How do we learn?

In this Podcast we explore what I have learned over the years about supporting children with their learning. Learning is unique to each one of us. Yet, there are some principles which we can use to support any child’s education that will prove beneficial.

If we give our children something to do to help them learn something, we help them to create a memory. For a younger child this might be flash cards to help them recognise the basic words that can then be built upon to help them to learn to read.

Older children might give them a worksheet, in doing so we have helped them to create a memory in their brain where they recall that piece of information.

(I’ve used those examples to show how this is relevant to all students).

We then play with the flashcards with them again or give them another worksheet. In doing so we help to reinforce that memory.

Yet, when they are sat in the classroom and the teacher asks them a question, or they are in a test and their brain goes into a state of panic, trying to find the information that they need, no longer thinking rationally, the chance of it picking up on that one memory is limited.

Yet, if we give them a second activity to do to help them to learn, it will support them in creating a second place in the brain where they can find this information. So, instead of using the flashcards we might write those same words onto Jenga bricks so that as you take one from the tower you must read it before replacing the brick onto the top of the tower for the other person to have a go. Or create a pairs game where you match the words to a picture, or a word to a word. You might play bingo or draw images of the words and write the word next to it. You might make the words out of magnetic letters or scrabble letters. You might write them in the sandpit or with water on the side of the building.

For the student learning non-linear simultaneous equations, you might ask them to create a poster using large bright colours explaining to their peers how you would solve these problems. Or you might create a board game where you need to answer the questions as you go. Code breakers offer another alternative.

The goal is to make the activities as interactive as possible. Use colours, ideally a minimum of 5 as this helps to open different neuro pathways.

 This approach also aims to help make learning enjoyable. If the child is relaxed, they are more likely to take on the information that they are given rather than focusing on the desire not to be doing this.

If they are enjoying themselves, they will be more likely to want to participate and with participation comes practice. With practice comes ability, then confidence. It becomes a positive spiral of success.

I learned this over 20 years ago now on a course I was doing concerning supporting dyslexic learners. 

Additionally, I started learning as much as I could about different learning styles as I wondered whether my oldest daughter might be mildly dyslexic, yet the school dismissed the idea as ‘dyslexia is just an excuse for laziness’. I didn’t agree and set about to learn what I could to help her myself.

Since we set up Clara James Tutoring in 2012 this approach has been at the forefront of everything we do. Recognising how we learn is paramount in supporting children with their education.

Children are not clones; they do not fit a mould. I appreciate that in a classroom setting of 30+ children this approach is less practical. However, when we are privileged enough to work with our own children, or one-to-one, or with a small group of children, this works.

It helps to build confidence as well as knowledge and gives them the feeling that they can do this and if they can do this, maybe we can have a go at the next thing, and maybe, just maybe the next, and the we can keep going and maybe one day we can achieve our dreams.