#007 - The Secret To Creating Passion In Young Learners 💡ðŸ§
In this episode of Neuroeducation, host Angie explores the concept of learning as a "doing word." She challenges the traditional approach of using worksheets as the sole means of teaching and emphasizes the importance of active engagement for effective learning. Angie discusses the time constraints and curriculum pressures that often lead teachers to rely on worksheets, but argues that this approach falls short in truly engaging students. Drawing from neuroscience research, she highlights the need for students to be actively involved in the learning process in order to fully absorb and retain information. Tune in to learn how to revolutionize children's learning and supercharge their educational experience.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:10 - The Concept of Learning as a Doing Word
00:01:03 - Challenges Teachers Face with Curriculum Constraints
00:03:07 - Bringing Real-World Learning into the Classroom
00:03:28 - The Importance of Excursions in Education
00:05:48 - Incorporating Outdoor Learning
00:06:10 - Montessori Approach to Real-World Learning
00:07:48 - Community Involvement in Education
00:08:32 - Bringing Learning to Life with Practical Examples
Transcript
Learning is a doing word and a worksheet just
Speaker:doesn't cut it. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where
Speaker:we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to
Speaker:supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques,
Speaker:effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm
Speaker:your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's
Speaker:learning. Hey
Speaker:everybody, welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.
Speaker:Thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to start with a new concept, learning.
Speaker:Learning is a doing word. So
Speaker:often in education I've seen classroom
Speaker:after classroom of teachers giving a certain amount
Speaker:of content usually by way of a worksheet
Speaker:and then the children answering sheets
Speaker:on this worksheet and then the teachers considering that
Speaker:the content is done. Now I don't blame some of
Speaker:these teachers because they're under time constraints and
Speaker:they've been given their own directives
Speaker:from curriculum of how much they have to get through. And they've got
Speaker:two weeks to get through this and two weeks to get through that. And they've only got three lessons
Speaker:to get through something. And sometimes they feel like a worksheet is
Speaker:the easiest way. However, I would argue that
Speaker:learning is a doing word and a worksheet just
Speaker:doesn't cut it because From ages
Speaker:of old we've had the perspective that children
Speaker:can be taught just in their head alone. And
Speaker:unfortunately we got this from a theorist who
Speaker:thought that our mind worked like
Speaker:little gears and then they just went round and around and they would absorb
Speaker:information effortlessly. However, in neuroscience,
Speaker:we know this is not true. We know that children have
Speaker:to be engaged to fully learn and
Speaker:they need to be doing really to be learning. As
Speaker:I've mentioned in a previous episode, we've got the learning pyramid that
Speaker:shows us children might retain maybe 5% of what
Speaker:they see, 10% of what they see in here, and
Speaker:then it goes up to 50% if they're in a discussion with their
Speaker:peers. 75% if they're
Speaker:doing something. So what
Speaker:we have, and 90% if they're peer teaching, but
Speaker:what we have is from 5% and 10% to
Speaker:75%, we can easily say it is improving
Speaker:your learning by double every time
Speaker:you add a hands-on component. What are some
Speaker:easy ways that we can do this in the classroom? or
Speaker:even at home. Whatever you're teaching, whatever it
Speaker:is, ideally you're learning about life
Speaker:and life is usually out
Speaker:the door and in the real world. So what
Speaker:can we do to bring learning to life? I
Speaker:would say one of the best things to do is getting our children out.
