It is very hard for parents and educators to resist the temptation of “teaching” children. Teaching means that there is a direct instruction from a more knowledgeable one to someone else (the learner). Research has shown over and over again that this practice is not the most effective for young children. For young learners, it is best to expose them to learning opportunities and environments that nurture and foster children’s natural drive for exploration and learning. Included in this post is an article from 2011 exploring the research results of these findings and a more recent quote from Dr. Elkind. These two resources complement each other to help us understand why and how young children best learn and develop important cognitive skills for lifelong learning. Enjoy them!
-Cristiane
Why Preschool Should Not Be Like School article
Similar article that we received from Exchange Everyday
Why Play Outdoors?
“Children are not born knowing about the world in which they will live. It is only through playful contact with that world that they create the learning experiences that allow them to make this world their own. In so doing, they not only develop new concepts, but also facilitate mental growth.”
These insights are provided by David Elkind in his article, “The Values of Play.” Elkind continues…
“Because play is the dominant drive during early childhood, most learning during this age period is self-directed. No one teaches the child to crawl, turn over, stand up, and walk. No one teaches the infant to babble all the sounds of all possible languages or how to put words together. We may model this, but it is the child who decides to follow that model.”
Taken from: ExchangeEveryDay 1/7/15
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