... From the UNESCO report on How Children Learn
Ever wonder whether your children are understanding a concept like addition or simply parroting 1 + 1 = 2 from memory? Research shows that when information is superficially memorized it is easily forgotten. Conversely, when something is understood, it is not forgotten easily and it can be transferred to other situations. This is the basis of Principle 8 of the UNESCO report on How Children Learn [2002]. In addition, Principle 9 refers to applying lessons to real life and other situations such that a child’s understanding of the lesson from the instruction example can be generalised and applied to other similar situations. Therefore, when materials and lessons are organised around general principles, especially those that are applicable to real world situations, rather than rote memorisation the educational result is better and more meaningful to the child thus leading to durability of the learning.
The report suggests that teachers should give children the opportunity to think about what they are learning and doing, talk about it to others, check their understanding and consider how it applies to other similar situations. This is similar to the “Be Strategic” principle in that it is about mechanisms for learning but is more about memory via understanding rather than deploying the specific mechanism. In the example of addition via counting on fingers, the mechanism is the strategy for learning that three plus three equals six but is also the means of understanding how addition works and therefore being able to apply that understanding to any addition problem. Once addition is accomplished this understanding can then be applied to subtraction and so on.
Action:
This area is all about talking to children and explaining things to them rather than merely asserting they are true. In short it is about answering those incessant why questions in as much detail and as logically as possible, also relating the answer and explanation to other similar things that they may already know. It is important to bear in mind any past knowledge that clashes and deal with it gently, never ridiculing or laughing at the child, and relating the knowledge or descriptions to mechanisms or concepts to help them understand rather than just placing the knowledge in the memory bank. Personal experiences and observations are helpful. The maxim “seeing is believing” is helpful here, as are all our other senses. It is helpful to set up a situation so that children can observe and actually try things. For example, gravity is easier to explain if the child observes that things almost always fall to the ground and if they don’t it is because they are filled with air like a balloon or bubble. Buoyancy is better understood when experienced in a swimming pool and so on.
At Little Wriggler we have a number of videos explaining everyday concepts like weather, colours and rainbows. We show real world video footage but of course children will get far more out of these videos if they get out and about and experience these things for themselves.
Comments