In a previous story, I offered ideas about how to play with your child. Now I’d like to explore how children learn. I know this is a biggie, but I’ve boiled the answer down to just 1,000 words. So hang in there! Okay, so…every December, I experience a huge energy surge targeted to ditching or donating anything no longer useful to me. This includes a whole lotta teacher supplies I’ve squirreled away in our oil tank room – never used markers, gently used alphabet puzzles, blocks of all kinds, and, of course, books.
{Note: my collection of reading materials includes a secret stash of coloring books featuring Dora, Pinkalicious, Frozen, and Paw Patrol. What can I say? I’m only human!}
I’ve also been combing through my Word docs, deleting old stuff in much the same way I “delete” weeds in our garden — pulling files out by their roots and casting them into a vast mulch pile of data. At one point, I opened a folder of papers I wrote as a grad student at Bank Street College of Education.
I scrolled through cases about my special needs students, essays on progressive education, and original curricula for math and language lessons. A happy hiker traveling down memory lane, I realized that some of this stuff is still useful and still on the cutting edge of best teaching practices.
One paper in particular caught and kept my attention – an analysis of John Dewey’s educational theories. I’d like to share a parent-friendly version with the hope that his classic insights will help you better understand how children learn. I’ve also thrown in some tips about how you can use Dewey’s ideas at home.
Mr. Dewey: The Inventor of Progressive Education
The superstar of educational philosophers, John Dewey defined progressive education, a radical concept that shook the academic community to its foundations. Focusing on how children learn, he believed that teachers must bring children’s ever-changing experiences into direct interaction with curriculum.
In doing so, they support their students’ ability to integrate and retain knowledge because they are, essentially, engaged in back-and-forth “conversations” about the “three R’s,” reading, writing, and arithmetic. This process encourages individual expression of ideas and theories; views skill acquisition as a means to exciting investigations; and focuses on process rather than product.
Central to Dewey’s model is the idea that the learner engages in both a personal and objective relationship with what is being learned. The interaction is naturally occurring, a lively push and pull between the child’s personal, social, and cultural experiences and the subject matter. As adults allow this interaction to take place, students have the basis for questioning, investigating, and theorizing.
Because they are the form and content of life, children’s experiences are the foundation for and way into learning. They harness the power of the young plastic brain to receive, analyze, and internalize information. Under the guidance of an educator who understands “child-centered teaching” and the relationship between experience and education, young learners will engage more productively in the learning process.
Experience-Based Learning at Home: Idea 1
Kids are explorers, detectives, and storytellers at home, in school, and out in the larger world. Knowing this, you can easily find opportunities to engage your child in immersive, collaborative, and multidisciplinary home projects.
For example, your kids are fascinated by the sticky, sweet maple syrup they pour on their pancakes every Sunday morning. You mention that the syrup comes from maple trees, collected by a method called tapping. Ears perk up. You ask your kids if they’d like to learn more about maple syrup by studying maples (science) and Native American sugaring traditions (history).
Then you let them know that there are many beautifully written stories about maple syrup in the library (literature). You mention that you could also have a maple syrup testing at home. You take a vote: “all those in favor of becoming maple syrup experts raise your hand” (civics). And off you go.
Experience-Based Learning at Home: Idea 2
After several trips with your kids to the local park, you realize how emotionally connected they are to this environment. You see them climbing trees, touching flower petals, digging in the soil, and playing with earthworms. They are intensely curious and their interactions with the park’s flora and fauna seem full of excitement.
You sense their innate curiosity. It feels electric and dynamic. Your kids are moving and exploring — active rather than passive imbibers of experience. And when they come home, they are filled with ideas and observations they are eager to share.
How can you apply Dewey’s progressive philosophy to create a park project? You can start by asking your kids, “What do we know about our park?” “What do you most enjoy about being in the park?” “What would you like to learn about it?” These jumping off questions can lead to treasure hunts, collage making, photography, albums, backyard planting, and field trips to the local arboretum or town nature preserve.
Asking these questions will lead your kids into investigations involving science, math, reading, and drawing. And, because the children are experiencing the park firsthand and participating in inquiry over time, the principles of what they learn become an integral part of who they are as thinking and feeling human beings.
How Children Learn…Through Experience-Based Education
As a parent, you can help your child connect their lived experiences to the facts and theories of science, math, literacy, social studies, and all the other content areas vital to an active, independent, and creative mind. Introducing hands-on activities will have your child thinking, doing, and experimenting instead of sitting quietly, memorizing, and following an adult’s agenda and ideas. And these experiences reduce screen time!
