#009 - How To Increase Children's Learning 🔍📚
In this episode of Neuroeducation with Angie Dee, the focus is on maximizing learning in the classroom without spending a fortune on resources. Angie shares three free techniques that can enhance learning by 50%. One of these techniques is creating a collaborative learning environment where students work together. Angie acknowledges that this may be challenging at times, but emphasizes the importance of setting standards in the classroom to promote teamwork and cooperation. By implementing these techniques, teachers can optimize learning outcomes for their students while minimizing their budgetary constraints. Tune in to learn more about these innovative teaching strategies.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:35 - Budget-Friendly Classroom Strategies
00:01:59 - The Power of Group Work
00:02:56 - Learning Pyramid Discussion
00:04:23 - Group Discussion Examples
00:05:07 - Peer Teaching and Retention Rates
00:06:10 - Social Development Through Group Learning
00:07:05 - Montessori Method and Personal Experience
00:08:53 - Learning from Life and Discussions
Transcript
What are three things you can do in
Speaker:your classroom that are basically free,
Speaker:that can maximize learning by 50%? That's what
Speaker:we're going over today in this episode. Welcome
Speaker:to neuroeducation. where we're exploring the neuroscience of
Speaker:how to switch on the brain to supercharge learning. I'll be sharing
Speaker:with you innovative teaching techniques, effective parenting strategies,
Speaker:and educational advocacy. I'm your host, Angie Dee.
Speaker:Together, let's revolutionize children's learning. Hello
Speaker:and welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.
Speaker:Thank you so much for tuning in. If
Speaker:you are one of those teachers that blow
Speaker:out your budget on resources, buying a million things,
Speaker:laminating a thousand sheets and printing
Speaker:off endless worksheets for your kids and blowing out your printing
Speaker:budget, this episode is for you. Often
Speaker:as a teacher, we try to buy
Speaker:cute little accessories for the classroom. buying
Speaker:so many worksheets. I'm definitely even guilty of
Speaker:it, even though I tried to create the most hands-on learning environment. When
Speaker:we had to capture a worksheet, you're paying somebody from
Speaker:teachers pay teachers or somebody. And what
Speaker:we're doing is spending a huge amount of money on printing
Speaker:and hands-out. Well, what can we do that
Speaker:is double the maximization of
Speaker:the learning benefit for the kids? where we don't have to spend
Speaker:money on all those extra handouts, resources
Speaker:that is coming out of our own budget. Amazingly,
Speaker:it's the children, the environment that
Speaker:they're in. We can maximize what they're doing to
Speaker:increase the learning by half, if not more,
Speaker:by helping the children work together. Sometimes
Speaker:this is tricky, you might have somebody say oh but I don't want to work
Speaker:with so-and-so or like she doesn't like me. But
Speaker:once you set standards in your classroom for
Speaker:when we're moving into group work that
Speaker:everyone moves into the group regardless and
Speaker:we treat each other with kindness You build
Speaker:slowly strategies and an
Speaker:expectation that we move in with ease and grace and
Speaker:it gets better and better. So something like
Speaker:a group discussion or a group project, what's
Speaker:the benefit? Well, if we go back
Speaker:to the learning pyramid and we look, what is the best
Speaker:method of learning on the learning pyramid? The
Speaker:three top ones, Out
Speaker:of the three top ones, two involve peer
Speaker:interactions. So as a recap, the
Speaker:lowest form of retention for any kind of learning is
Speaker:a lecture. 5% retention is
Speaker:the average expectation. If you go to
Speaker:audio and visual, we have an expectation of around
Speaker:20% of learning retention. If we go up,
Speaker:to a classroom discussion or a group discussion, we
Speaker:got up to 50% retention on learning rates. So
Speaker:right there, if we stop and think about that, we
Speaker:have 5% of a lecture, which when we're time
Speaker:poor, often we do as teachers, we talk
Speaker:to the students and we just telling them about the content.
