Practical learning: the power of undertaking for comprehension enhancement
The power of hands-on learning in early childhood education is a concept supported by both educators and neuroscientists. This approach, known as experiential pedagogy, encourages children to learn through direct experience - doing, building, and reflecting. This approach was pioneered by educational theorists like John Dewey, who believed that learning should be active, social, and connected to real-world experiences.
Experiential pedagogy is not just about fun; it's about fostering lasting understanding. Instead of memorizing facts, children engage with the world to make meaningful connections and build knowledge. With activities that range from physical movement and creative experimentation to collaborative problem-solving, experiential learning acknowledges that the most potent learning occurs when children are fully immersed in their education.
Modern brain research offers a scientific explanation for this approach. The University of Chicago found that physically enacting concepts, such as mimicking planetary motion with arm gestures, activates brain regions associated with memory and understanding. Research by Novack, Congdon, Hemani-Lopez, and Goldin-Meadow shows that guiding children's body movements can play a crucial role in preparing them to learn new concepts. Their study on mathematical equivalence indicated that when children engaged in movements relevant to mathematical problems before receiving instruction, they better grasped the concept later.
At the Children's Museum, exhibits are designed to make learning come alive. Children experiment with physical principles by directly engaging with real materials and practical challenges, such as making scarves and objects float in vertical wind tunnels or releasing balls on spiral tracks to explore gravity and speed. Experiential spaces aren't limited to museums; families can encourage practical exploration at home with cardboard ramps, kitchen science experiments, or open-ended building materials.
Elena Rossi, an expert in early childhood science education, believes that experiential learning is particularly powerful in physics because much of it is abstract. When a child builds a ramp and sees a ball go faster or slower depending on the slope, they're developing a real intuition about movement and energy.
For many parents, the learning that happens at such exhibits can be both surprising and enjoyable. "I liked how my son kept adjusting the ramp to see if the ball would go farther," one parent shared. "He was making predictions and testing them, just like a real scientist."
Experiential pedagogy does more than just teach content; it builds children's confidence, curiosity, and resilience. It gives children a sense of agency in their learning, which Jean Piaget once said, "When you teach something to a child, you take away their chance to discover it for themselves." Experiential pedagogy gives this chance back, again and again.
By fostering active learning, experiential pedagogy supports healthy and well-rounded development during these critical years, enhancing brain plasticity, promoting emotional intelligence and social skills, and bolstering cognitive abilities.
Households can encourage experiential learning at home by incorporating activities like cardboard ramps, kitchen science experiments, or open-ended building materials, thus enabling lifelong learning and self-development. This type of learning, which has been proven effective in early childhood education, promotes active, social, and real-world experiences that build children's confidence, curiosity, and resilience.
