Students Need Learning Tools By Maren Schmidt As human beings, the problem solvers, we need learning tools that will help us organize our thinking and actions, tools that help us with self-expression, tools that help us learn to problem solve while digging out facts and tools that help us prepare for performance of our goals and objectives. In our current educational system, we have focused too long on testing for facts that are learned, forgotten in a few weeks, and are not foundational for further learning.
As parents and teachers we need to help our children learn to learn and have a set of learning tools that will serve them for all of their lives. These tools are elemental and lead to the true goals of learning–individual independence and concentration.
Organizing thinking and actions Knowing how to organize facts into understandable bits of information is essential for success in any endeavor. Basic ideas need to be presented in a clear, hands-on manner since research shows that we learn faster when we touch objects that give meaning to our learning. We might not be able to hold a porcupine, but touching a boar-bristle brush might convey meaning about that spiny animal, without having to be pricked by a porcupine. The concept that all objects can be defined in two groups–living and non-living–can be introduced in a hands-on manner as early as three years old by having a basket of objects or pictures and letting the child sort the objects into two groups. Offering information in a manner that provides clear organization, along with deep time for the child to interact and think about the objects, is a vital learning tool.
