1 00:00:00,128 --> 00:00:04,070 Learning is a doing word and a worksheet just 2 00:00:04,110 --> 00:00:07,951 doesn't cut it. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where 3 00:00:07,991 --> 00:00:11,293 we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to 4 00:00:11,373 --> 00:00:15,174 supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques, 5 00:00:15,354 --> 00:00:18,836 effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm 6 00:00:18,876 --> 00:00:23,138 your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's 7 00:00:23,198 --> 00:00:27,523 learning. Hey 8 00:00:27,563 --> 00:00:31,165 everybody, welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee. 9 00:00:31,225 --> 00:00:36,288 Thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to start with a new concept, learning. 10 00:00:37,388 --> 00:00:40,730 Learning is a doing word. So 11 00:00:40,890 --> 00:00:47,056 often in education I've seen classroom 12 00:00:47,196 --> 00:00:50,679 after classroom of teachers giving a certain amount 13 00:00:50,699 --> 00:00:55,243 of content usually by way of a worksheet 14 00:00:56,264 --> 00:00:59,727 and then the children answering sheets 15 00:00:59,867 --> 00:01:03,330 on this worksheet and then the teachers considering that 16 00:01:03,350 --> 00:01:06,472 the content is done. Now I don't blame some of 17 00:01:06,512 --> 00:01:10,075 these teachers because they're under time constraints and 18 00:01:10,135 --> 00:01:14,916 they've been given their own directives 19 00:01:15,477 --> 00:01:18,718 from curriculum of how much they have to get through. And they've got 20 00:01:18,798 --> 00:01:22,500 two weeks to get through this and two weeks to get through that. And they've only got three lessons 21 00:01:22,540 --> 00:01:26,201 to get through something. And sometimes they feel like a worksheet is 22 00:01:26,261 --> 00:01:29,963 the easiest way. However, I would argue that 23 00:01:30,063 --> 00:01:34,005 learning is a doing word and a worksheet just 24 00:01:34,045 --> 00:01:38,004 doesn't cut it because From ages 25 00:01:38,124 --> 00:01:41,989 of old we've had the perspective that children 26 00:01:42,009 --> 00:01:45,373 can be taught just in their head alone. And 27 00:01:45,533 --> 00:01:49,217 unfortunately we got this from a theorist who 28 00:01:49,297 --> 00:01:52,661 thought that our mind worked like 29 00:01:52,721 --> 00:01:56,305 little gears and then they just went round and around and they would absorb 30 00:01:56,385 --> 00:02:00,909 information effortlessly. However, in neuroscience, 31 00:02:00,949 --> 00:02:04,272 we know this is not true. We know that children have 32 00:02:04,312 --> 00:02:08,515 to be engaged to fully learn and 33 00:02:08,535 --> 00:02:16,224 they need to be doing really to be learning. As 34 00:02:16,264 --> 00:02:19,910 I've mentioned in a previous episode, we've got the learning pyramid that 35 00:02:19,970 --> 00:02:23,176 shows us children might retain maybe 5% of what 36 00:02:23,216 --> 00:02:26,601 they see, 10% of what they see in here, and 37 00:02:26,621 --> 00:02:29,786 then it goes up to 50% if they're in a discussion with their 38 00:02:29,866 --> 00:02:33,515 peers. 75% if they're 39 00:02:33,575 --> 00:02:36,797 doing something. So what 40 00:02:36,878 --> 00:02:40,400 we have, and 90% if they're peer teaching, but 41 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:45,304 what we have is from 5% and 10% to 42 00:02:45,885 --> 00:02:49,948 75%, we can easily say it is improving 43 00:02:49,988 --> 00:02:53,511 your learning by double every time 44 00:02:53,691 --> 00:02:56,873 you add a hands-on component. What are some 45 00:02:56,973 --> 00:03:01,181 easy ways that we can do this in the classroom? or 46 00:03:01,461 --> 00:03:05,347 even at home. Whatever you're teaching, whatever it 47 00:03:05,367 --> 00:03:09,032 is, ideally you're learning about life 48 00:03:09,913 --> 00:03:13,238 and life is usually out 49 00:03:13,298 --> 00:03:16,530 the door and in the real world. So what 50 00:03:16,590 --> 00:03:19,892 can we do to bring learning