School’s Out, Learning’s In: Home-Learning Activities to Keep Children Engaged, Curious, and Thoughtful

Jill Nottingham, Carmen Bergmann, James Nottingham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367772123
• eBook ISBN: 9781000411607
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book is an accessible guide to helping boost your child's language, curiosity, and problem-solving abilities outside of the classroom. Packed full of learning activities for children and teaching advice for parents, this book is specifically designed to support parents engaging your children in thought-provoking conversations and problem-solving strategies.

Divided into two parts, the authors first guide readers through "Learning Pit" theory, then present a range of lesson suggestions and useful resources for parents to draw on. This book will give you:

• ideas for learning with friends and family
• tools to ensure your children make the most of the feedback
• resource cards and practical suggestions with each activity
• confidence in your ability to impact your child's learning

The perfect resource for parents supporting learning outside of school, School's Out, Learning's In will help you to boost your child's language, curiosity, and problem-solving abilities.

PART 1.
THE LEARNING PIT

1.
USING THE LEARNING PIT TO IGNITE LEARNING

1.0 THE LEARNING PIT INTRODUCTION

All of the activities in this book are based upon the Learning Pit. This model, created by James Nottingham in the early 2000s, illustrates the steps often encountered when learning something new (Figure 1.1). It describes the move from (1) knowing one or two things about a topic; to (2) knowing quite a lot about that topic but also unearthing some complexity or contradictory information; to (3) making sense of the information by sequencing, grouping, or in some way organising it; to (4) considering the journey taken and the lessons learned for future reference.

Figure 1.1 The Learning Pit in four stages

It also applies to learning a new skill or developing abilities, from (1) being able to perform a skill in a basic way, to (2) making some progress but also struggling with the complexity or applica tion of the skill, to (3) developing some fluency or rhythm, to (4) feeling a sense of mastery and identifying the lessons learned along the way.

In many ways, the Learning Pit is a child-friendly representation of Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development in that it describes the move from current ability to potential ability.

Vygotsky’s theory includes the idea that if you do something you are already capable of, then you are in your comfort zone, whereas if you go beyond your current abilities and try some thing new – or try the same thing but in a different way – then you are in your zone of proximal development.

In other words, stick to what you know or are capable of currently, and you’ll be practising; step out of your comfort zone and engage in something you haven’t tried or thought about before and, more than likely, you’ll be ‘learning’.

The problem is, many children become anxious about stepping out of their comfort zone. They fear making mistakes or failing. Some worry that they will look foolish or stupid. Others have the sense that if they find something difficult then it proves they are just not that clever. Unwittingly, some parents make this situation worse by ‘rescuing’ their children from problems or even arranging things in such a way as to prevent any sense of struggle or failure.

That is not to say that parents shouldn’t help their children, but it is to say that if parents are too quick to ‘rescue’ their offspring from struggle or disappointment, then they are likely reducing the benefits of learning. Indeed, we might even go as far as to say these parents ‘steal’ their children’s success by completing the task for them. Think of the child who hasn’t yet learned how to use a pair of scissors producing an amazing 3D model for homework, or the one whose writ ing is normally riddled with spelling mistakes returning a word-perfect piece of prose completed overnight. Can these ‘successes’ really be attributed to the children?

The Australians call overprotective parents helicopter parents – always hovering overhead to make sure their little darlings are doing okay. The Scandinavian equivalent is curling parents, from the winter Olympic sport of curling in which the competitors smooth the ice to help the stones slide further. The Japanese call them bonsai parents, changing the conditions to ensure their small ‘trees’ mimic the habits and appearance of mature, full-sized versions.

Helicopter parents monitor and guide their children’s actions in the belief that this will help them to succeed. Unfortunately, this can be counterproductive. Analysis of multiple research studies show that children necessarily have to struggle if they are going to reap maximum reward from learning.

A British professor known for his extensive analysis of educational research studies and his transformation of feedback processes in schools wrote in 2016: ‘If students do not have to work hard to make sense of what they are learning, then they are less likely to remember it in six weeks’ time’ (Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at UCL, London, 2016). Elizabeth and Robert Bjork, professors of psychology at the University of California in Los Angeles, offer similar conclusions from their research: ‘When learners do well on a learning task, they are likely to forget things more quickly than if they do badly on the learning task; desirable difficulties enhance learning’ (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). Bjork and Bjork go onto explain that ‘learn ing’ and ‘performance’ are distinctly different from each other and yet are often conflated to the point of giving false impressions of progress. If a child learns something with ease, they are likely to forget it with equivalent ease, whereas if their learning of a new skill or body of knowledge involves significant struggle, then they are likely to remember that learning long into the future. Furthermore, they are more likely to be able to apply that new skill or knowledge in other contexts rather than just in repeat situations. As the authors say, ‘Conditions of learning that make perfor mance improve rapidly often fail to support long-term retention and transfer, whereas conditions that create challenges and slow the rate of apparent learning often optimise long-term retention and transfer’ (2011, p. 59). It seems therefore, that the old adage, ‘easy come, easy go’ is par ticularly relevant in learning theory.