Speaker:And if they're only retaining 5% of that, and here as
Speaker:the alternative, you have something that you can do
Speaker:by activating the children to work together that
Speaker:increases that by 50% well it's
Speaker:50% retention so it's increasing it by much more than 50%. So
Speaker:here we have a very simple strategy that you can
Speaker:activate. There are fantastic examples all
Speaker:over the internet of what you can do in a
Speaker:group discussion that can activate the children. Each
Speaker:child can share what they learn. Maybe they can read some content
Speaker:or they watch content and then they have to share. Okay, what was
Speaker:the most important thing that they got out of that? And then
Speaker:maybe they have to work out something where they bring it back to the classroom to share
Speaker:the most important points of whatever the content or
Speaker:the subject was that they learned from. By doing this,
Speaker:the children are learning from each other and they're
Speaker:also engaging in classroom discussion. This
Speaker:hits two of our top
Speaker:tier learning strategies on the learning pyramid. 50% at
Speaker:classroom or group discussion, and the very top
Speaker:tier 90 to 95% retention if you're peer
Speaker:teaching. Just by doing this simple strategy in a classroom,
Speaker:getting the children to work together in a group, share what
Speaker:they learnt from whatever the learning content was, and
Speaker:then prepare in some way to share with the classroom, they're
Speaker:having to discuss what they learned. They're having to share their
Speaker:understanding and they're listening to the other children share
Speaker:their understanding. This, by far, is
Speaker:one of the simplest strategies that we can implement
Speaker:that's maximizing learning. And what is it doing? It's making learning
Speaker:more enjoyable for the children. Once they learn
Speaker:how to work in groups more cohesively, What we
Speaker:have is something that is absolutely fabulous
Speaker:for their social development, for their social interactions and
Speaker:their social connections. Now, as an adult, I
Speaker:want to ask you, how do you enjoy learning the best? When
Speaker:is the last time you had a discussion with a friend that
Speaker:really made you think? And you walked away from that conversation being
Speaker:like, wow, I'm going to look more into that. Or that you
Speaker:really learned something. And what was it doing just
Speaker:from having that personal one-to-one interaction? So
Speaker:once again, what is one of the best ways we
Speaker:can increase learning from 5% retention to 50, or if not 90% retention?
Speaker:just by adding classroom interaction, just by getting students to
Speaker:work together, to talk to each other, to share their understanding. When
Speaker:we did this in one classroom, it was amazing to
Speaker:see how much children learn
Speaker:and also what was so dramatically different
Speaker:that one child picked up to another. When I studied my
Speaker:Montessori specialization, I actually had
Speaker:a fantastic experience and I was learning
Speaker:online. And a lot of people say, I can't learn online because there
Speaker:was no interaction. But amazingly, this simple
Speaker:kind of group discussion that we had to do online really
Speaker:maximized my learning. And
Speaker:Montessori has multi-age levels
Speaker:of classrooms, usually in ages 3 to
Speaker:6, and then ages 6 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to
Speaker:15, and 15 to 18. And this also allows for the older
Speaker:children to be able to help guide and nurture some of the younger children, and
Speaker:a lot of these things to happen naturally in a Montessori environment. Ironically,
Speaker:in my own learning, my professional learning, studying
Speaker:Montessori after I did my Bachelor of Education, I was
Speaker:able to come back to this very similar method of education, but
Speaker:it was online and it was the most interactive
Speaker:method of education that I felt I did in my entire teaching
Speaker:from studying my Diploma of Early Childhood, my Bachelor of Education
Speaker:and then doing my Montessori. If I look at all of that, my
Speaker:in-person Bachelor of Education and my in-person Diploma
Speaker:of Early Childhood was much
Speaker:less interactive, ironically, than my
Speaker:specialization in Montessori, because we constantly had to
Speaker:give each other feedback. We had to share our understanding, then
Speaker:read somebody else's input, and then comment on
Speaker:their input. And so what I found was not
Speaker:only was I learning so much from the content, I was learning
Speaker:so much from everybody else's understanding. And
Speaker:this is what we do in life, is it not? When you go to
Speaker:a friend's house and we have a dinner party, what are we
Speaker:doing? We're sharing what we're learning and what we're experiencing in life. And
Speaker:we have to say that we learn so much from our
Speaker:friends and our family around us. And what is that through? Just
Speaker:through simple discussions, which we can do in our
Speaker:classrooms for free to maximize learning. So
Speaker:Thank you for listening in. I hope you enjoyed this
Speaker:tip and it would be a massive favor if
Speaker:you could subscribe on YouTube and
Speaker:also give us a five star review on Apple podcast or
