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If an activity can be made fun, will that help a child pick up new knowledge?

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The process of evolution, Geary says in the study, has resulted in students being able to acquire certain types of new knowledge and skills in a relatively “effortless” manner, through processes that are “child-centered” and fun.

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Schools have attempted to use child-centered and fun methods, in the belief that students' natural curiosity will lead them to take on certain, more difficult tasks, like learning to read or do fractions, in the same way they learn language or how to count, he says. But Geary argues that explicit, teacher-directed instruction will be needed for many children to learn more unfamiliar and difficult, or “evolutionarily novel information.” Evolution “has not provided the scaffolding for this learning,” Geary told me. And so “the scaffolding must come from instructional materials and teachers.” Schools should not expect students to be motivated to learn this evolutionarily novel information in the same way they are motivated to learn through social relationships. “There is no such inherent motivation to learn linear algebra or Newtonian physics,” he said. If schools help students understand that effort is necessary and important, children will have a “greater sense of personal control over their learning,” and more sustained focus and motivation as they get older, he writes in the study. — Education Week: Evolution, Enthusiasm, and Science

I’m sorry, what now?

Child-led learning is “fun”, “social”, and “effortless” and works on things that are easy, and teacher-directed instruction is evolutionary and necessary to learn difficult and novel information.

Huh.

Okay, well, I am going to have to disagree. Guess what? Children who are learning about something that is deeply interesting to them will not stop as soon as the work gets difficult … or “novel”. They don’t run up against the need for a new skill or a brand-spanking-new thought process and say “Wait, what?! Hey! I don’t know how to do this effortlessly — I quit!” In fact, they are motivated to learn — all. by. themselves. Amazing. But true.

Wait — is it so amazing? Because — hey! — I myself have actually experienced this! As an adult! I have been deeply interested and motivated in doing something brand new — and when I ran up against the part that I did not know how to do … miracle of miracles! … I did not quit! In fact, I figured out what I needed to do to keep going, and I did it! I learned new skills! I acquired new knowledge! And I didn’t even need someone to “help me understand that effort is necessary and important”. Golly. I figured that out all on my own.

I am reading this again, and I believe that it says — ((cough)) — that children’s natural curiosity can’t carry them through a “difficult task” like learning how to read or doing fractions. Mmm. WHAT?! Sorry, sorry. Let’s see. Everyone who learned how to read through sheer force of will and overwhelming excitement and desire, please raise your hand. Again, believe it or not, it does happen. Not possible without teacher instruction seasoned by a lecture on effort? Oh. my.

But my favorite part is this: “If schools help students understand that effort is necessary and important, children will have a ‘greater sense of personal control over their learning,’ and more sustained focus and motivation as they get older…” Yes. Because having someone else force you to learn something in a teacher-directed way, while sanctimoniously informing you that your effort is important and necessary — that is what helps a child develop more focus and motivation.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Comments

[Lori]

barbara, YES — re: hiding the broccoli in the mac’n’cheese again, exactly — and you know, i have a weird thing against reading programs for this same reason. there is this implicit message that you need to be bribed, that you need a promise of a reward (a pizza, a toy, a book, a ribbon) to read. i don’t like it. i never let my kids participate in any reading program; indeed, i never let them know they existed, because i felt they send the entirely wrong message.

kids don’t need to be bribed to do something wonderful.

*anyway* (ranty again… ;^) yes, i agree again re: sponges … but i do think that the teachers i know would say that they deal with a real mixed bag of students and they aren’t *all* sponges. maybe it’s a symptom of beginning to think of classes and not children … focusing on problems so much that, like geary, you forget the true good things.

[Lori]

“NCLB and the State standards do not reward schools for pushing good kids. Once the kid can pass the test, the school is done with them.”

http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-public-schools-treat-parents.html

[Amy]

Lori, you are like my psychic twin! First the scavenger hunts, now the library carrot-and-stick summer reading programs. I HATE THEM. We might go to the performances or activities that they have for free as part of the program, but I'm not going to let my kids think they deserve a reward for something they like to do anyway--read or be read to daily--because I'm afraid they'll get the idea that they should only do it for the reward. I'm afraid these programs will take good, happy readers and pervert the whole process. My sil is a librarian and a few years ago when she asked if we participated and I said no, and tried to tactfully explain why ("I want my kids to read for the sake of reading, not for a sticker and a [cheap, probably lead-filled] toy"<--I left the cheap, lead-filled part out) she got rather offended and said BUT WITHOUT SUMMER READING SOME KIDS WOULDN'T READ AT ALL.

*sigh*

[Lori]

hee. i always wanted a twin! :D

with you 100%, p.t. seriously, is bribing the best we can do for reluctant readers? because i can tell you that all the non-reading kids *i* know read “baby books” in order to fulfill their summer reading and/or pizza hut program. you know what i mean — the easiest, shortest books they could find. are you telling me that *librarians* can’t figure out a way to introduce kids to books other than cheap bribes? and meanwhile they send out the message to all kids that reading is something that requires an additional incentive. yeah, i don’t think so.

[Lori]

“Mom, I hate reading. I did not want to tell you that, 'cause I know that it's your job and reading is a big deal to you, but I really really hate it. I dream of the day when I will never have to do reading again. If I was on a desert island, I would rather die of starvation, than read a book. And, if you think I am weird or something, you gotta know, all my friends feel exactly the same way.”

http://www.angelamaiers.com/2009/04/part-2.html