How Children Really Learn

How Children Really Learn

Adapted from original article by Alison Gopnik - NY Times

So here is the big question, if children can master skills and knowledge not taught in schools; why do they often have a hard time learning in school? Why can children master difficult technology but struggle with standardized tests following long term intensive teaching? One can only conclude that schools do not teach the same way students learn. Students learn best when they can explore the world and interact with expert adults. Call it "guided discovery" ! Children learn by observing adults, trying themselves and receiving positive corrective feedback. Teachers need to carefully analyze what their students can do and know before encouraging them to the next level of learning. This may sound like the same old progressive pedagogy, but it is actually the most natural and successful teaching method. Imagine if a baseball or football coach taught his players the same way most teachers teach science. Students would be expected to memorize the rules, receive lectures about proper play and read about the history of the sport. A select few would be permitted to reproduce famous plays of the past, but nobody would actually get to play in a game until they passed a standardized final exam and graduated. What is expected in most schools is a very different learning process. A process often referred to as "routinized learning". Something learned is routinized until it is second nature, so student can recite or perform effortlessly and quickly. Routinized learning is more about perfecting mindless procedures. This can be valuable and necessary in order to develop certain skills, but even ball players who repeat an action over and over again to gain greater accuracy need to strategize and be flexible. Musicians who must practice, practice, practice for better accuracy need to understand style and genre in order to communicate in an expressive musical manner. Children learn best when we apply the correct balance of "guided discovery" and "routinized learning" to the desired learning.

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