We Learn By Doing
During Open House last night, we talked about learning and what we know about this complex process. One thing that was highlighted was that we learn by doing; that is, we know that one way that learning happens best is when we are actively engaged in a task or process and are ourselves doing the thing we are striving to learn. At ISA, we strive to create learning spaces and devise opportunities for students based on our Learning Principles. These research-based principles guide teachers when considering the ways in which student learning can be effectively supported and enhanced. Previously, I have written about the importance of establishing and maintaining a safe learning environment. This week, I would like to use the Grade 5 First Note Day to make a point about the nature of learning that is embedded throughout our Learning Principles: namely, that we learn by doing.
This morning, the Grade 5 Band students took part in First Note Day. The students had new trumpets, trombones, clarinets, saxophones, flutes and drumsticks. On First Note Day, the children play their very first note together, as an ensemble, in the context of a band setting. This is not a widely-shared experience; many adults only ever learned to play an instrument in isolation, through private lessons. Kent Walter, our Instrumental Music (or Band) teacher, is passionate about the importance of learning by doing, so it makes perfect sense for children to take even these earliest steps in the context of what it is they are striving for - namely, to play with one another, as a band.
Noted teacher and educationalist John Holt refers specifically to this idea when he says:
“Not many years ago I began to play the cello. Most people would say that what I am doing is “learning to play” the cello. But these words carry into our minds the strange idea that there exists two very different processes: (1) learning to play the cello; and (2) playing the cello. They imply that I will do the first until I have completed it, at which point I will stop the first process and begin the second. In short, I will go on “learning to play” until I have “learned to play” and then I will begin to play. Of course, this is nonsense. There are not two processes, but one. We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.”
The children in Mr. Walter’s band classes learn to perform as members of a band by performing together, as members of a band. Yes, there is time for individual practice and tutorials, but the key is that the children don’t have to wait before having the opportunity to play together. The two processes (learning to play and playing) are actually one and the same. We also apply this principle across subjects and in every grade level, from Preschool through Grade 5, whether it is in PE classes or Mathematics classes, in which students are routinely given opportunities to act and think like athletes while developing skills, or to act and think like mathematicians while learning procedures. Indeed, as Francesca MacAlpine and Jory Bolton explained last night, when the students in Grade 1 are engaged in writing, they are authors - so we refer to the children as authors.
I’m sure that the families of these budding musicians will be treated to a lot of new (perhaps unique) sounds as the children explore the potential of their instruments. Mr. Walter does an excellent job of sharing the excitement of being a musician, while simultaneously instilling a sense of the serious responsibility and dedication it takes to learn the skills required for playing and caring for an instrument, with each of his young musicians. It is wonderful that ISA gives these children the opportunity to learn an instrument during their school hours. I know we will all look forward to future student concert performances, which are scheduled as early as January 2025.
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