Principles, Models, Theory of Learning
John Dewey’s 4 Principles of Education
- Learning by doing
He observed that children learn better when they are actively engaged, because they are immersed in the present and not a distant future, such as final exams. - Discussion
The discussions prepare the students for life in a democratic society where decisions ought to be based on reasonable arguments. Through the debates, the children learn to formulate their own ideas, convince others, and learn to see the world from a different point of view. - Interactive
Interaction with the environment is essential for the learning process since education is an experience that is subject to constant change. - Interdisciplinary
Continuity is critical to comprehension and an interdisciplinary education allows students to build on what they already know - which strengthens their understanding.
“It's not a preparation for life, education is life itself."
Deliberate Practice: Achieve Mastery in anything
Plan, reflect, and take notes, after your practice, learn what worked and what didn’t
GO SLOW. Being too fast can make our brain learn the wrong skills
Limit sessions to a reasonable time so that I don’t lose focus.
Maximise practice time
Track small intervals of improvement
Emulate practice, not performance. Learn how they practice.
Repetition makes practice.
Routine. Have a day and schedule planned for your practice.
Get a coach.
The Pygmalion effect
The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to higher performance. It can be best understood by a circle where our beliefs about another person’s abilities influence our actions toward the other person. This action has an impact on others’ beliefs about themselves. Their beliefs about themselves cause the action of others towards us, which again reinforce our beliefs about that person.
Your beliefs influence your actions.
The Pygmalion effect is also known as the Rosenthal experiment named after the research of Robert Rosenthal at Harvard.
Robert Rosenthal concluded: “When we expect certain behaviors of others we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur.”
The attachment theory: How childhood affects life
The attachment theory argues that a strong emotional and physical bond to one primary caregiver in our first years of life is critical to our development. If our bonding is strong and we are securely attached then we feel safe to explore the world, we know there is always that safe base, which we can return to at any time. If our bond is weak, we feel insecurely attached, and we are afraid to leave or explore a rather scary-looking world because we are not sure if we can return.
People who are securely attached are said to have greater trust, can connect to others and as a result, are more successful in life. Insecurely attached people tend to mistrust others, lack social skills, and have problems forming relationships.
One type of secure attachment (organized)
3 types of secure attachment, Anxious/ambivalent (organized), Anxious/avoidant (organized), and Anxious/disorganized (disorganized).
Our attachment is formed in the very first years of our lives, a time when we are too young to communicate our anxiety and as result can experience a high level of stress. Then our adrenal gland produces the stress hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol, the heart rate increases the blood pressure goes up and we go alert, if that happens frequently, it is called toxic stress because it impairs the development of a child's brain and weakens the immune system.
There is another reason why the early years deserve special attention, they are the starting place for subsequent behaviors, a kid that feels securely attached at age 2, can make friends at kindergarten, their worldview gets reinforced with every interaction and they develop optimism, as a result, they make good relationship at school, then at a colleague and later at work. Highly insecure children can miss out on this opportunity.