How People Learn ?

 

How people learn?

By: Ms Kashfia Latafat

I believe that people learn most by their own experiences and by reflecting on them. Reflection helps in improving the learners understanding. According to Jean Piaget (1896-1980) learning is a developmental cognitive process. Learners create knowledge rather than receive knowledge from the teacher. Piaget recognized that learners construct knowledge based on their experiences and how do they so is related to their biological, physical and mental stage of development.  The Russian scientist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) extended Piaget’s developmental theory of constructivism. He emphasized the role that culture and language play in developing learners’ thinking and the ways in which teachers and peers assist learners in developing new ideas and skills. Vygotsky proposed the concept of the Zone of proximal development (ZPD), it is the level where learning takes place but learner reach that point by the guidance of teacher or in collaboration with peers. His work led to the deliberate use of cooperative learning in the classroom.

 All the theories emphasize children as active learners who are able to set goals, plan and revise. Theory of constructivism changes the paradigm of teaching and learning. It transforms the conventional classroom into an active classroom. Learners become active learners and a teacher plays the role of facilitator or coach and helps them to construct the knowledge rather than to reproduce the facts. Active learning is basically learning where learners are actively engaged in learning, approach it in a reflective and a thoughtful way rather than simply being the passive recipients of information that is given to them. 

Learners construct new knowledge with the help of teachers and the previous knowledge will serve as a raw material for new knowledge they create. Questioning is an effective tool to involve learners in active learning, they get engaged and try to find out the answers which develop critical thinking in learners. Learning is best developed through thinking skills, this means offering challenge through questioning and gives them time for thinking. I often use the Six Thinking Hats approach of Edward de Bono (1992) for developing thinking skills, through this I made my learners becomes involved in thinking process in a scientific manner. To help my learners focus on solution of problem, I encourage them to wear the white hat to recall their knowledge, and green to come up with creative solution of their own. Cooperative learning strategy involves learners in active learning, where learners work in groups to share diverse ideas and point of views. Cooperative learning strategies such as think-pair-share, round robin, discussions and dialogue provides learners the opportunities to think critically, reflecting on their learning, and constructing new knowledge through interaction with their peers. Discussion is another strategy which motivates learners, as a math teacher I use this strategy more often where I allow individual thinking time, discussion with the partner, and then group or class discussion for solving word problems, which motivates learners and give them chance to share their understandings with their peers.  Using of visual tools is another method of teaching and learning; learners enjoy describing pictures and respond well to visual aids. The strategy of problem solving assignment is also very effective which can be used by giving guidelines to learners where they define word problem, brainstorm for sources of help, research and analyses the problem, come up with the best solution and test that solution, all these steps indicating the learner centered learning where teachers role is to facilitate them where it’s needed. Assessment is really at the heart of teaching and learning point where teacher assess their learners’ performance and take feedback to improve their teaching and learning. There are mainly two types of assessments which are formative and summative assessments. Summative assessment or assessment of learning tells that how learners learn by the end of topic. Formative assessment or assessment for learning (AFL) plays a pivotal role in learning cycle. It’s an ongoing learning process which informs about the understanding of learners during the learning process. The purpose of formative assessment is to assess the learning of learners, it works with any activity for creating motivation, provide learning opportunities and to give feedback to both learners and teachers. Feedback help teachers to reflect and improves their future practices, in fact assessment without feedback is nothing. In the beginning of the lesson sharing of objectives and success criteria is assessment for learning strategy which should be embedded in lesson plan which make learners responsible for their learning. It can be facilitated by peer and self assessment and by giving corrective feedback on their responses. AFL strategies can also be used in the end of a lesson to evaluate whether the learning objectives are achieved. I believe that formative assessments greatly improve the achievement of learners and helps identify the areas where the teachers and learners need improvement.