are able to achieve high results
without proper instruction or with just a minimum of instruction on every assignment in the
curriculum. I welcome you to the land of fairy tales! If you think that those students are learning,
then there is something seriously wrong with your understanding of the concept of learning.
In my daily practice, I’m Managing Director of a teacher training institute. Our training courses are
specialized in gifted education. Day in day out, I teach primary school teachers how to become a
Specialist in Gifted Education. In these training courses, the focus is on the concept of learning, the
role of the teacher during the process of learning, and the way a teacher can tune in to the
educational needs of each and every student. Coming from that perspective, on a daily basis I
experience how destructive the term ‘Instruction Independent’ can be on a student’s development.
The idea that gifted students should be able to comprehend curriculum content with a minimum of
instruction or even without any instruction, shows clearly how unconsciously incompetent the
inventors of this expression are. For me this expression is an example of institutionalized educational
abuse. It is not true that every gifted student by definition likes to explore the curriculum as a selfresponsible learner. It isn’t true that giftedness is a synonym for ‘zero mistakes and failures’ or for
‘always able and high achievers’. Neither is it true that giftedness means that a student doesn’t have
to study and should be able to do any assignment given almost effortless. And besides all of this, it is
not true that every gifted student will flourish if he or she has to figure out alone what a task
demands of his or her abilities.
Sometimes I see an example of how far off a school is. Recently I visited a primary school and some
gifted students (age 8-9) told me that they did not get any instructions on the content of their
assignments on language and math’s. Their teacher had told them they should be able to complete
their tasks without help. These kids were pretty desperate. Not because their results were poor…. No
these results were still very high. The way their curriculum was constructed, they were still able to
act in their comfort zone. They were desperate because they realized that they were not learning at
all. One of those kids made that perfectly clear to me: “The special needs children, they are the ones
that are truly learning. If they have finished their tasks, they have accomplished something that they
were not able to do with our teacher. They get the real difficult stuff to do. I am’ Instruction
Independent’. I think that this means that I only have to do the easy stuff and that the teacher thinks
that I’m better off at school if I don’t have to learn anything, because at the end of the day I’m not
able to anything that I couldn’t have done before. I wish I was a special needs kid and that I needed
instruction and my teachers’ attention. Now then I would be able to do something that is really
difficult and then I would learn something.”
If learning is core business in education, we should ban the expression ‘Instruction Independent’.
One who’s truly learning needs the instruction and support of a teacher. In every other situation you
should ask yourself if the syllable ‘occupational therapy’ hasn’t become the synonym for education.