Teaching Children to Love Learning
- Grades: Early Childhood, PreK–K
You have to love to learn in order to be able to teach children how to love learning. Perhaps the best place to start is by asking yourself:
Through the Eyes of Children
How do you create a physical environment that encourages a love of learning? To do this, you must first look through the eyes of a child. Get down at their eye level (kneeling is best) and observe:
Children innately love learning. Very early on, children begin exploring their bodies, their capabilities, and the world around them. They may not be thinking to themselves, "I am learning," but that is exactly what they are doing as they investigate everything they come in contact with. Young children know how to take the smallest observation, object, or surprise and turn it into a learning experience. They employ investigative techniques without even knowing how to define them as such. They are curious and want to find out the what, where, how, and why of everything around them. As the children above discovered in their new classroom, there is so much to experience at school-particularly when the teacher has created an environment that reflects their interests, learning styles, families, and cultures.
Reflections On Teaching
We nurture a child's love of learning by expanding on his or her own inquisitive nature. As early childhood teachers, we know that teaching means much more than lessons and standards. We're responsible for creating an environment of support that allows children to develop their own ideas, express their feelings, take risks, make choices, and most of all, grow to be strong, thinking individuals.
I remember thinking, during my first year as a teacher, that I had to be "teaching" all me time. I probably talked those children to sleep! I quickly learned from them that some of the best teaching is done when you stop teaching and follow a child's lead. They taught me how to listen and watch, to ask questions, and to be real. I quickly realized that to be an effective model for learning I had to be authentic regarding my own thoughts, feelings, and values. What happened when I shifted gears and did this? I fell in love with learning in a way that I never experienced as a child or an adult! The children taught me the magic of play, whether it's building a rocket out of blocks, pretending to be a princess, or exploring what a bullfrog does. So, yes, we do teach children to love learning, but we do this by being an observer, a supporter, a facilitator, and always a good role model!
Learning: A Lifelong Process
Learning is not just teaching children to the standards. It is a process, a series of experiences that lead to the great "aha!" moments of life. Interestingly, when a sample of adults were asked if they loved learning in school, most answered that the worry of getting the answer right and doing what the teacher expected (and later passing a test) took the joy out of learning. Many said that they learned to love learning by exploring things on their own at home, outdoors, or later when they got to college.
In her presentation to the Scholastic Early Childhood Summit, renowned early childhood educator Lilian Katz spoke about the need to change the teaching emphasis from an "industrial model" of outcomes based on the standards to "standards of experiences" that all children should have. She went on to say that these standards of experiences need to focus on engaging children in investigating worthwhile topics that provide experiences that are intellectually challenging, that give children a sense of belonging and relationship, and that ultimately encourage children to have confidence in their own intellect. If we "rephrase the goals of education," we can help children learn how to lead a satisfying life.
Meet the Challenge
So how do we take on this task? We look first to ourselves as teachers and then to our environment to be sure that we create a classroom climate that encourages investigation and collaboration. We foster a love of learning not so much by the special material