Talk! Write! Communicate!

When I try to examine what makes for educational success, I often see communication from the student as a major focus.  You can imagine that if lectures and books and educational films were totally memorized but a student never took any tests, wrote no papers and never spoke in class, teachers would have no way of seeing the mastery that student had achieved. Of course, some students could speak or write on and on about difficulties with the material or the tests’ format or getting papers written and not show any mastery of the curriculum. But in general, students who speak and write well master the work and show they have done so.