How can teachers use ideas from research on out-of-school learning to improve their instruction? Here are a few suggestions from research pulled from several articles (identified by author) from Module 6 of CEP 800.
Museums excel at presenting examples, allowing learners to connect concepts with real life. Brown, Collins & Duguid compared the method of teaching children vocabulary out of a dictionary vs. the way vocabulary is normally learned outside school. Just like words, a lot of content that is taught in schools is content-dependant. Teachers should be responsible for teaching students how to apply what they’re learning (through examples and activities in the classroom) to real life.
As Crowley & Jacobs state in their article, much of learning is highly planned and intentional but much of it can be driven by opportunistic “noticing” on the part of the learner. Although Crowley & Jacobs focus on this type of learning occurring at home between children and parents, the same type of “noticing” can occur through problems solving with the application on concepts to real life examples in the classroom.
According to Semper, the learning experience that occurs in museums often occurs within a social context. Social construction occurs when there is a great deal of nurturing interaction with other human begins. “Peer interaction in learning can be an important support for education, and it is one that formal schooling often mitigates against.” (pg. 3) Perhaps, based on the learning success that occurs within museums, teachers will follow the lead of allowing more interaction.
Resnick also emphasizes the importance of collaboration in learning. The dominant form of school learning and performance is individual, students are ultimately judged on what they can do by themselves. However, much activity outside school is socially shared. Each person’s ability to function successfully depends on how their mental and physical performances mesh with others. Even just these three articles, we see a good amount of professional work that encourages problem solving through application of content in example work among students learning in schools.
Other lessons to be learned from the Semper article would be to incorporate intrinsic factors into lesson plans & content that will strike curiosity. Curriculum should also address different learning styles. “Exhibits often use interesting kinetic experiences, play on words, spatial relationships and interesting sounds as well as text and images. Because of this richness, museums and exhibits have the opportunity to connect with many different learning modes that people use.” (pg. 5)
We can also draw a quick piece of advice from something that Frank Oppenheimer (founding director of the Exploratorium) once said, “No one ever flunked a museum.” Museum goers don’t take tests or receive grades. Not to say we should throw away the grade books, but we can piece this with what we learned in Module 2 on behaviorism and reinforcements. Success generates more success. Accomplishment itself functions as effective reinforcement, where on the other hand, failure generates more failure. By keeping tasks at the correct level of difficulty, success is more likely to occur and will generate more success.
Sources:
1) "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning," by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins & Paul Duguid
2) "Building Islands of Expertise in Everyday Family Activity," by Kevin Crowley & Melanie Jacobs
3) "Science Museums as Environments for Learning," by Robert J. Semper
4) "Learning In School and Out," by Lauren B. Resnick