to life? I 51 00:03:19,932 --> 00:03:23,333 would say one of the best things to do is getting our children out. 52 00:03:23,973 --> 00:03:27,375 And if you're a teacher, we know that there is bucket 53 00:03:27,415 --> 00:03:30,776 loads of red tape to take kids on excursions, but there's 54 00:03:30,876 --> 00:03:34,418 always teachers that have done. similar excursions that 55 00:03:34,458 --> 00:03:37,799 you can use from, and I know that's one of the number one complaints of 56 00:03:37,839 --> 00:03:41,541 teachers, so much red tape. I would say go 57 00:03:41,581 --> 00:03:45,263 to somebody who's done it, use their exact same 58 00:03:45,563 --> 00:03:48,825 documents and then reiterate it to make it 59 00:03:48,945 --> 00:03:52,467 easier for you. Or ask one of your principals, vice principals, 60 00:03:52,947 --> 00:03:56,689 ask other people to help you out because the learning happens 61 00:03:57,808 --> 00:04:01,049 outside. So much learning happens in the real world. And what 62 00:04:01,089 --> 00:04:04,631 we can do is try to bring that real world learning into 63 00:04:04,651 --> 00:04:08,212 the classroom, into the home, or we can take children 64 00:04:08,232 --> 00:04:11,753 out into the real world. Somebody 65 00:04:11,813 --> 00:04:15,594 recently said to me, she studied her 66 00:04:15,875 --> 00:04:19,096 first seven years of education. So it would be 67 00:04:19,276 --> 00:04:24,251 equivalent of primary school here in Queensland, Australia. in 68 00:04:25,392 --> 00:04:28,815 another country, over in England. And she said, we 69 00:04:28,975 --> 00:04:32,438 got to go on so many excursions. She said, she 70 00:04:32,478 --> 00:04:36,260 was almost 40. And she said, I can remember so vividly 71 00:04:36,601 --> 00:04:40,063 when we went to a medieval castle, we learned how they used to iron 72 00:04:40,103 --> 00:04:43,646 with an old school iron and we baked the bread and we got 73 00:04:43,686 --> 00:04:47,149 to dress up in these costumes. She said, I can remember that so 74 00:04:47,229 --> 00:04:50,411 vividly. As a 40 year old, I can remember that 75 00:04:50,571 --> 00:04:53,992 real life experience. She's 76 00:04:54,033 --> 00:04:57,339 like, when I came to Australia, I moved here and I 77 00:04:57,399 --> 00:05:01,227 went and did my entire high school period from 78 00:05:01,428 --> 00:05:04,613 grade eight to grade 12. The 79 00:05:04,713 --> 00:05:08,337 problem was that during her entire high 80 00:05:08,397 --> 00:05:12,541 school, she said she went on one excursion and 81 00:05:12,582 --> 00:05:16,466 it was for her German class. And for that excursion, they 82 00:05:16,506 --> 00:05:19,909 had to go and ask the German exchange students to 83 00:05:19,949 --> 00:05:23,233 be able to buy a ticket at the train station. They caught a 84 00:05:23,313 --> 00:05:26,416 train to Bingley, which would be the equivalent of about an 85 00:05:26,476 --> 00:05:29,818 hour. and then they came home. They didn't get off 86 00:05:29,858 --> 00:05:33,341 the train station at Beenleigh and go anywhere. They just 87 00:05:33,821 --> 00:05:37,083 caught a train. In, that would be seven years of 88 00:05:37,143 --> 00:05:41,025 high school. For me, I feel like that's a travesty. In 89 00:05:41,085 --> 00:05:44,627 Montessori education, they call them outings and 90 00:05:44,987 --> 00:05:48,249 outings are super important aspect of 91 00:05:48,310 --> 00:05:51,912 learning because what are we doing? We're teaching children about life and 92 00:05:51,972 --> 00:05:55,274 we want to get them outside, outdoors and into 93 00:05:55,334 --> 00:05:58,657 life. So I would say one 94 00:05:58,697 --> 00:06:02,859 of our best methods of resourceful teaching to 95 00:06:02,940 --> 00:06:06,482 bring learning to life is to get children 96 00:06:06,822 --> 00:06:10,865 into the outdoors, into life through excursions, through 97 00:06:10,905 --> 00:06:14,207 camps if you can. My incredible mentor at 98 00:06:14,287 --> 00:06:17,792 Montessori actually took 99 00:06:18,032 --> 00:06:21,714 a group of kindergartners, no joke, from 100 00:06:21,734 --> 00:06:25,516 America across the border to Mexico. 