| People are unique in the animal kingdom in that | | | | colours. As the frog talked, his friend visualised birds |
| knowledge is passed from one generation to the | | | | flying through the sky with wings, fish heads and |
| next by recorded culture. People can explore, invent, | | | | bodies covered in scales. |
| experiment, record, accumulate knowledge and pass | | | | Clearly all new understandings are based on a |
| on this recorded knowledge to help them better | | | | foundation of existing knowledge and experience and |
| exploit their environment and make sense of life, | | | | the younger the child, the narrower the foundation |
| thus increasing their chances of success. Mastery of | | | | tends to be. Understanding how children actively learn |
| accumulated knowledge over generations requires | | | | from the earliest days of life can help in education |
| intentional learning, invariably in a formal educational | | | | strategies when at school. Research studies have |
| setting. And this is no different to primary school | | | | demonstrated that infants as young as 3 to 4 |
| education. The more advanced concepts in science | | | | months develop an understanding and expectations |
| such as electricity, photosynthesis, chemical reactions | | | | of the physical world. For example, by repeatedly |
| would definitely fall into the category of recorded | | | | throwing objects from their cot they understand that |
| culture. Some of these subjects are beyond the daily | | | | objects need support to prevent them falling to the |
| experience of young learners, with no instantly | | | | ground; that stationary objects need a force applied |
| recognisable markers to create a quick understanding. | | | | to them to move; and the direction of that force will |
| The role of the teacher is often creating a bridge to | | | | determine the direction of motion. |
| the youngsters' world through analogies with which | | | | Young minds are easily distracted and have short |
| they are familiar. | | | | attention spans. The trick is to get them engaged in |
| Students may come to the classroom with | | | | whatever way possible, such as group activity, |
| preconceived notions of how the world around them | | | | experiments they can perform or design themselves, |
| works and if their initial understanding is not engaged, | | | | or field trips where there is a high degree of |
| they fail to grasp the basic concepts. They may take | | | | self-participation. This will imitate the ways of learning |
| on board the new information superficially or they | | | | of a toddler, such as discovering gravity by |
| may learn for the purposes of a test, but revert to | | | | repeatedly throwing objects out of a cot. In turn, |
| their preconceptions outside the classroom. | | | | that knowledge could eventually become the |
| The images from a children's story, Fish is Fish, can | | | | students' understanding of Newtonian physics theory. |
| help convey the essence of the above principles. In | | | | In the longer term, as that person develops yet |
| this story a young fish is very curious about the | | | | further layers of understanding can be built on that |
| outside world and his good friend the frog returns | | | | base, be it Astro-physics, relativity theory, or |
| from the land, telling the fish excitedly: | | | | quantum mechanics. |
| 'I've been about the world, hopping here and there | | | | The next article in this series of three will delve |
| and seeing extraordinary things'. | | | | deeper into the subject of teaching science with the |
| 'Like what?' asked the fish. | | | | specific example of teaching about food chains. It will |
| 'Birds', said the frog mysteriously. | | | | highlight dangers of over-simplification in order to |
| 'Birds!' and he described birds to the fish, with wings | | | | make a subject easier to grasp. |
| that could fly in the sky, with two legs and many | | | | |