TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I. 2
ROLE OF THE LEARNER
Knowledge and learning are personal experiences varied
and unique - for each individual.
As individual learners actively acquire information through their
senses and relate that information to their experiences, they
construct new knowledge.
Knowledge, then, consists of ideas that are viable in terms of
the learner's experience. Because of the various ways in which
students create their own understandings, educators must work
to facilitate learning using diverse and multidimensional
approaches.
This view of learning leads to two assumptions:
Learners require developmentally appropriate experiences to
maximize the benefit of instruction.
Youngsters are an active, questioning, blossoming group. Very
young learners are just beginning to reason logically; early adolescents
are beginning to understand hypothetical ("what if")
scenarios. However, attention spans may vary across all ages,
necessitating varied activities to keep their attention. Further,
the unique ways in which learners construct their own understanding
dramatically increases the need for alternative approaches to
presenting material and engaging them in study.
Learners must actively participate in learning experiences.
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and
I understand."
This ancient Chinese proverb, quoted in the original research
by Glasser on thinking and memory,
[2]
highlights the importance
of active participation in learning. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
research found that people remember 10 percent of what they hear,
30 percent of what they see, 70 percent of what they see and hear,
and 90 percent of what they do. The implications for science and
mathematics instruction are clear.
TABLE OF CONTENTS