Children As Learners



By January Handl

Children are natural learners. Their brains are hard wired to make meaning of the world around them. The innate drive is so strong that injury, embarrassment, and even punishment cannot stop them from progressing; though it can deny them the attainment of the full genetic potential that is their birthright.

When I think of children as learners, my thoughts always lead me full circle to children as teachers. They have been my best, deepest and most satisfying teachers. When I have taken the time and effort to focus on observing their behavior, interactions, reactions, emotional cues, and verbal feedback, I am astounded to the amount of learning that takes place in ME.

There is a leap of faith that we, as teachers must take in letting children lead in their own learning. When we trust that they have their own inner teacher that knows what the next step is for them in any given area and respond by providing it, it amazes me how the internal rewards for children are plenty to keep them growing. They possess what I call the “ah hah!” instinct, that wonderful feeling of mastery that adds hunger for the next challenge and is the foundation for all learning.

I so often see the world hard at work to replace this inborn satisfaction with external rewards and reasons, only to see the child begin to lose the love for learning and replace it with endurance of our educational system, so they can be “done”. As a society, we insist on a production clock that dictates what should be learned and when, ignoring the powerful biological clock that knows best for each individual child. Now brain research is supporting the idea of unique windows of opportunity, relationship and interest bound learning, and teachable moments that most ECE teachers have known both intuitively and experientially for years.

This shift in my outlook, from teacher to learner, gives me so much information I would otherwise miss.

Greeting children at the door I can learn about their attachment to their parents, some dynamics of their family situations, what their need for schedule and routine is what kind of day they are having so far. I can learn how the relationship between the child and myself is going and who needs to have control in this moment. Watching children approach an activity, such as blocks, they have given me clues to their cognitive processes, where they are developmentally with their small and gross motor skills, their eye- hand coordination, their body and space awareness and their conceptual understanding of some basic physics. When another child or a whole group is at the same activity I am taught about their verbal abilities, conflict resolution skills, problem solving tactics and their comfort with crowds. When I ask them to move on to group time, I learn from them their needs in transition and space, as well as how a teacher driven, structured activity can add to or disrupt the learning they are driven to do.

Observing children approach an art activity I can see their temperament, focus and attention, and what is interesting to them. As they interact with the adult manning the art station, I can see their perception of adults as helpers or herders, and their abilities to get their needs met. I can ask the questions that lead them where they have shown me they are going, or find out what words they need to communicate what they so desperately desire. I can check out their feelings, helping them name them, feel them, and express them in ways that balance their needs with those of the group.

Seeing how children grow, how they verbalize their experiences, how they seem to perceive the things happening around them in the classroom, I am taught about their strongest learning approaches, if they might find some tasks a struggle, how they respond to frustration, or how they cope with grief. And always these self directed learners are showing me what they need from me to provide the scaffolding for the climb up the learning ladder that only they can scale themselves.

My most powerful lessons have come at the feet of these great teachers. They have taught me about my own issues, boundaries and passions, when I have taken the time to reflect on my responses to their behavior in my classroom. They have taught me about the uniqueness, adaptability and brilliance of the human mammal. They have shown me to hold paradox, that they are both resilient and fragile, driven and fearful, needy and capable. They teach me the acceptance of change and letting go of things I can’t control on a daily basis. Children have given me glimmers of some of the most incredible parts of being human, the parts that are beyond measure, our creativity and spirit, our compassion, our love.

I never get over the surprise I feel when they take a lesson plan to a place I never dreamed of…the exact place it needed to go for them to reach the next level. Or when the lesson I thought I gave was perceived and integrated into the child’s schema of the world in a very different way then my original intention. Or when they so eagerly hand me my next bit of curriculum by an uproar of disruption of the peace I keep trying in vain to maintain in my classroom. Because it is not just my classroom. We share it as learners and teachers in the human exchange of ideas, concepts and creations. When I remember this, children are the best learners in the world.