If youre using strategies that ignore the natural learning cycle in children, how will you reach your

goal? Marginally and only with the brightest students?

dont learn H
istorically, education in America had more in common with Henry Fords auto assembly line or Pavlovs dogs than with that superb preoccupation of the human brain learning. Up to the 1900s, most education was delivered in rural one-room schoolhouses, sheltering local students of all ages and abilities. The sole teacher was usually an unmarried woman with little or no training. Relying on the most basic resources slate, chalk, a few books, a stful of threats and a paddle teaching and learning consisted mainly of recitation, drilling, and oral quizzes at the end of the day. Urban teachers, faced with waves of immigrant children, relied on similar techniques as the most efcient way to deal with the diversity in their classrooms. At the time, little thought was to given to the nature of learning itself, or the best way for individual students to learn. Eventually, a group of curious educators

turned their attention to the fascinating and complex question of how humans actually learn. As you might guess, none of their findings involved sitting in straight rows, maintaining a churchlike silence or bruised knuckles. Benjamin Bloom identied three learning domains the cognitive, affective and psychomotor. His taxonomy of cognitive skills includes knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. John Dewey felt it was vitally important that education be more than just teaching facts. He believed that the skills and knowledge that students learn must be integrated fully into their lives as human beings and citizens. In a similar vein, Paulo Friere wanted to empower learners through dialogue, critical thinking and using knowledge to take action in the real world. Albert Bandura empha-

By Laurel Schmidt

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sized the importance of learning by observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes and emotional reactions of others, and Lev Vygotsky believed that childrens learning is affected by their culture including the culture of their families. More recently, Howard Gardner identied at least nine distinct ways that people learn about and understand the world. Each of these intelligences is a distinct set of skills that can be used to nd and solve problems. Daniel Goleman took the notion of intelligences one step farther, describing emotional intelligence the ability to perceive, assess and manage the emotions of ones self, others and groups. Emotional intelligence has proven to be a better predictor of future success than GPA, IQ and standardized tests. All of these thinkers uncovered evidence that there is a strong social element involved in how people learn through talking, observing, modeling, collaborating, sensing, responding emotionally and having physical experiences in their environment.

killer martinis, alter digital photographs or rewire a lamp. You get a notion, explore it, develop some expertise and then use your new knowledge. All human learning follows this distinct and predictable cycle. It begins with awareness, proceeds to exploration, which leads to inquiry and culminates in action or use. Then the cycle frequently begins again, with another round of learning stimulated by deeper understanding and more questions. It can take ve minutes or consume your entire summer.

Social learning theories

Now lets think about this learning cycle as it applies to kids in classrooms. Your rst thought may be that this all sounds fascinating, but there are standardized tests lurking out there, and youre not eager to be the poster-person for the latest school failure in your district. Authentic learning is tempting, but what about all those federal, state and local standards? Research studies show that instructional strategies based on social learning theories are far more effective than other approaches. Scaffolding, reciprocal teaching, cooperative learning, Socratic dialogues, problemsolving, culturally relevant materials, placebased learning and guided instruction are all strategies that have been effective across the curriculum with diverse groups of students.

If we fail to capture kids attention, its impossible to activate learning. So while awareness would seem to be a gigantic No-duh in planning instruction, it is often skipped in the headlong rush to accountability.
you cant stop thinking that a junket to the City of Light will be the trip of a lifetime. So what do you do? Hit the Internet. Obeying a single impulse, you type in the keyword Paris and within a nanosecond, you have 400 million choices to explore. For the next two hours, you cyber-prowl la Ville Lumire click, read, click, read, as if your mouse has a serious case of OCD. Hotels, museums, sewer tours youre indiscriminate in your pursuit. You even bookmark a live Web cam of the Eiffel Tower so you can eavesdrop 24-7. Next, you pester well-traveled friends, join a conversational French dinner group, call the French Embassy after hours just to listen to the accent on their answering machine, and monitor transatlantic airline fares with the intensity of a day-trader. Finally you clear your calendar, lay down the credit card and depart for your brilliant adventure. You would go through this same sequence if you were intent on learning to play golf, speak Japanese, prepare gourmet meals, mix

