How do young children learn?
Many theories of learning have attempted to explain how young children learn. Recent studies have shown that young children are competent, active learners who are capable to set their goals, plan and revise, who can assemble and organize material, and are active agents of their own conceptual development.
Children, especially those below 6 years of age, learn best through their senses; therefore, they require plenty of opportunities for sensory involvement. They also learn best by doing. They learn by interacting with concrete objects in the environment. Learning is most effective when children are interested in what they are learning.
One important factor involving how young children learn is their environment. Children learn best in an environment where they feel safe or unthreatened. Such an environment must allow for mistakes which children may commit as this is part of the process of learning. From there, learning is gradually built up and is most effective when experiences builds on what they already know.
Early learning experiences are most effective when they take children from simple to more complex levels. Activities should begin where a child is developmentally ready; significant learning tasks should be arranged in stages so that learning is sequenced step by step.
My model of a young child’s learning begins with the young child him/herself as an individual placed in a conducive, non-threatening environment that promotes positive learning. The child as an individual brings with him/her the (1) innate abilities, senses and skills; (2) motivation and interest; and (3) background experiences and prior knowledge into the learning process. One important requirement for good learning to take place is the presence of a good adult model, which is needed at this stage especially when a young child learns a lot through imitations and repetitions of what he/she has seen. The learning process can take place in two ways: sequential process and simultaneous process. The sequential process of learning takes into consideration the time spent/taken to learn a concept or complete a given task. The simultaneous process of learning looks into how a concept or a task is being processed using various senses/skills at the same time.
In the simultaneous process of learning, learning will begin with something that is (1) concrete and then move to abstract; (2) from simple to complex; (3) from easy to difficult; and (4) from familiar to unfamiliar/unknown/novel/new. While this part of the learning is taking place, the procedure (i.e., step-by-step or stage-by-stage) of learning also occurs through imitation and repetition. This could be a form of rehearsing until the mastery of a given task/concept is achieved. This is the sequential process of learning. The expected result is positive learning outcomes based on the learning objectives set by the teacher/parent when working with the child.
Learning is a dynamic process that is very personal and no two young children will learn in the same way or progress at the same pace. Other than being sequential and/or simultaneous, learning can also be associative or dissociative, divergent or convergent, parallel or unparallel, and so on. That will be another article all together.
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