THE NATURE OF LEARNING

There have been major changes and advances in education in the last decade that impact on the recommendations for change in Pacific mathematics and science programs. Previous teaching methods relied heavily on lecture, reading, and repetitive drill, with little opportunity for active, experiential learning. Recent developments in cognitive psychology, understanding of learning styles, and identification of multiple forms of intelligence emphasize learning that is hands-on, inquiry-oriented, and cooperative. It is now known that learners need a large amount of experience and information to understand new concepts and to apply them in new situations. Thus, if true learning is to occur, concepts must be pursued in depth. Lectures are often not the most effective way to teach and too often result in the ability to say the right words without any real understanding of what they mean or how to use and apply that knowledge.

Building on the emphasis on experiential, hands-on, inquiry learning characterized by the educational philosophies of John Dewey and Jean Piaget, a new conception of learning has emerged that researchers call constructivism. In this view, learners build their own understandings that are complex, highly organized, and strongly tied to specific subject matter. Learning occurs when a student constructs his/her own knowledge by making connections between new information and their own existing knowledge.

Learning occurs when the child becomes aware of inconsistencies in his/her prior conception of the world and is helped either to abandon or restructure these concepts. Discussion among learners is essential for them to check their understanding against that of others and to construct new concepts. Teaching, then, is not simply giving information, but requires patient dialogue with and among students and multiple opportunities to experience phenomena.

The constructivist view is linked to four related ideas: student learning styles, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning, and integration.

Learning Styles

Educators have known for a long time that students learn in different ways, and yet in school they teach as if this were not so. In more recent years, the differences in the ways people learn have been researched and described by medical doctors, psychologists, educators and those involved in managing organizations. All point to similar conclusions about the ways people perceive and process new knowledge­our learning styles.

There is a variety of ways of learning the same information and each individual has a mode of learning with which he/she is most comfortable, his/her preferred learning style. For example, Dr. Bernice McCarthy (1987) described four basic learning styles and the particular teaching strategies that are most effective for them to learn. These styles are summarized in the Four Basic Learning Styles below.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR PRINT FULL SIZE TABLE

Because classrooms contain a mixture of students, all of these learning styles are present in every classroom. For teachers, the implications of this research point to the need to use a variety of instructional strategies in the classroom. Using only one teaching strategy, no matter how skilled the teacher, results in systematically excluding as much as 70 percent of the class. If all Pacific children are to become scientifically and mathematically literate, classrooms must provide diverse experiences that address the needs of a multitude of learning styles.

Multiple Intelligences

A major influence on views of learning has been the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University. Gardner challenges the view that intelligence is a single ability. He defines intelligence as the ability to solve problems or fashion products valued in at least one cultural setting. The human mind, he says, is a set of intelligences keyed to doing different kinds of tasks. He identifies them as:

• Linguistic Intelligence: The capacity to use words effectively, whether orally (e.g., as a storyteller) or in writing (e.g., as a poet or journalist). This intelligence includes the ability to use language to convince others, to remember information and to explain ideas and understandings.

• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: The capacity to use numbers effectively (e.g., as a mathematician or accountant) and to reason well (e.g., as a scientist or computer programmer). Logical-mathematical intelligence is called upon for activities involving categorization, classification, inference, generalization, calculation, and hypothesis testing.

• Spatial Intelligence: The ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately (e.g., having a strong sense of location and direction) and to perform transformations upon those perceptions (e.g., as an interior decorator, architect, or artist). It includes the capacity to visualize and to graphically represent visual or spatial ideas.

• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: The ability to use one's whole body to express ideas and feelings (e.g., as an actor, an athlete, or a dancer) and the facility to use one's hands to produce or transform things (e.g., as a craftsperson, mechanic, or surgeon). This intelligence includes skills, such as coordination, balance, dexterity, strength, flexibility, and speed.

• Musical Intelligence: The capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform (e.g., as a composer), and express (e.g., as a performer) musical forms. This intelligence includes sensitivity to the rhythm, melody, and timbre of a musical piece. One can have an intuitive understanding of music, a formal understanding, or both.

• Interpersonal Intelligence: The ability to perceive the moods, intentions, motivations, and feelings of other people. This can include sensitivity to many different kinds of interpersonal cues; and the ability to respond to those cues in some useful way (e.g., to influence a group of people).

• Intrapersonal Intelligence: Self-knowledge and the ability to act on the basis of that knowledge. This intelligence includes having an accurate picture of one's strengths and limitations and the capacity for self-discipline, self-understanding, and self-esteem.

Gardner argues that traditional schooling develops only two of the seven kinds­linguistic and logical-mathematical­at the expense of the other five. Gardner insists that schools must center on persons, offering students choices, even within the same courses, and attending to each one personally so that all can enlarge their intelligences to the fullest. Examples of teaching materials and strategies that parallel Gardner's seven intelligences are described in the Multiple Intelligences table below.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR PRINT FULL SIZE TABLE

Cooperative Learning

Social interaction is a critical part of learning. Working collaboratively in small groups is an instructional approach that provides children the opportunity to verbalize what they know and check it against what others know.

Simply put, cooperative grouping effectively promotes student learning. In the research studies comparing cooperative learning with competitive and/or individualistic learning, there has been no case in which cooperative learning was less effective and, in most cases, it was more effective in promoting student learning. Effective mathematics and science instruction incorporates a variety of teaching strategies. Competitive activities are good for practice, recall, and review. Individual activities are appropriate when a student must learn a specific skill or concept, and the attainment of that goal is important to the student. Cooperative learning is most appropriate for activities calling for problem solving, divergent thinking, and inquiry.

Integration

An extension of the emphasis of constructivism on connecting new learning to prior knowledge is an increasing recognition that mathematics and science neither exist nor should be taught in isolation. Leading the current reform movement, the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have strongly recommended that teaching be integrated within each content area and connected to other subject areas. This is not only a realization of how to better teach mathematics and science in elementary and secondary schools, but a reflection of how mathematics and science themselves have changed in the last decade, becoming increasingly interdisciplinary.