Students Learn What They Want To Learn

It is a fundamental S.E.E.D.S. principle that curiosity and playfulness are the very foundation for learning in young children.  Before they can speak, very young children, powered by curiosity explore and discover the world around them.  Their natural playfulness puts them in many informal trial-and-error learning situations.

Sugata Mitra put a single computer with internet access and a mouse in a hole in a wall of a slum in India.  Children discovered it.  They had never seen or used a computer before and spoke no English.  Their natural curiosity took over.  Soon, the exploration led to discoveries of patterns, actions and results.  There was no curriculum.  Learning took place without a formal teacher, classroom, or lesson plan.  He observed “Students learn what they want to learn.”  Numerous repetitions of the experiment all over India showed the same results.  Mitra realized learning is a self-organized system.  He concluded that “at the elementary level, students don’t really need a teacher.”  Apparently the students share their knowledge and get a synergistic result.  The magic ingredient seems to be an encouraging word.

That reminds me of a song I learned as a child: Home on the Range.  For educators, the key phrase in the song occurs in the first verse: “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word…”  This phrase should be the watchword for all parents and teachers.  Simple words of encouragement or discouragement can have lasting effects.  Encouragement reinforces the S.E.E.D.S. preference to nurture, foster, protect, and enrich a child’s curiosity.  Discouragement tends to kill curiosity.

The simple solution to reducing, eliminating, and avoiding boredom in the classroom can be very simple.  Watch and listen to students to learn what interests them.  Or, just ask them what they want to learn.  Student curiosity should be the source of all lesson plans.  This is the essence of true student centered learning.  This begins the education process….the “ex ducere” (the leading out).  The parent or teacher can facilitate the learning.  They can create learning environments that open doors to knowledge or information needed to satisfy the child’s curiosity.  S.E.E.D.S. uses the Geographic Systems Model to empower students to seek and find connections to S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) related content.  Students motivated by curiosity will often exceed adult expectations for learning.  This in turn creates ab environment where many adults feel threatened by younger children having so much knowledge.  But anyone with an attitude of life-long learning welcomes the opportunity to learn, regardless of the age of the teacher.

S.E.E.D.S. uses a cyclic saying “All teachers should be students; All students should be teachers.”  Giving students the chance to teach can be a simple request: “How did you do that?”  In the process of explaining, young students use their knowledge, vocabulary, reason, and interpersonal and social communications skills simultaneously.  It can be truly amazing how easy it is to be a facilitator of learning.  This can be taken to another level when a student helps to teach or tutor other students.  Teach-Backs are a useful way to gauge learning and comprehension.  This follows Seneca’s saying “While we teach, we learn.”