Speaker:And if you're a teacher, we know that there is bucket
Speaker:loads of red tape to take kids on excursions, but there's
Speaker:always teachers that have done. similar excursions that
Speaker:you can use from, and I know that's one of the number one complaints of
Speaker:teachers, so much red tape. I would say go
Speaker:to somebody who's done it, use their exact same
Speaker:documents and then reiterate it to make it
Speaker:easier for you. Or ask one of your principals, vice principals,
Speaker:ask other people to help you out because the learning happens
Speaker:outside. So much learning happens in the real world. And what
Speaker:we can do is try to bring that real world learning into
Speaker:the classroom, into the home, or we can take children
Speaker:out into the real world. Somebody
Speaker:recently said to me, she studied her
Speaker:first seven years of education. So it would be
Speaker:equivalent of primary school here in Queensland, Australia. in
Speaker:another country, over in England. And she said, we
Speaker:got to go on so many excursions. She said, she
Speaker:was almost 40. And she said, I can remember so vividly
Speaker:when we went to a medieval castle, we learned how they used to iron
Speaker:with an old school iron and we baked the bread and we got
Speaker:to dress up in these costumes. She said, I can remember that so
Speaker:vividly. As a 40 year old, I can remember that
Speaker:real life experience. She's
Speaker:like, when I came to Australia, I moved here and I
Speaker:went and did my entire high school period from
Speaker:grade eight to grade 12. The
Speaker:problem was that during her entire high
Speaker:school, she said she went on one excursion and
Speaker:it was for her German class. And for that excursion, they
Speaker:had to go and ask the German exchange students to
Speaker:be able to buy a ticket at the train station. They caught a
Speaker:train to Bingley, which would be the equivalent of about an
Speaker:hour. and then they came home. They didn't get off
Speaker:the train station at Beenleigh and go anywhere. They just
Speaker:caught a train. In, that would be seven years of
Speaker:high school. For me, I feel like that's a travesty. In
Speaker:Montessori education, they call them outings and
Speaker:outings are super important aspect of
Speaker:learning because what are we doing? We're teaching children about life and
Speaker:we want to get them outside, outdoors and into
Speaker:life. So I would say one
Speaker:of our best methods of resourceful teaching to
Speaker:bring learning to life is to get children
Speaker:into the outdoors, into life through excursions, through
Speaker:camps if you can. My incredible mentor at
Speaker:Montessori actually took
Speaker:a group of kindergartners, no joke, from
Speaker:America across the border to Mexico.
Speaker:And what they did was fundraise for
Speaker:their entire trip. And these are kindergartners. So
Speaker:we're talking children from four to five, that
Speaker:had to plan their trip, they had to plan their travel, they
Speaker:had to plan how much it was going to cost, and they fundraised all
Speaker:of the money they needed to do an international trip.
Speaker:I think if kindergartners can figure
Speaker:out how to get to Mexico and fund their trip and
Speaker:go all the way across country, then
Speaker:we can up our game as educators to
Speaker:get children more into the outdoors. Because when it comes
Speaker:down to it, these are the things children are going to remember. These are
Speaker:the things going to really impact them for the future. And
Speaker:when we're not doing excursions and we're not getting our children outdoors, what
Speaker:we can do is bring as much as
Speaker:we can into the children's world that is
Speaker:real life and hands-on. If the children are doing
Speaker:something on pen and paper, day after day, week
Speaker:after week, we have to be asking themselves, what aspect
Speaker:of this learning can we bring to life? What aspect of this
Speaker:learning can we make hands-on? And this is where it's
Speaker:fantastic to ask parents, ask the
Speaker:community members. Often they want to be engaged and they want
Speaker:to be able to do something, but they're not sure maybe how they can help. In
Speaker:CMK Kindergartens in Australia, they
Speaker:are one of the most renowned kindergartens and
Speaker:usually have incredibly long wait lists. But I feel like not
Speaker:only are they fantastic educators because they bring learning to life, but also
Speaker:parents play an incredible role on bringing
Speaker:the learning into the kindergarten.
Speaker:So parents are helping building things
Speaker:and bringing different things in to make learning come to
Speaker:life. So, My advice for
Speaker:the best kind of learning is to
Speaker:make whatever learning we're doing come to life in
Speaker:whatever way you can. If you're learning about a
Speaker:different country, can the children be making food from
Speaker:that country? Can you invite families from that country? Can they share things from
Speaker:that country? Can you get a grandma to come and share stories about that country?
Speaker:Or can they be building something? If they're learning about the environment, can they try
Speaker:to build that environment? Can they go on an excursion to explore that aspect
Speaker:of the environment? What can we do to make learning come
Speaker:to life? Because after all, learning is a doing word. Thank
Speaker:you for listening to Neuroeducation with
Speaker:Angie Dee. You can do us a massive favor. It really
Speaker:helps the podcast when you leave us a review on Apple podcast or
Speaker:Spotify. Also, please subscribe on
Speaker:our YouTube channel and you have all the links down below for