This is why James Nottingham created the Learning Pit in the first place and why we have chosen to shape all our home-learning activities around the idea of making learning more challenging for children. We’re not trying to be awkward or obstructive; instead, we’re aiming to help children engage with ‘desirable difficulties’ so much that the benefits of their learning last long into the future.

1.1 COGNITIVE CONFLICT LEADS TO LONGER-LASTING LEARNING

Creating cognitive conflict in the minds of children is one way to encourage them to think more. Cognitive conflict – sometimes thought of as the educational equivalent of cognitive dissonance – is when a person holds two or more ideas that they agree with, but which are in conflict with each other. It is not about creating conflict between people but within people.

Everyday examples include the meat eater who believes killing animals for meat is cruel, the environmentalist who drives a gas-guzzling car, or the impulse buyers who say advertising doesn’t work on them. The key to Learning Pit experiences is to deliberately create this sort of cognitive conflict in the minds of participants so that the result is more energetic, determined, and quizzical thinking and, ultimately, longer-lasting learning.

You might not want to talk about meat-eating or gas-guzzling, although of course you could if you thought it suitable for your children. Instead, you should select topics that are relevant and important to your children and then look for ways to create cognitive conflict in their minds. Or, as Bjork and Bjork call it, creating ‘desirable difficulties to enhance learning’.

Examples of cognitive conflict that might be relevant to your children include the following:

• a In maths, we’re taught that odd numbers cannot be divided by two, but we all know an odd number of friends could share a birthday cake between them.
• b We’re told that stealing is wrong but that Robin Hood was right to steal from the rich and give to the poor.
• c Exercise is supposed to be good for us, but it also hurts when we do it sometimes and can lead to injury – neither of which feels good.
• d Love can’t be measured, but love is also seen as a measure of how much we value something.
• e Telling the truth is encouraged, but sometimes lies are better.
• f We decide which is the best team by who wins the competition, but if a team cheats to win, then maybe they’re not the best after all.

Examples from curriculum topics include the following:

• g In physics, there are unstoppable forces and immovable objects, but what if these two were to meet?
• h A single grain of millet makes no sound when falling, but a thousand grains make a sound; thus, a thousand ‘nothings’ become something.
• i Many people who value privacy and support legislation protecting people’s privacy will post photographs and their own location information on social media.
• j Increasing the food available to an ecosystem may lead to instability, and even to extinction.
• k Applying pesticide to a pest may increase the pest’s abundance.
• l Saturated fats are thought to be unhealthy, but the French diet is high in saturated fats, and yet they have low rates of heart disease.
• m A tragic hero deserves pity, but perhaps it is the victims who deserve pity, not the perpetrators.
• n Diluted nitric acid will corrode steel, but concentrated nitric acid will not.

Each of these examples ought to lead to head scratching. They should lead to someone think ing, ‘on the one hand this is true, but on the other hand this is also true, and yet the two ideas contradict each other’.

In this state of cognitive conflict, you should witness children responding more thoughtfully and curiously. Whereas ordinarily, children who know the answer volunteer the information and children who don’t keep quiet, in this situation, you should notice children who are more likely to suggest, wonder, connect, deliberate, and surmise. That is why all the activities in this book focus on creating cognitive conflict.

1.2 TAKING THE RIGHT APPROACH TO COGNITIVE CONFLICT

As you read through this book, you will notice that each activity is predicated on the intention to create – or respond constructively to – cognitive conflict, not so as to permanently confuse your children but so as to prompt them to think more, wonder more, look for ways to solve problems, think about meanings and implications, and so on.

It is important to approach this cognitive conflict with the right attitudes. These include:

1.2.1 Playfulness, not point scoring

Have fun with the activities in this book. Play with the ideas. Use phrases such as ‘...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: The Learning Pit
• Part 2: Lessons to support learning through the pit
• Index