Post blog entry #4 in reaction to "How Children Learn"

This week's chapter brought me back to a discussion we had in our last class. John discussed an issue with managing students entering his classroom that lack math skills that the other children possess. He questioned whether he should slow down, to allow learners to catch up, or keep going and hope they eventually catch on. Both options can have serious implications, and this obviously frustrated him (for good reason). We talked about potential reasons why there was such a variance in skills and the different strategies the children used to learn the content. We did not talk about how to identify how each child learns best.

As I began reading about how children learn, it seemed that a lot of research has been done to identify learning capabilities in children, but how does a teacher interpret this information to apply it in the classroom? An example in the book discussed an example where teachers performed questioning routines in a classroom (Bransford, J., 2000, p.110-111). The middle-class pupils and working-class African American children had drastically different performance and behavioral results. Once the social differences between the two classes were identified, teachers were able to manipulate their questioning routines to suit the learner. In my past work experience, I have taken a plethora of tests to identify my current skills, behaviors, and capabilities. Such tests include models like DISC to model behaviors and tendencies. The results gave my employer insight into properly managing me and assigning my role in a team more effectively. With all of the testing that they require children to do, why aren't there any tests to identify how children use their current skills and abilities to learn? There are tests to see how much a child knows or doesn't know about a particular topic, but what about identifying methods to allow them to learn effectively?

I searched for a while on the Internet, and did not find an answer to my question. It seems to be up to the teacher to identify each learner's needs as they move through topics and deal with them as they go. That is quite an undertaking to expect in a matter of 9 months, not to mention the time lost for children to learn the necessary content. Perhaps teachers would benefit by having each child complete such a test prior to entrance into their classroom. Much like my past jobs, it may give the teacher some insight into how the child will thrive most effectively in the classroom. Once the teacher has this information, they can use it to manage their students. It is up to the teacher to approach each lesson in a dynamic way and change the learning experience depending on how the children will learn best individually and as a class. If the teacher knows how to reach their students effectively, it is possible to teach the content to students in an effective way. This sounds like quite an undertaking, but knowing is half the battle isn't it?


Bransford, J. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.