Hands-on Learning Lasts

"Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand." This quote from the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, reflects my teaching style at home.

Last week we were talking about insect anatomy. We read stories. We drew pictures. We talked about insects and other anthropods. Then Friday (when the weather was much too beautiful to be inside) I sent the boys outside to turn over rocks and leaves to look for bugs. Both boys were cute, finding different bugs and determining whether they were insects for not. They inspected each animal's body, comparing snails, centipedes, roly-polies, ants, beetles. They were even able to observe a butterfly. My older son pointed out the the little one how many of the animals they found were invertebrates and have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies. In the end we acquired a couple of "special pets"--two roly-polies and a snail. The boys will remember what we learned today about anthropods, invertebrates and insects because they were able to see, touch and move them.

I must admit when I was a classroom teacher I did not consistently provide my students with hands-on learning experiences. I was a secondary school teacher and found myself lecturing more than guiding students through a learning adventure. I knew that students retained information best when they were able to physically and mentally apply it. But not all the students were cooperative about being engaged in their learning. (They've been conditioned to have the teacher drill the information into them with lectures, textbooks and worksheets so they can remember it for a standardized test after which they will promptly forget everything they've been "taught".) Also doing these type of activities and projects takes time. You only have the students for a short period of time and administration does not encourage you to spend lengthy periods of time on one thing--there are alot of other standards they need you to be able to prove you've covered.

My oldest son (age 9, third grade) has a difficult time with reading. Traditional school had almost completely demolished his self-esteem and was teaching him that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't be successful. And even worse, he was coming to believe that learning was not fun! Doing projects where he can be engaged with the subject matter and where I can minimize the amount of reading required makes him feel good about learning. He also internalizes the information. This isn't to say that I never tell Jacob information. (And, we still read a lot, but I try to make it fun and non-threatening.) But after a "lecture" I try to make sure he gets to do an activity where he gets to apply what he learned. I hope that next year we can do more extensive projects involving the entire "learning wheel:" goal setting, experimenting and observing, reviewing, and action planning. (I just came across this "wheel" analogy and I like it because it implies that the process never ends. Learning should never stop.)