3. HOW children learn - Free to Learn (book)
This is the third video of the 'Philosophy and Practices' series where we discuss the 'How' of education. How should children be learning in the schools of today? Traditional schools are completely teacher driven and rely mainly on lecturing. But is this the most effective way for human beings to learn something?
The bulk of the video shares ideas from a book called 'Free to Learn', which argues that the traditional system actually INTERFERES with the natural ways of learning that children are born with. It proposes a radically different model of education that gives children immense freedom. It challenges everything we think and know about education.
0:00 - The natural drive to learn
4:06 - Evolutionary psychology
5:52 - Children of hunter gatherers
8:12 - Play in mammals
10:06 - Importance of free play
11:20 - The premise
15:27 - Democratic education
20:29 - Results from democratic schools
24:14 - Reflections
28:31 - Children are unhappier than ever
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The 'Philosophy and Practices' series of videos is an attempt to outline a radically different philosophy and approach to education as practiced at Next School, Mumbai, India. Next School follows the Big Picture Learning philosophy and framework, which is being practiced in 300+ schools in more than 10 countries worldwide.
This is a deep and radical shift. It takes a lot of unlearning, questioning and deep thinking to be able to intellectually digest this big shift. This series begins by challenging some fundamental aspects of the traditional system, and then builds up a whole new system of education from a new set of first principles.
Big Picture is a student driven model of education, as opposed to the teacher driven approach of the traditional system. Big Picture also urges us to shift from academic learning to real world learning - the kind of learning that happens by doing real things in the real world.