The learning cycle

If Im not mistaken, you didnt need someone named Vygotsky to tell you how people learn. Youve been a learner all your life. So you have only to review your own behavior as a learner to come up with some pretty accurate ideas about how it happens. Im not talking about compulsory learning like graduate courses in Theories and Application of Critical Pedagogy. I mean lifelong learning the way you behave when you really want or need to learn something, and youre left to your own devices. Heres an example. You dine with an old friend who proudly announces that she just got back from Paris, and it was fab-u-lous. Paris. Why didnt I think of that? You realize that the fantasy of Parisian anything has lingered in the lymbic region of your brain since the fth-grade talent show when you belted out I Love Paris by Cole Porter, to the exquisite embarrassment of your siblings. Beyond that? Speak French? Non . Eat snails? Double non. The closest youve come to franglicizing your life is ordering a chocolate croissant with your latte, and mumbling merci to the startled barrista. But suddenly

Working against the brain

So what does this mean for you as an administrator and the teachers on your staff? Simply this. You can work your kids like rented mules, but if youre working against the brain, using strategies that ignore the natural learning cycle in children, how will you reach your goal? With struggle and resistance? Marginally and only with the very bright students who learn no matter what methods are used? It can only be to your advantage to harness the natural mechanisms of the brain to achieve your goals. If we want kids to learn effectively, meaning they understand the concepts and retain relevant information to use for thinking, writing, social action and passing standardized tests, we need to tailor our instruction to capitalize on the natural

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learning cycle awareness, exploration, inquiry and action. So lets take a closer look.

Awareness
If we fail to capture kids attention, its impossible to activate learning. If they hear the word history and react as if offered a phlegm cocktail, theyll never get to the level of exploring ideas, or even be able to retain rudimentary facts long enough to pass a standardized test. So while awareness would seem to be a gigantic No-duh in planning instruction, it is often skipped in the headlong rush to accountability. Awareness engages kids minds and sets that stage for learning in two ways. When children rst become aware of something, their brains ask: How is this like other things Ive already seen or experienced? This triggers the hunt for prior knowledge. Neural pathways locate memories, to which the new information is attached and stored for use. Next, the brain asks: How is this thing unique? I wonder what this is all about? That curiosity provides the energy to move forward into exploration. Awareness gets students ready to expand their cognitive real estate by locating prior knowledge from their cultures, families and experiences in the world, and stimulating their curiosity. Engaging the attention of the brain is the essential rst step toward learning.

senses, multiple intelligences and different learning styles to get a rst look at new ideas, formulate more questions, pursue hunches, make discoveries and compare their impressions with other students. Its akin to Googling a key word and then following the trail from one Web site to another, clicking, browsing, cutting and pasting, getting totally lost in the subject and its tangents.

Inquiry
Inquiry is the stage for digging in. Youve probably seen inquiry-made-esh in young kids who become dinosaur fanatics, mastering the names, weights and dietary habits of

For some teachers, driven by a high-speed approach to accountability, theres simply no time or permission for pausing to make connections and discuss relevance. Left behind are curiosity, diversity of learning styles, conversation, interaction and opportunities for invention.
the top 25 dinosaurs, along with a raft of esoteric facts that they share with anyone who will stand still long enough to get an earful. If youve ever been accosted by a 6-yearold asking, Did you know that stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut? youve had a close encounter with a child in the thrall of inquiry. Inquiry involves collections, research, frequent trips to the library, passionate conversations and staying up late. It is a question-driven activity, but the work becomes very focused, complex and challenging. This is when kids who have been voluntary illiterates may nally reach for a book. Some will read widely and above grade level. Barbara Lewis, author of A Kids Guide to Social Action, reported that while her fth

Exploration
Exploration is the stage for nding out. You can clearly observe this process in babies because they live in a perpetual state of exploration. Picture the fussing six-month old who is given a set of keys for distraction. In rapid succession the baby smacks the keys on any available surface, shakes them to discover their full range of noises, and gives them a thorough, slobbering examination with lips and tongue. In a similar spirit, young kids coming across a pile of discards in the garage can ll an entire afternoon examining, combining and rearranging a few pieces of lumber, an inner tube, several yards of canvas and a folding chair. First its a boat, then a space capsule, then a wilderness shelter with an inatable re pit. Exploration lets students use all their
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grade students were working to eliminate a toxic dump in their neighborhood, they routinely consulted medical journals to learn about the hazards of heavy metal pollutants in ground water. This level of mastery is incredibly satisfying to students who are accustomed to being hitched to a fast-moving curriculum vehicle that whisks them across the surface of a subject, then comes to an abrupt halt and demands that they recapitulate the journey via a written test. Inquiry lets students focus, probe deeply, devise and test theories of their own, obsess and become experts.

