In this episode of Neuroeducation, host Angie explores the concept of learning as a "doing word." She challenges the traditional approach of using worksheets as the sole means of teaching and emphasizes the importance of active engagement for effective learning. Angie discusses the time constraints and curriculum pressures that often lead teachers to rely on worksheets, but argues that this approach falls short in truly engaging students. Drawing from neuroscience research, she highlights the need for students to be actively involved in the learning process in order to fully absorb and retain information. Tune in to learn how to revolutionize children's learning and supercharge their educational experience.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:10 - The Concept of Learning as a Doing Word

00:01:03 - Challenges Teachers Face with Curriculum Constraints

00:03:07 - Bringing Real-World Learning into the Classroom

00:03:28 - The Importance of Excursions in Education

00:05:48 - Incorporating Outdoor Learning

00:06:10 - Montessori Approach to Real-World Learning

00:07:48 - Community Involvement in Education

00:08:32 - Bringing Learning to Life with Practical Examples

Learning is a doing word and a worksheet just

doesn't cut it. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where

we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to

supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques,

effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm

your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's

learning. Hey

everybody, welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.

Thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to start with a new concept, learning.

Learning is a doing word. So

often in education I've seen classroom

after classroom of teachers giving a certain amount

of content usually by way of a worksheet

and then the children answering sheets

on this worksheet and then the teachers considering that

the content is done. Now I don't blame some of

these teachers because they're under time constraints and

they've been given their own directives

from curriculum of how much they have to get through. And they've got

two weeks to get through this and two weeks to get through that. And they've only got three lessons

to get through something. And sometimes they feel like a worksheet is

the easiest way. However, I would argue that

learning is a doing word and a worksheet just

doesn't cut it because From ages

of old we've had the perspective that children

can be taught just in their head alone. And

unfortunately we got this from a theorist who

thought that our mind worked like

little gears and then they just went round and around and they would absorb

information effortlessly. However, in neuroscience,

we know this is not true. We know that children have

to be engaged to fully learn and

they need to be doing really to be learning. As

I've mentioned in a previous episode, we've got the learning pyramid that

shows us children might retain maybe 5% of what

they see, 10% of what they see in here, and

then it goes up to 50% if they're in a discussion with their

peers. 75% if they're

doing something. So what

we have, and 90% if they're peer teaching, but

what we have is from 5% and 10% to

75%, we can easily say it is improving

your learning by double every time

you add a hands-on component. What are some

easy ways that we can do this in the classroom? or

even at home. Whatever you're teaching, whatever it

is, ideally you're learning about life

and life is usually out

the door and in the real world. So what

can we do to bring learning to life? I

would say one of the best things to do is getting our children out.

And if you're a teacher, we know that there is bucket

loads of red tape to take kids on excursions, but there's

always teachers that have done. similar excursions that

you can use from, and I know that's one of the number one complaints of

teachers, so much red tape. I would say go

to somebody who's done it, use their exact same

documents and then reiterate it to make it

easier for you. Or ask one of your principals, vice principals,

ask other people to help you out because the learning happens

outside. So much learning happens in the real world. And what

we can do is try to bring that real world learning into

the classroom, into the home, or we can take children

out into the real world. Somebody

recently said to me, she studied her

first seven years of education. So it would be

equivalent of primary school here in Queensland, Australia. in

another country, over in England. And she said, we

got to go on so many excursions. She said, she

was almost 40. And she said, I can remember so vividly

when we went to a medieval castle, we learned how they used to iron

with an old school iron and we baked the bread and we got

to dress up in these costumes. She said, I can remember that so

vividly. As a 40 year old, I can remember that

real life experience. She's

like, when I came to Australia, I moved here and I

went and did my entire high school period from

grade eight to grade 12. The

problem was that during her entire high

school, she said she went on one excursion and

it was for her German class. And for that excursion, they

had to go and ask the German exchange students to

be able to buy a ticket at the train station. They caught a

train to Bingley, which would be the equivalent of about an

hour. and then they came home. They didn't get off

the train station at Beenleigh and go anywhere. They just

caught a train. In, that would be seven years of

high school. For me, I feel like that's a travesty. In

Montessori education, they call them outings and

outings are super important aspect of

learning because what are we doing? We're teaching children about life and

we want to get them outside, outdoors and into

life. So I would say one

of our best methods of resourceful teaching to

bring learning to life is to get children

into the outdoors, into life through excursions, through

camps if you can. My incredible mentor at

Montessori actually took

a group of kindergartners, no joke, from

America across the border to Mexico.

And what they did was fundraise for

their entire trip. And these are kindergartners. So

we're talking children from four to five, that

had to plan their trip, they had to plan their travel, they

had to plan how much it was going to cost, and they fundraised all

of the money they needed to do an international trip.

I think if kindergartners can figure

out how to get to Mexico and fund their trip and

go all the way across country, then

we can up our game as educators to

get children more into the outdoors. Because when it comes

down to it, these are the things children are going to remember. These are

the things going to really impact them for the future. And

when we're not doing excursions and we're not getting our children outdoors, what

we can do is bring as much as

we can into the children's world that is

real life and hands-on. If the children are doing

something on pen and paper, day after day, week

after week, we have to be asking themselves, what aspect

of this learning can we bring to life? What aspect of this

learning can we make hands-on? And this is where it's

fantastic to ask parents, ask the

community members. Often they want to be engaged and they want

to be able to do something, but they're not sure maybe how they can help. In

CMK Kindergartens in Australia, they

are one of the most renowned kindergartens and

usually have incredibly long wait lists. But I feel like not

only are they fantastic educators because they bring learning to life, but also

parents play an incredible role on bringing

the learning into the kindergarten.

So parents are helping building things

and bringing different things in to make learning come to

life. So, My advice for

the best kind of learning is to

make whatever learning we're doing come to life in

whatever way you can. If you're learning about a

different country, can the children be making food from

that country? Can you invite families from that country? Can they share things from

that country? Can you get a grandma to come and share stories about that country?

Or can they be building something? If they're learning about the environment, can they try

to build that environment? Can they go on an excursion to explore that aspect

of the environment? What can we do to make learning come

to life? Because after all, learning is a doing word. Thank

you for listening to Neuroeducation with

Angie Dee. You can do us a massive favor. It really

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