Interest Led Learning
"Once you have learnt to ask questions - relevant and appropriate and substantial questions - you have learnt how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know."
Neil Postman
The key objective of this educational philosophy, which underpins all our Regular sessions and workshops, is to help children learn how to learn for themselves.....creating a place where children can go to find out the things they want to find out and develop the skills that they want to develop.
Beliefs underpinning this program are:
Environment:
We have worked hard to collect as many resources as possible under one roof. Saws, hammers, chisels, glue, wood, metal, soldering irons, resistors, dynamos, speakers, computers, paints, clay, wax, willow, seeds, broken appliances, encyclopaedias and a small reference library are just a small list of what we have available.
If a child is completely stuck, a possible path of investigation is suggested. However, this is only done as a last resort, because a reliance on external suggestions can stifle the child's ability to find his or her own direction.
No grading, ranking or labelling.
Any path or route suggested by a child must be encouraged by adults, even if they can see that it has severe and obvious limitations; there should be no authority over directions taken or investigations embarked upon.
Adults should try to use broad questions to unearth interest if not initially apparent.
Skills which help children reach their goals are modelled in a safe way.
Return to a list of some of the workshops.
Beliefs underpinning this program are:
- Children respond positively to being given responsibility for their own learning.
- Children can carry out complex tasks at a younger age than they are usually given credit for.
Environment:
We have worked hard to collect as many resources as possible under one roof. Saws, hammers, chisels, glue, wood, metal, soldering irons, resistors, dynamos, speakers, computers, paints, clay, wax, willow, seeds, broken appliances, encyclopaedias and a small reference library are just a small list of what we have available.
If a child is completely stuck, a possible path of investigation is suggested. However, this is only done as a last resort, because a reliance on external suggestions can stifle the child's ability to find his or her own direction.
No grading, ranking or labelling.
Any path or route suggested by a child must be encouraged by adults, even if they can see that it has severe and obvious limitations; there should be no authority over directions taken or investigations embarked upon.
Adults should try to use broad questions to unearth interest if not initially apparent.
Skills which help children reach their goals are modelled in a safe way.
Return to a list of some of the workshops.
The the planned workshop progression can be deviated from at any time by anyone whose interest is inspired. This moment is often characterized by the question "what happens if?" The ensuring investigation may lead to a further investigation with another "what happens if?" or if the investigations