101 00:06:26,736 --> 00:06:30,118 And what they did was fundraise for 102 00:06:30,158 --> 00:06:33,440 their entire trip. And these are kindergartners. So 103 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:36,802 we're talking children from four to five, that 104 00:06:37,302 --> 00:06:41,304 had to plan their trip, they had to plan their travel, they 105 00:06:41,384 --> 00:06:46,186 had to plan how much it was going to cost, and they fundraised all 106 00:06:46,206 --> 00:06:49,547 of the money they needed to do an international trip. 107 00:06:50,428 --> 00:06:54,805 I think if kindergartners can figure 108 00:06:54,966 --> 00:06:58,109 out how to get to Mexico and fund their trip and 109 00:06:58,189 --> 00:07:02,033 go all the way across country, then 110 00:07:02,513 --> 00:07:06,057 we can up our game as educators to 111 00:07:06,097 --> 00:07:09,380 get children more into the outdoors. Because when it comes 112 00:07:09,420 --> 00:07:12,603 down to it, these are the things children are going to remember. These are 113 00:07:12,623 --> 00:07:16,887 the things going to really impact them for the future. And 114 00:07:17,487 --> 00:07:21,530 when we're not doing excursions and we're not getting our children outdoors, what 115 00:07:21,591 --> 00:07:24,753 we can do is bring as much as 116 00:07:24,793 --> 00:07:27,976 we can into the children's world that is 117 00:07:28,056 --> 00:07:31,398 real life and hands-on. If the children are doing 118 00:07:31,478 --> 00:07:34,928 something on pen and paper, day after day, week 119 00:07:35,028 --> 00:07:38,770 after week, we have to be asking themselves, what aspect 120 00:07:38,810 --> 00:07:41,992 of this learning can we bring to life? What aspect of this 121 00:07:42,032 --> 00:07:45,214 learning can we make hands-on? And this is where it's 122 00:07:45,254 --> 00:07:48,375 fantastic to ask parents, ask the 123 00:07:48,415 --> 00:07:51,537 community members. Often they want to be engaged and they want 124 00:07:51,577 --> 00:07:56,060 to be able to do something, but they're not sure maybe how they can help. In 125 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,828 CMK Kindergartens in Australia, they 126 00:08:00,088 --> 00:08:03,309 are one of the most renowned kindergartens and 127 00:08:03,749 --> 00:08:07,211 usually have incredibly long wait lists. But I feel like not 128 00:08:07,291 --> 00:08:10,792 only are they fantastic educators because they bring learning to life, but also 129 00:08:10,852 --> 00:08:15,494 parents play an incredible role on bringing 130 00:08:15,514 --> 00:08:19,535 the learning into the kindergarten. 131 00:08:19,615 --> 00:08:23,256 So parents are helping building things 132 00:08:23,396 --> 00:08:26,678 and bringing different things in to make learning come to 133 00:08:26,738 --> 00:08:30,571 life. So, My advice for 134 00:08:30,611 --> 00:08:33,753 the best kind of learning is to 135 00:08:33,834 --> 00:08:37,136 make whatever learning we're doing come to life in 136 00:08:37,176 --> 00:08:40,338 whatever way you can. If you're learning about a 137 00:08:40,378 --> 00:08:43,520 different country, can the children be making food from 138 00:08:43,560 --> 00:08:46,703 that country? Can you invite families from that country? Can they share things from 139 00:08:46,723 --> 00:08:50,245 that country? Can you get a grandma to come and share stories about that country? 140 00:08:50,826 --> 00:08:54,028 Or can they be building something? If they're learning about the environment, can they try 141 00:08:54,068 --> 00:08:57,530 to build that environment? Can they go on an excursion to explore that aspect 142 00:08:57,570 --> 00:09:01,312 of the environment? What can we do to make learning come 143 00:09:01,352 --> 00:09:05,194 to life? Because after all, learning is a doing word. Thank 144 00:09:05,215 --> 00:09:08,356 you for listening to Neuroeducation with 145 00:09:08,456 --> 00:09:11,818 Angie Dee. You can do us a massive favor. 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