Do All Children Learn by Hands-On?
Remember everyone has their own unique blend of learning styles that they use to process information. However, many advocates of hands-on learning have stated that all children learn in this way. That is simply not true. Some children have a very strong leaning toward hands-on learning while others have no leaning towards hands-on learning. I did not have a leaning towards hands-on learning as a child. How could so many experts be so wrong about this?
Misconcept of Play
The misunderstanding for this learning style stems from a one-sided view of play. Play for children is just as diverse as the children's learning styles. Each child has his/her own unique way of playing. The way a child plays has absolutely everything to do with how that child processes information. The typical view of play revolves almost exclusively on discovery. They will say that play is how a child discovers his/her world. However, for some children play is more about practicing what they have already discovered about the world. For others play tends to be a means to organize their known world. Play is the means by which a child makes sense of the world into which he/she was born. How that child approaches play can be as various as the stars in the heavens.
A Look into My Own Play
Let me explain further by giving you a view into how a child without a leaning towards hands-on learning plays. As I said earlier, hands-on learning is very low in my repertoire of learning styles. When I was a child, my play revolved around developing elaborate systems. I did not play with toys to see what happens necessarily. I manipulated the toys to achieve certain already determined outcomes. For example, the way I played with toy cars was to set up a flow of traffic and move the cars individually to make the flow happen. I was an organizer. I was also a practicer. When I wasn't trying to develop systems, I was trying to perfect skills. I spent hours practicing throwing a ball at a wall to hit a certain spot with consistency. This made me an extraordinary little league pitcher, but my play had very little to do with discovery. Was I some sort of freak of nature? No. I am not a hands-on learner, and there are many other children in this world that play in a way that would not be described as discovery.
A Definition of Hands-On Learning
Hands-on learning, just like the other two of the big three, manifests itself in a variety of ways. Discovery remains only one manifestation of hands-on learning. All the learning styles we will cover in the next months fall into a subcategory of one or more of the big three. A more representative definition of hands-on learning is kinetic learning or active learning. Learning by doing almost covers most aspects of hands-on learning, but some manifestations of hands-on learning especially with special needs children has to have more adult participation. They are walked through the learning process in an active way, but could not just learn by doing.
The Art Desk - The Perfect Test
How then do you determine if a child has a leaning toward hands-on learning? Or more accurately in our current learning environment, how do you tell if a child does not learn by hands-on learning? Sometimes it is hard to tell whether a child learns by discovery or has discovered the truth through a different means and simply practices what he/she learns through play. Probably the best test of hands-on learning can be discovered at the art desk. When a child that learns through discovery is handed playdough, they will tinker with it and fiddle with it until they discover how to make things with it. When a child that does not lean toward hands-on learning is handed playdough, they will make the same thing over and over again until they perfect it. Oftentimes, these children have to be shown how to play with playdough. That should be a surefire sign that a child does not lean toward hands-on learning. They might still have a leaning toward active learning, but learning by doing and discovery does not fall high on their list. It has been my experience that many children today actually do not have a great leaning toward hands-on learning. I do not know if our current culture deprives children of the discovery process so much that this hinders children from expressing a tendency toward hands-on learning or that this generation actually has a lesser population of hands-on learners than the previous one. We have had the push for hands-on learning because Generation X and Y did have a large population of hands-on learners. Time will tell which way this upcoming generation will lean by what becomes the next great fad of education when they are adults.
What to Do with Hands-On Learners
When you discover that some of the children in your care do actually have a leaning toward active learning, what can you do? These children need time to tinker. They need opportunities to make, build, draw, etc. from basic materials. Our current "best practice" for designing early childhood environments suits these children perfectly. Those children that struggle with building, drawing, or any other type of discovery play might not be hands-on learners. Observing the children interacting with their environment will show you which way they lean. If a child makes the same thing over and over with only slight variations, that child is more than likely a organizer or a practicer rather than a discover. Watching children carefully while they play can tell you so much about their unique learning style.
Active but Dependent Learners
Before I leave this subject, I want to talk about those children that are active but dependent learners. I have seen this tendency show up in children that struggle with abstract math concepts. I have also seen it manifest heavily in children on the autism spectrum. My oldest daughter had an extremely hard time understanding borrowing in subtraction until I broke out the math manipulatives. When she physically replaced one ten with ten ones and then subtracted, a light bulb went off in her head. However, I had to walk her through the process. I did not just hand her manipulatives for her to discover how to subtract. Discovery is not high on her learning repertoire, either. She also benefitted from the use of an abacus for more complicated subtraction and addition. After seeing it work in the physical world, she could then convert the concept to mental strategies in her mind. That was her visual learning becoming apparent. Many special needs children have to have those math manipulatives for math concepts to make sense. Some of these children will not outgrow the need for manipulatives. This will limit how far they can progress with abstract math concepts such as advanced algebra and calculus. When my daughter hit algebra and abstract math concepts that were beyond manipulatives for the initial explanation, she struggled horribly. She had to see it work in the physical world for it to make sense. We will cover that particular learning style at a later date. My other two children share more of my learning style and excel at anything that has systems and organization. That, too, will be a future learning style we will cover.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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