This is Part VI of exploring Professor Brian Cambourne’s 7 Conditions of Learning. Read the intro here and Immersion here, Demonstration here, Engagement here, Expectation here, and Responsibility here.
Employment
“When a child is engaged in a learning experience, a number of areas of the brain are simultaneously activated.”
Brain Principle #5: Students must be allowed "process time" to construct knowledge based on meaningful experiences and discussion.
I learned about teaching my son Nicholas through trial-and-error. My initial teaching failure allowed me to rethink. Taking the stance, "this is not working," was a turning point for me.
The poems I subsequently wrote engaged Nicholas, but the learning about Captain Cook and the changing map of the world was what propelled his knowledge to new heights. We walked the city of Oxford looking for old maps. We visited museums, and he connected television shows with our sightseeing and his learning. Our learning seeped from our home to the outside world—and for the first time, he was engaged in learning. It was something I could crack open with him while just looking at a textbook or flashcards.
"Cambourne suggests that as a consequence of discussion and personal reflection, children will construct new knowledge." This is what happened to Nicholas.
When teaching two fifteen-year-old, non-reading students, Twayne and Pedro, I knew engagement was crucial. Having completed a study of the book "The World's Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King," we created timelines and examined changes in history over the centuries. We had numerous discussions on life in 700 AD—the time of Charlemagne. Such a topic encouraged my students to reflect on the changes which occurred, helping create the life we now have.
We visited the Texas Tech Rare Books Library, which led to my students to be enamored at a single page of a Guttenberg Bible, handwritten texts from the 10th century, and Indian texts written over 5,000 years ago. The librarian commented, "Your students were some of the most amazing to ever visit. Many visitors glance over the papers, but your students were keenly interested."
My students’ background and knowledge impacted their interest in artifacts, their recall and learning about the world, and also their ability to decode.
Teaching reading to those who struggle should not be limited to just learning to decode. We know students struggle with decoding, but I always ask: "What else is limiting their learning?" Followed by "What am I going to do?"
When teachers begin looking at "what else?" that's when teaching becomes a problem-solving exercise, to find learning activities that allow numerous areas of the brain are activated, so a child connects the dots to learn to read quickly and efficiently.
In my experience, it takes additional knowledge and thinking to provide students with learning opportunities that allow them to engage in appropriate, memorable learning experiences. Such experiences transfer to the learning of letters and sounds, thus, teaching children to read.
For my next post, we’ll discuss the final condition, Approximation.
