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| From Kyle Armstrong, Associate Head for Academics November 2010 |
A Fresh Look at Learning
This past fall at The Swain School, students were busy with classroom and school activities. Preschoolers enjoyed their annual Daddy and Me Night, lower school students participated in SASS programs and created havoc at their Halloween parties, and middle schoolers 'cut some rug' at the first school dance and happily participated in their outdoor education field trips. Clearly, fall at Swain was an active, exciting time for our students.
Beyond school activities, though, individual learning  took root in our classrooms. Every fall, most students return to school with a renewed sense of confidence and a fresh desire to learn. There is no question that students mature over the summer months, and it is very cool to observe the students during the first few weeks of school and notice how much they have grown - physically and mentally. This growth may be harder to see by parents who obviously live with their children throughout the year, but this change is rather significant in the eyes of teachers. Anecdotally, I am always amazed at how quickly the body and the brain can mature and develop in just a few short months.
A recent New York Times article brought to my attention, more specifically, how the brain functions in terms of study skills. Clearly, the brain grows and matures rather swiftly, but, according to research that dates back to the 1970s, we can have a greater impact on its development than we might imagine.
The crux of the article, written by New York Times science journalist Benedict Carey, is that by alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions, and self-testing we can possibly help students learn material more efficiently and with a deeper understanding. For example, a psychological study performed in the late 1970s "found that college students who studied a list of 40  vocabulary words in two different rooms - one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard - did far better on the test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room." The reasoning for this, according to the author of the two-room experiment, is that when the "context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting."
In another experiment completed this past August, "researchers found that college students... were better able to distinguish the painting styles of 12 unfamiliar artists after viewing mixed collections than after viewing a dozen works from one artist, all together, then moving onto the next painter." Dr. Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College (MA), concludes that in this experiment "the brain is picking up deeper patterns when seeing assortments of paintings."
Interestingly enough, these particular findings smack in the face two common assumptions we make about study habits for students, even at the elementary level: create a consistent study space to do homework each night and intensive immersion is the best way to learn a new skill. Think back to September when we - both teachers and parents - were setting up study spaces and schedules for our students and advising them to create order and consistency in their study patterns. When we ask them to study their spelling lists, for example, most of us - including me as a parent - sit with our child until that spelling list is mastered. Are we misguided in our approach to learning new material?
Of course, each and every new study (and old ones rediscovered) that are published need to be thoughtfully analyzed. In this case, the author acknowledges that student motivation and social conditions play enormous roles in the development  of study habits. I concur wholeheartedly. These are factors that cannot be held steady in an experiment, and these factors vary from child to child and household to household. Furthermore, motivation and environment may play an even larger factor at the elementary level as compared to higher education.
However, the conclusions from these various experiments should not be taken lightly. According to Carey, "hurriedly jam-packing [through cramming and intensive immersion in the same locale every day] the brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase, as most students quickly learn - it holds a new load for a while, then most everything falls out."
The idea is to pack the suitcase gradually and carefully over time, so that it holds the contents longer and more efficiently. Varying student spaces and study techniques, increasing the number of practice tests and quizzes, and mixing content all seem to be significant factors in brain development.
So, how do we reconcile our 'old' approaches with these 'new' findings? For me, as an educator and parent of a second grader, I find it important for a child to have a study space of their own. For example, giving your child a desk in the living room (away from the television) to create some type of order for their school supplies and homework is important. The executive functioning element of a child's brain has not yet developed, so aiding that aspect of a child's school life is essential.
Yet, allow them to make that space their own, and permit them to move around the house as they learn and re-learn material. The same holds true in the school setting for both young and old students. Allowing children to study material over time, in different settings, permits them to forget and then layer on new and additional material. According to Dr. Kornell, "the idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning."
 As we can observe with the naked eye each and every September, the body and the brain change rather quickly. This is the good news, because it is never too late to experiment with different learning patterns. One of the great mysteries of life is the brain and how it functions. Although our cognitive abilities allow us to perform tasks that other species cannot even fathom, we will never be able to solve the complexities of how that works. This holds true for academic learning as well.
It is important to consider fresh and renewed ideas about learning and brain development when it comes to your child. Avoid a dogmatic approach, and let flexibility and balance be constants in the experiment of learning. Although there are certain tenants that make a good student, remember that your child may not think and process the way you do, or even they way you expect them to. Remain open to ideas about studying and learning, and deeply consider how they may or may not fit your unique learner. Learning is not a zero-sum game; it is possible to combine new thoughts about learning with older, time-tested techniques.
So as we move through our 81st year of learning at The Swain School, celebrate the academic process with your child. Engage with them in the challenge of learning, and be open and flexible to their thoughts about what makes the world move as it does.
Recommended Reading
How to be an Elementary or Middle School Parent by Craig Knippenberg; Independent School,
Fall 2010: Ten points to help you navigate your child's social world; a nice complement to the academic article from the Times.
Student Book Clubs at Swain
The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman
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