Learning from Children

The child in the example about the shape of the earth, just like any child, can be one of the best guides to teaching. What can we learn from this child? Here are just a few insights I take from even this simple example:

• We construct knowledge out of what we already know. The child doesn't generate ideas out of nothing, but out of experiences and language.
  
  
• Our everyday experience is a powerful resource for learning. What the child sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes, becomes her lived experience, which is the real foudation for the curriculum, not some list of facts and skills. But sometimes, ordinary experience can be an impediment, and make it difficult to learn new ideas.
  
  
• Telling is not enough. It is valuable to share ideas and experiences, but foolish to expect that our intended meaning is the same as the new meanings children construct out of what we say.
  
  
• A student who gives so-called correct answers may not understand. Conversely, incorrect answers may not be as far off as they seem. Asking students to explain their answers usually reveals that they are thinking, and helps the teacher understand enough to enter their world a bit. Moreover, children learn through the explaining. Articulating experience to another is one of the best ways to make that experience meaningful.
  
  
• Thus, dialogue is essential; experience alone is rarely enough. Real learning requires reflection that comes through thinking and often, talking with others, reading, and writing.
  
  
• There is no end point to inquiry. In recent years we have learned more about the shape of the earth--it's not exactly a sphere; it's flattened a bit at the poles; the hemispheres aren't totally symmetrical; and so. We may discover more with more precise measuring devices and new investigations. Similarly, children can enter a path of ongoing inquiry in which they continually expand and refine their understandings of the universe.