Learning begins Now?

Blame it on our social culture, kiasuism has indeed percolated all aspects of our lives. At the tender age of just 2 months, ILT will be introduced to a variety of learning materials such as flashcards, educational toys etc. Perhaps, I should offer a fresh perspective on learning. The term 'learning' often send young kids and adults alike running for cover. I've seen cohorts of individuals - students and adults lamenting over the need to learn throughout my last 8 years of work in the educational/training field. It is only during the recent years that the educational arena was given a facelift and both the terms 'teaching' and 'learning' were redefined vis-a-vis the 21st Century construct.

Firstly, the ultimate value of learning should centre on the experiences garnered as opposed to the final assessment outcomes. Notwithstanding the value of learning outcomes, the successes and pitfalls that one experiences before arriving at the final destination culminate towards the shaping of how the individual perceives, internalises and applies the knowledge and skills.Beyond the application phase, the construction of new and meaningful knowledge is also envisaged. Now that we've identified experiential learning as the key to enable deep-level learning, we should then focus our intentions to educate our child by introducing the 'fun' element in all their learning. Always focus on the experiences that we want them to go through and ensure that these experiences are fun. Unlike adult learners who need to learn things that are relevant, little children just want to have fun and learn subtly. Regardless the relevancy, they will ultimately arrive on the intended outcome after having fun in the learning process and they will form an association between their experiences and the outcome. Perhaps, this 'cause and effect' type of learning works well with them! Of course, as the child gets older and is able to comprehend things at a higher level and to apply critical thinking processes; the same piece of knowledge then has to be reinforced by other learning processes such as inquiry-based or problem-based learning. To cut the long story short, there are other considerations in learning such as the social context of learning i.e. learner-centered approach, collaborative learning etc. which I won't elaborate now 'lest they bore you!

On the premise that learning should be fun, I would conciously avoid using the term 'learn' whenever I want ILT to learn something. Instead, I would say, 'Let's play flashcards!' One may argue that at such a young age, the child cannot decipher the meanings of both 'play' and 'learn'; however, adults do, and will subconciously impart the negative notion of learning to the child as we dread to learn. By the same token, we all love to play and using the word has such a therapeutic and positive impact on the things we do! Just a disclaimer, as the child enters into formal education where structured learning occurs, we have to help them differentiate between learning and playing. Essentially what I'm doing now is to impress upon ILT that learning is fun, just like playing!