When Teaching Backfires

In the steady stream of education articles that passes my way, I occasionally encounter a true gem. This past March, developmental scientist Alison Gopnik wrote on Slate.com of two studies that suggest pushing academic instruction “really can limit young children’s learning.”

In each study, groups of preschool children were shown a new toy: in one group, the adult who introduced the toy did so in a limited, open-ended manner; the other adult took a much more directive approach. Both times, the children given less instruction demonstrated greater curiosity and discovered more and better ways of uncovering the properties of the toy.

In this “age of pedagogy,” parental anxiety and governmental pressure have led to an emphasis on standardized testing and direct instruction that tends to crowd out children’s natural curiosity and creativity. Gopnik speculates this is due to adults' assuming “that most learning is the result of teaching,” when in fact “spontaneous learning is more fundamental.”

While it’s true that “learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly,” the conventionally taught naturally conclude that their teacher has screened out superfluous information, and therefore they only need to copy what the teacher has demonstrated. In contrast, those who learn in a non-directive manner “look for a wider range of information and consider a greater range of options.”

Gopnik’s conclusion will sound very familiar to supporters of Sudbury schooling:

It’s more important than ever to give children’s remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play.

Curious about whether open-ended exploration is an adequate basis for an effective education? Want to see what this kind of school looks like? Enter a comment below, and then contact us and schedule a tour. We’ll be happy to chat with you about how curiosity and creativity, exploration and play enable the most amazing learning.