Explore, discover, learn

Aldrin on the moon - July 1969

Many of my greatest childhood heroes were explorers. From the era of the African continent explorers such as David Livingstone and Mungo_Park, the tragic heroism of Robert Falcon Scott and his men, to the stunningly intrepid off-world exploits of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, I found myself transfixed by the intrigue and drama of exploring the unknown, and immeasurably impressed by the courage of all those involved.

Our everyday experience of learning features discovery of a similar kind. What we learn may not be new to others but to those of us who discover for ourselves, it is very new and exciting, and what we have learnt stays with us for a lifetime. When children experiment, and ask the 'what if?' questions, they create their own meaning and construct their own understanding beyond anything a teacher can provide them. The Swiss child development expert Jean Piaget once said 'when you teach a child something, you take away forever his opportunity to discover it for himself.'

For me, one of the most difficult lessons to learn as a new teacher was to know when to stand back and let students struggle, discover for themselves and learn independently - and when to intervene. It is a fine balance. My instinct (some of which came from my formal teacher training) was to 'stand and deliver', when often I did better for my students by letting them learn for themselves. Children love to experiment. They are always asking the 'what if' questions, and this kind of speculation about the world leads to curiosity, and ultimately discovery. Teaching is not only telling and showing, but allowing space for creativity, discovery and experimentation. Let's hope we all continue to practice the correct balance for our learners.

Photo by Neil Armstrong on Wikimedia Commons


Explore, discover, learn by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.