Important Facts About Learning
While researching on the Internet for this article, I came across a few meaningful thoughts shared by teachers about learning which I would like to pass on to you:

1) Learning is social— it benefits from conversations. Learning richness increases as multiple perspectives are described, discussed, challenged and explored.

2) We learn in the form of stories. Thought flows in terms of stories- stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are often the best storytellers.

3) We learn best when there is a reason to learn. I think this is an important aspect of sense making. We are awash with experience and information and we only notice things we care about.

4) We get better at what we learn through practice.

5) We all have different learning preferences and ways of interacting.

Looking back at my own career journey from being a teacher for several years, to a head of a pre-school section, to now being a teacher trainer, I very often think back on my own teaching approach, philosophies, beliefs and practices. I wonder if back then I had the insight to actually know or think about any belief or philosophy at all. Or was I, like so many others, the product of a system that hardly questions, thinks or reasons. Just because that is what all of us have ‘learnt’ to do since childhood, was I also one who merely followed set systems and rules without personal perceptions and ideas?

Reflections such as these make me wonder how far fact from fiction is, how people generally perceive learning and what true learning actually means. It also makes me question myself if I have been fair to all the children who were in my care and my responsibility for over a number of years? Did they actually learn, really understand and retain information of most of what I ‘taught’ them in class? Or will they, like me wonder after years what 2 2 ‘za’ meant…?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sadiya is part of the Training and Development Team at Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC). She did her post graduation certificate course in Education and has been training pre-primary level tearchers since three years.