The Zone of Proximal development – he described as the gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with the help of someone more skilled or experienced, who could be an adult or another child.
He is interested in two aspects of play. He thought that play and imagination were important to development and learning. He believed that play provides the zone of proximal development.
He argued that cognitive development is an “active adaptation” to the environment and not maturation of intellectual processes. The child interaction with other people helps him to develop through language and logical reasoning. Language is the key to this interaction.
Jerome Bruner expounded the scaffolding learning theory. Adult support is paramount, recognising where and when this support is needed and when it should be removed. Children’s learning structure should be flexible and changing when children gain knowledge. As long as presented in an “appropriate way”, a child is capable of learning any subject at any age, he stressed.
Bruner theory of children’s mental development
- Enactive thinking: Children understand the world through action. Much of a child’s learning and experience at this stage comes through playing.
- Iconic thinking: manipulation of images or “icons” in child’s thinking about the world. Iconic thinking
- Symbolic thinking: able to manipulate abstract concepts using more complex symbolism and language.
Adults can be a great help to children in their thinking, because adults can be like a piece of scaffolding on a building. He viewed language as central to cognitive development as it is used to represent experiences; and past experience/knowledge is organised and made more accessible through language.
Followings are some of the other factors that have an effect upon learning.
Abraham Maslow (1943) addressed the needs factors as vital in pupils’ self esteem and motivation to learn. All needs must be met consecutively before an optimum learning capacity can be reached. Physiological needs: the needs of the body, like access to the toilet, to food, to drink and so on. Unless this basic need is satisfied, energies will not be released to enable learning. Safety needs: the need to feel secure, stability, familiarity and protection. Belonging needs: a feeling of need to belong to part of the class, year group, friends and the school. If this need is met, then the brain will move from reptilian mode to the limbic system where emotions, self identify and values and most important. This area of brain controls long-term memory and attention. Esteem needs – a feeling of need to be valued, respected, recognised and appreciated within the group that each child has an important part to play in the team.
Learning style and multiple intelligences
“The ideas of different approaches to learning can be used positively in our classrooms and can serve to remind us that our pupils learn best if they have a “mixed diet” of learning experiences, including how we present them with information and instructions and the kinds of activities we involve them in.” [Madeleine Graf with Ann Birch: page 16]
Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic (VAK) is the simple model of learning style.
Visual learners – They find it difficult to concentrate on instructions but respond well to visual aids such as pictures, diagrams and charts as they tend to visualise ideas and details of places and objects they have seen.
Auditory Learners – Respond well to verbal instructions but they can be distracted by noise. They can concentrate better with background music on to cover distractive noises.
Kinaesthetic Learners – They learn through touch and movement. They benefit from physical interaction with environment with learning by doing.
Multisensory learning is the combination of all above learning style.
The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) have been defined Dr. Howard Gardner as a number of learning styles. See Appendix 1.2 for the original seven MI.
MI has several implications for teachers in terms of classroom instruction.
“All seven intelligences are needed to productively function in society. Traditionally, our education systems have placed a strong emphasis on verbal and mathematical intelligences.
In the light of Gardner’s thought, we need to teach pupils a broader range of talents and skills.” [Louise Burnham 2007:40]
“Teachers should structure the presentation of material in a style which engages most or all of the intelligences. For example, when teaching about the revolutionary war, a teacher can show students battle maps, play revolutionary war songs, organize a role play of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and have the students read a novel about life during that period. This kind of presentation not only excites students about learning, but it also allows a teacher to reinforce the same material in a variety of ways. By activating a wide assortment of intelligences, teaching in this manner can facilitate a deeper understanding of the subject material. Everyone is born possessing the seven intelligences. Nevertheless, all students will come into the classroom with different sets of developed intelligences. This means that each child will have his own unique set of intellectual strengths and weaknesses. These sets determine how easy (or difficult) it is for a student to learn information when it is presented in a particular manner. This is commonly referred to as a learning style.” http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/cd/7a.pdf:page 4]
“Many learning styles can be found within one classroom. Therefore, it is impossible, as well as impractical, for a teacher to accommodate every lesson to all of the learning styles found within the classroom. Nevertheless the teacher can show students how to use their more developed intelligences to assist in the understanding of a subject which normally employs their weaker intelligences (Lazear, 1992). For example, the teacher can suggest that an especially musically intelligent child learn about the revolutionary war by making up a song about what happened.” http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/cd/7a.pdf:page 4]
Children may feel different from others due to race/culture, special education needs, sensory and/or physical impairment, such as hearing or visually impairment and so on; it is important that they be treated equally and receive equal access to the curriculum.