Books Worth Reading

Real Leaders, Real Schools; Its Being Done
By George Manthey, assistant executive director, ACSA Educational Services This months Books Worth Reading have been suggested for inclusion by Gladys Phillips Evans, ACSAs educational services executive for urban districts. eal Leaders, Real Schools: Stories of Success Against Enormous Odds, tells the stories of ve urban public school principals who led their schools through profound and transformative changes. In each of these cases, their efforts resulted in dramatic improvements in student achievement improvements that occurred within the current environment of high-stakes testing. The narratives offer unprecedented insights into the meaning and practice of effective school leadership. The stories themselves are often inspiring, but they are never idealized.

R I

Action
If students collect lots and lots of data, but are never challenged to use what theyve learned, their knowledge is like an appendix, a vestigial organ. Its there, but it serves no purpose. Action lets students use their knowledge to address problems, work on solutions, create new knowledge that can be shared, and see the impact of their learning in the world. Action is the product and the reward for all the investigation, research and experiments; for all the blind alleys and half-baked ideas that finally produce a solid body of knowledge that can be used to change what is or invent something new.

Real Leaders, Real Schools: Stories of Success Against Enormous Odds, (2008), by Gerald C. Leader (with Amy F. Stern). Published by Harvard Education Press.

ts Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools is a straightforward book that takes readers into schools where educators believe and prove that all children, even those considered hard to teach can learn to high standards. Their teachers and principals refuse to write them off and instead show how thoughtful instruction, high expectations, stubborn commitment and careful consideration of each childs needs can result in remarkable improvements in student achievement.

Why is this approach important?

Teaching that incorporates the four stages of the natural learning cycle is timeconsuming no doubt about it. Many teachers say they used to teach like this, would love to teach like this now, but they feel compelled to force-march their students through prescribed materials on a pre-determined schedule. Driven by a high-speed approach to accountability, theres simply no time or permission for pausing to make connections and discuss relevance. Left behind are curiosity, diversity of learning styles, conversation, interaction and opportunities for invention. But many great teachers routinely incorporate the four stages of learning into their teaching because they provide a template for how we become an expert on any subject, at any time in our lives. Their students learn how to do their own learning. They

Its Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (2007), by Karin Chenoweth. Published by Harvard Education Press.
[Note: These book summaries were based on information provided by the publisher.]

Books Worth Reading readers: Suggestions for books to be included in this column
are being sent to me by ACSA members with increasing frequency. Its hard for me to include such suggestions, as I must rst purchase and then read the books. However, if book suggestions were accompanied by a short summary, and the book seems to be of high quality and general interest, I would be glad to provide proper credit for the review. Please send your one-paragraph book summaries to me via e-mail at gmanthey@acsa.org.

retain what they learn rather than forget it as soon as they scribble the last answer on a test. They make connections and apply their learning to other problems. They learn how to collaborate, and their social skills improve. Theyre more condent talking to other people, including adults. Compared with lessons derived exclusively from textbooks, active learning typi-

cally produces a deeper knowledge of subject matter, increased self-direction and motivation, improved research and problemsolving skills. When students are involved in compelling activities and projects, test scores improve along with attendance and discipline. So while there is no way for you and your teachers to escape the reality of accountabil-

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ity, we simply cannot lose sight of our fundamental responsibility as educators to ensure that kids actually learn. Its simply not enough to document whats been presented, or check off whats been covered as if were all in the upholstery business, because teaching hasnt happened until kids learn. What do I mean by that? Suppose I offer to teach you to ride a bicycle. I talk and wave my arms and pummel you with suggestions.

Three months later, youre bruised, bandaged and wary a loser against the forces of gravity. You take the bus or walk everywhere. Now I ask you. Did I teach you to ride a bike?

Creating lifelong learners

Kids must learn or we havent done our job. Great administrators and teachers know that. They keep their eyes on state and na-

tional standards, but their overarching guidance comes from an internal gyroscope that prompts them to consistently construct rigorous, challenging yet engaging lessons, units and projects that lure students into authentic, active learning. As they plan, replan and assess their work with students, they make a habit of asking themselves: What do I want my students to understand? What do I want them to do with what they understand? What do they need to learn about how to learn? How will their learning affect the way they relate to other people and their world? You can use these questions to help teachers identify the critical material that

Kids must learn or we havent done our job. Great administrators and teachers know that.

needs to be addressed, integrate subject areas and skills naturally and provide ample opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations, so that what they learn gets hard-wired into their brains and hearts. Thats how you create lifelong learners. n

Laurel Schmidt is the director of pupil services for the Santa Monica-Malibu USD and director of the Leadership Academy in her district. She is the author of Gardening in the Mineeld: A Survival Guide for School Administrators (Heinemann, 2002) and Social Studies that Sticks: How to Bring Content and Concepts to Life (Heinemann, 2007).
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