November 1, 2011
"Make Learning Stick"
Copyright 2011 Karen Kindrick Cox
By Karen Kindrick Cox
We've talked about Emotions and real-life Being-There Experiences to ignite interest and plant learning in the long-term memory. Today's article addresses another facet of long-term learning - Patterns and Programs, based upon modern brain research applied to education.
The EPIC Pattern outlines the process that will cement learning for the long-term:
EXPOSURE - The first function of your child's brain is to gather information.
Your child's brain has an insatiable drive to absorb everything within its awareness. This happens through the portal of the senses. Scientists have identified 19 know senses, so far. The more senses activated in a learning experience, the greater the capacity for memory and retrieval of the experience and the associated information. This is the rationale for purposeful Exposure.
Powerful learning is a sensory experience, combined with emotional impact. Consider this criteria, as you plan the best use for your children's time, learning exposure and learning pursuits.
PATTERNS - The second function of your child's brain is to make meaning of the information gathered.
The brain creates meaning by sorting input into Patterns. It sees connections and groups like things. This process is so efficient and so refined that it can differentiate the most minute variations and subtleties, as it organizes the information for future use.
Apply this to teaching your children and you will find that the more you can present information to your children in meaningful Patterns, the faster the Pattern-making process can move into deeper and more refined capacities. Pattern recognition is the first of a two-step learning couplet.
INQUIRY - The third function of your child's brain is to create new ideas with the information.
Program building is the second step in the learning couplet. Building Programs is a process sadly missing from the traditional textbook model of read and regurgitate. But it is an important part of the quest for true learning.
Inquiry projects help children build meaningful programs. They require your child to work with the information to which they are Exposed, in a thoughtful, creative way - to "problem-solve and product-produce," the definition of intelligence described by Howard Gardner, in his book, Frames of Mind.
Susan Kovalik identifies the results of Inquiry work as, "developing meaningful mental programs to use what is understood and to store it in long-term memory - the capacity to use what is understood, first with assistance and then almost automatically." Programs are "a sequence of steps or actions intended to achieve some goal."
Habits are useful (or sometimes distructive) programs we develop, upon working with new information and skills. Most of our lives function on auto-pilot, with programs governing many of our actions.
Cram and exam is a program many students build that steers clear of true learning.
In EPIC Adventures, children learn important skills in the context of meaningful Inquiry work. Not only do they create new ideas, they build Programs for using the information and skills in ways that apply to their lives and real-life pursuits. Purposeful programs become second-nature and surface, when needed, as effortlessly as typing a shoe or driving a car.
Understanding that Programs develop with any repeated, meaningful behavior, gives parents a powerful perspective to help their child use learning time in a way that will produce the most impact and long-term retention, while experiencing how it applies to real-life pursuits.
CONTRIBUTION - The fourth function of your child's brain is to act on the ideas they create.
When children live their learning, it ignites interests and prepares them with the capacity to think creatively. It provides the framework to develop new ideas based upon their Exposure, and acquire Programs that will assist their "problem-solving and product-producing." Children produce at an unprecedented level in EPIC Adventures. This sets the stage for Contribution, as they act upon the ideas they create and share new ideas, answers, creations with others.
Follow the EPIC Pattern from Exposure to Contribution and you create a purposeful path for your child's education.
Inquiry work, tied to a year-long, integrated, meaningful (in the eyes of the child) concept or theme; infused with a web of related connections, is the most powerful way to provide children with Patterns and Programs of learning that will stick for life.
Want to live an EPIC Adventure with your family?
Click here to choose from five Adventures presently available.
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Karen Kindrick Cox, creator of the EPIC Pattern of a Scholar TM, has presented Heart-Firing, Brain-Firing how-to's to homeschool mothers, since 1989. She currently runs the online EPIC Adventure Academy and offers workshops and materials to help homeschool mothers ignite passionate learning and heroic living, visit www.courageousbeings.com.
