From the FREEP

On Learning

What does it mean to learn? What is the best way to teach children? Those are complex questions with complex answers. Each school/school district answers these questions with certain assumptions and theoretical prejudices that influence their pedagogy, programs, and outcomes.

SRV’s assumptions differentiate us from more traditional schools.We believe that learning is a complex process that defies linear measurement or one standard teaching approach.We believe that learning is often filled with twists and turns, contradictions, and multiple perspectives.We believe that children have different cognitive profiles, different life experiences, and different learning styles that shape their learning needs. In order to support authentic learning, good teaching must pay attention to the idiosyncratic, often paradoxical, nature of learning. It requires careful listening, probing and trust.

How do we do that at SRV? We approach teaching and learning from a constructivist point of view. What does that mean? It’s pretty simple; we believe that people construct their own understanding of the world in which they live. Our experiences lead us to understand that a hot stove burns, that rain is wet, that words have meaning, that some people are funny, and that elections can be emotional experiences. We construct hundreds and thousands of understandings, some more complex than others, through reflection upon our interactions with objects, ideas and people.

Learning at SRV is constructed around process, problem solving, investigations and experiences. In our constructivist classrooms, the teachers assess their students’ understandings of concepts, and then create opportunities for them to refine or revise their understandings by posing contradictions, presenting new information, asking questions, encouraging research, and/or engaging students in inquiries designed to challenge current assumptions. While it is certainly easier to disseminate information from the front of the room, seek one right answer, assign chapters from textbooks, and grade worksheets and exams, it is not how deep, lasting and meaningful learning happens.

Engagement in meaningful work, supported by skillful teachers is what I see every day in every classroom at SRV. I am in awe of how our teachers scaffold our preschoolers learning how to share, mediate conflict and navigate in a community. The depth of discussions in the OG impresses me as they have studied democracy and the election process by questioning the wisdom and worth of social policies and political stances. These are the lessons and explorations that provide the context, knowledge, experiences, skills and values that will empower our students to lead well considered lives and possibly change the world for the better. It is a lofty ambition, but in a democracy it is what we must hope for our children and expect from our schools.

In Partnership,
Carlye

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