Children learn informally, through play and interacting with their world, during their early years, often persisting and tackling new challenges. All children enter school expecting to succeed.

However, for many children they lose confidence and motivation when they do not succeed.  Results in poor self-efficacy

Why do some children fail?

Do they stop being able to learn?

Is the fault within the child?

Is the nature of the educational program or the teaching part of the problem?

It is essential that teachers understand the learning process and the factors that enhance or impede children's learning. Understanding how children learn is fundamental for teaching and effective curriculum planning.

Pedagogical content knowledge suggests –

Select appropriate methods

Knowledge of curriculum content

Steps involved in learning process

Anticipate difficulties students may experience

Awareness of learning characteristics of the students

—  Learning:

◦       process

◦       permanent change

◦       acquire new skills, knowledge, attitudes and values

◦       increasing automaticity

◦       two neurons communicating with each other

—  Categories:

◦       knowledge

◦       skills

◦       attitudes and values

Knowledge /learned information may be acquired incidentally in daily life. A Sound knowledge base is needed for thinking and reasoning skills – retrieval and application – automaticity (example -  learning to read).

This is most valuable when related to information previously stored in memory. Intellectual skills = cognitive abilities that allow students to interact successfully with their environment and successfully complete new tasks.

Acquire concepts, rules, routines and symbol systems. Thinking, reasoning and problem solving.

Direct teaching, demonstration and guided practice. Mental strategies used to approach a learning task or problem. Metacognitive processes that control our cognition = internal executive processes – plan, monitor and evaluate performance.

The Lack of appropriate strategies = the cause of learning difficulties.

Cognitive strategies taught by direct explanation and modelling, think alouds (self-talk), guided practice and reflection. Affects personal choices toward object, person and event. There is a significant association with competence and efficacy as a learner – shaped by the extent to which students fail or succeed at school. Intentional learning – learner deliberately working to acquire knowledge, skill or strategy.

Incidental learning does not require conscious effort to acquire information or skill it is exposure and learning unintentionally. A Combination of student-centred and direct teaching most effective.

Students with LD require additional direct teaching approaches.

—  Observation and imitation.

—  Requires:

◦       Attention

◦       Retention - memory

◦       Reproduction – recall and imitate

◦       Reinforcement or incentive -  motivation

—  May be intentional or incidental.

—  Social Learning Theory – learning in the social environment – self-efficacy, self-understanding.

Important during initial stages of learning key information (maths symbols and notation, spelling sight words). Meaningful learning contributes to the development of intellectual skills and cognitive strategies. Learning hierarchy – each new stage or level of learning is dependent upon prerequisite knowledge, skills and strategies at a lower level (maths).

Task analysis – determining the learning hierarchy for specific task.

—  Stages through which a learner passes in order to acquire new knowledge, skills and strategies:

1.       Attention to task – without attention no learning

2.       Acquisition – demonstration, prompting and error correction

3.       Application – developing competency

4.       Automaticity - fluency

5.       Maintenance – practice over time

6.       Generalisation – teaching across range of contexts

7.       Adaption – independent learning and usage

—  Different learners require different times at each level.

here is a great video about urban learning :)