Shutterstock Most Australian children are stuck at home due to the outbreak of COVID-19. They need to find ways to socialise, do their school work, exercise and entertain themselves. It’s not surprising parents may be hearing “I’m bored” a lot more than before. People hate being bored. So much so […]
Education is much more than what is taught in school. Take advantage. A pandemic is never a good thing. It’s a terrible thing. But maybe some good can come from it. Anything that disrupts our usual ways of being can lead us to try new ways of being, ways that might in the […]
Over the next few weeks, many preschoolers will meet their foundation teachers, spend some time in a classroom and hopefully make some new friends. from shutterstock.com The transition from preschool to school is a big deal for many children and parents. Over the next few weeks, many preschoolers will take part in […]
A traditional maths problem involving pizza will be very far removed from real life. from shutterstock.com In real life, ordering pizza for a group of people involves having a conversation about what people like, how much they can eat, how much they want to spend and whether pineapple really belongs […]
When children write freely, they say they escape from everyday thinking. from shutterstock.com Ask a child why they write and you might receive a common response: the teacher told me to. Kids often lack confidence as writers and find it emotionally draining. The problem might be the classroom and its detachment from what writers […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. / Freedom to Learn Ruby Lou and I were children when children were free. We reunited recently. I opened Chapter 1 of my book Free to Learn with the following paragraph: I’ve learned from hundreds of great teachers over the course of my life, but if I had to […]
Dads tend to engage in more active, physical play activities with their young children. Shutterstock/pyrozhenka Play is an important way for children to learn about the world around them. Through play, they learn cultural norms, socialisation guidelines and experiment with different ways to interact with their environment. But play between a father and […]
Credit: shutterstock Despite all the research that tells parents how good it is for their children to spend time playing outside, they are spending more time indoors than ever before. It seems that concerns about the dangers of climbing trees or getting lost means that many parents are nervous about allowing their children to engage […]
One of the biggest revelations offered by people who live outside of schools and enforced curriculum is just how effortless, how ever-present, how natural learning can be. People sometimes ask me how I learned a specific thing, growing up, and I often have trouble answering. Both because, by now, my […]
Inquiry encourages students to explore and understand the application of concepts in a real-world context. from shutterstock.com Inquiry-based learning emphasises a student’s role in the learning process and asks them to engage with an idea or topic in an active way, rather than by sitting and listening to a teacher. […]