Learning Revisited

Learning does build on learning.  Take the example of the Suzuki method of young children learning to play the violin by ear (not note reading).  These children usually start this method at age 3 or 4 and they listen over and over to a set of tapes, or CDs nowadays, of the same melody and variations of that melody.  They are instructed to find those notes on their violins and then “put them together” in the same order that they hear.  They mimic what the instructor plays.  They listen again and again to the same set of notes played in the same order.  It takes about a year for most students to learn “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”  After they learn “Twinkle,” the next piece comes much faster, and the next and the next, similar to learning a language, starting with a few words, building to sentences, and then conversation.  The learning builds on the previous learning.

Learning requires doing.  A U-C Irvine mathematics professor always said, “Keep your pencil moving” when instructing students on how to master story problems.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed with the details of the story and how many miles per hour some train was moving in some direction and how fast could Johnny get there on his bike from some other direction, etc., this professor encouraged the students to just write everything down as they came to the information. He told them to draw a picture and start writing some equations that were familiar and then start plugging in values and before they knew it, they were solving problems.  They were “doing” math and not just staring at the paper trying to think it through in their heads. 

The part of the reading in Scientific Inquiry and How People Learn regarding Metacognition was interesting to me, especially the work of White and Frederiksen and their curriculum called ThinkerTools.  It was interesting to see the results of their study where the students were actively involved in the scientific process and asked to reflect and analyze their project as opposed to just participating in a traditional curriculum.  This also goes back to “learning requires doing.” 

I would not change my definition of learning but would expand it to include these ideas.