A child’s learning can be affected is by the group he is working with, as depending on his age and his development stage, his learning can easily be distracted and influenced by the opinions in his peer. Some children may lack the confidence to put their ideas forward. And if there was a dispute that had not been settled, this will prevent the children from concentrating on their learning if they are upset or agitated.
Each child has his/her own talents and aptitudes and hence is able at different tasks in the classroom. How he perceives himself comparing to the others, and this may affect his motivation to learn.
Some children may have a wide range of social interactions/experiences whilst some may have few. This could means seeing perceiving things from different perspective. Those having few experiences may lack the confidence to learn and relate to others.
Children could have different abilities at different ages and due to the way schools are taking in pupil, there are always, age gaps and therefore ability gaps.
Children tend to learn better if they come from a happy and settle home. They can also be affected by matters seemingly trivial to an adult such as not receiving a good by kiss from their parents.
Motivation directly affects a child’s desire to learn and keep interest in a task. If he is not interested, could not see the purpose the purpose of it or is unable to tackle the task then he will become de-motivated. Thus it is imperative that task is set at the right level, enjoyable and making sense to the child.
Language learning will aid understanding, rationalise and develop abstract thinking. Children from different social/economic background will have varied social experiences, vocabularies, and we can build on these by discussion, stories and wider experiences.
When directing question, we should not favour boys or girls and not to have expectations of one gender over another.
Due to age variation, children may also vary in their ability to concentrate on a task. Where a child’s concentration span is marked by different from the rest, this can affect and disrupt everyone’s learning ability in class.
The amount of learning can be a function of the classroom environment as different pupils have different environmental preferences it is important to understand the different effects it can affect on the learning process.
“Rresearch had indicated that particular learning environment seem better suited for particular learning content and learning preferences and that students perform better when the learning environment is consistent with their learning preferences.” http://www.learningfromexperience.com/faq/#What are learning styles
Children are unique and may have different needs in learning. The code of Practice lists four areas of need which can be a barrier to learning if not properly address: (1) communication and interaction, (2) cognition and learning, (3) behavior, emotional and social development and (4) sensory and/or physical.
In communication and interaction, there are children with speech and language difficulties, dyslexia and dyspraxia, hearing impairment, autistic, also those with moderate and severe learning difficulties. Dyslexia is a disability and affects cognition and learning especially literacy skills as such will impact on the child’s self-esteem.
To becoming a confident, motivated independent learner, a child needs to acquire a range of social and emotional skills. In Excellence and Enjoyment: Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning (SEAL) [DfES 2005:7], it list these skills as self-awareness, Managing feelings, motivation, Empathy and Social skills. A child will learn to manage life and learn effectively by employing SEAL. Emotion plays a key role in effective learning some activities require social and emotional skill hence a child must be able to cope in order to move forward. The lack of motivation, fear of failure, difficulties in handing feelings and relationship will create barrier to effective learning. Medical, mental, environment factors can also contribute to the barrier. The resulting effect can be temporary, such as a child adjusting to the loss of a love one or can be more persistent. Some children could have complex needs such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum disorder. We also need to take into account how some children express their emotional and social needs as some can be challenging, hyperactive and disruptive or withdrawn, isolated and lack concentration.
Sensory and physical disabilities can also be barrier to learning. Sensory difficulties can vary from permanent deafness or visual impairment to temporary loss of such use. Physical disabilities can be caused by physical neurological or metabolic defects and needs appropriate educational facilities. Specialist teaching and equipment should be provided for children with complex physical and sensory disabilities.
Bibliography
- Practical Pre-School – How children learn by Linda Pound. Step Forward Publishing Limited 2008
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- http://www.learningfromexperience.com/faq/#What are learning styles
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Primary National Strategy Excellence and Enjoyment: social and emotional aspects of learning Guidance. Status: Recommended Date of issue: 05-2005 Ref: DfES 1378-2005 G.
- The Teaching Assistant’s Handbook Primary School Supporting and learning in schools 2007. Louise Burnham. Heinemann.
- Teaching Assistant’s Handbook – Teena Kamen 2003. Hodder Arnold.
- http://www.open.ac.uk/inclusiveteaching/pages/inclusive-teaching/barriers-to-learning.php
- http://www.learningmatters.co.uk/sampleChapters/pdfs/184445052X-5.pdf
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Special Educational Needs Code of Practice: Date of Issue: November 2001
Ref: DfES/581/2001 Related Documents: The Education Act 1996
