cognitive apprenticeshipWe have all seen youth who can spend hours perfecting complicated skateboarding feats, learning new computer games or mastering animation techniques – it is impossible to stop them from learning. Yet these same teens may struggle with learning in a classroom setting. Part of the problem is that classroom learning is often abstract, disconnected from any real-life application or the natural context for using new information.
constructing meaningThis much we now know. The brain learns best when it is trying to ‘make sense’. When it is building on what it already knows. When it is working in complex, situated, circumstances. When it accepts the significance of what it is doing. When it is exercising in highly challenging but low threat environments, children learn spontaneously.
how humans learn best We now understand that evolution has provided humans with a powerful toolkit of [[http://changelearning.ca/get-informed/understanding-human-learning/born-learn/early-years/predisposed-development?|predispositions]] that go a long way in explaining our ability to learn language, cooperate in groups, solve problems, plan for the future and empathize with others. This evolutionary inheritance both empowers us and constrains us. We are born ready to learn, but our brains are wired to learn more effectively under certain conditions.
