The experience of learning

What is the experience of learning?

I went to a small country school until I was nine years old. There were three teachers including Mr. Ella, who took the oldest class. He was also the head of the school. My time at this school was a happy one, and I have many memories of things that happened. However, almost none of them are about the learning. Amongst recollections of Mr. Ella with his blue tracksuit during Friday afternoon football, being made to sit in the cloakroom as a punishment, snow days when the boiler broke and the look on Mr. Ella's face when he contemplated my back to front left handed handwriting, there is only one specific learning event that marks a prominent place in my memory; standing on a chair, that was on top of a table, wearing a hat made out of sugar paper, holding a kitchen roll tube to my eye and shouting 'land ahoy' as we recreated Captain Cook's arrival at the southern islands. I distinctly remember the taste of sauerkraut, the path the Endeavour took, naming the bay he landed in as Botany Bay and plenty more. Ask me what else I learnt at that school, and I can assume I learnt to write, although I don't remember it, I must have learnt some Maths too, but I don't remember it actually happening either. 

http://www.2gb.com/article/captain-james-cooks-endeavour-mystery

I presume there are all sort of reasons for this, mostly that writing and Maths are ongoing skills developments that I am still consolidating and improving now. Whereas the Captain Cook topic was a one off event, learning was not usually conducted like this in Mr. Ella's class, he must have just been on a course.

So, what about now?

As educators, what kind of importance do we place on the experience of learning, in relation to the process of learning?  It must be impractical that we attempt to make all learning memorable events like my Captain Cook episode, and are memorable events even the best way to learn? How many times have I needed to draw on the knowledge I gained from that learning experience? I think I may have got my team a point in a pub quiz once, and of course it was useful for this piece too. But that’s about it. Perhaps the functions of my brain were improved by the process of gaining and sorting that knowledge, otherwise, what was the point?

So I look to my own class now and how our curriculum is organised with special events marking the beginning and ends of topic units. Are we trying to do a ‘Captain Cook’ for every topic? Should we? Is the only reason I remember it, the fact that it was so different to the rest of my school experience? If so, doing ‘Captain Cooks’ all the time will lose impact surely?

The recent introduction of iPads on a 1 to 1 basis has enabled a huge sea change in the way my class operates. Independence, autonomy and responsibility have grown within my students, and it’s pretty incredible to experience. I would love to know how they will view this experience in 10 years time. Will it be something that stands out in their schooling memory, or will these current activities just merge into day by day drudgery of ‘Death by Explain Everything’? I guess ensuring that doesn't happen, is my job now. 

I suppose what I am really skirting around here is how we harness the process of learning. What kind of emphasis do we put on big events and how often do we have them, without them becoming mundane? What role does consolidation, through repeated practice, play in our classes? How is what I call ‘On the Edge’ learning (brand new learning) balanced with the consolidation work, and how do we ensure mastery of this learning?

For our topic work, I try to ensure an authentic reason for the work and opportunity for the students to decide for themselves what they need to do. Then I aim to facilitate and guide them to the best possible outcomes. This is my ‘Captain Cook’ time.

Trying to shoehorn something like multiplication practice into topic work doesn't work easily and this is where a different approach has to be used. Practice to consolidate, can be livened up using games and various other novel ways of practising. But the authentic motivation for this must be intrinsic to the student. They have to understand the relevance of this knowledge and skills to their own lives. This is the key to the 'mundane' learning.