Admissions Handbook 2011 - The Southport School

Admissions Handbook 33
• Promoting creative thinking
• Improving communication skills
• Strengthening the ability to acquire understanding
Optimal Learning
Learning is best when students are given the opportunity to explore the world on their own, but within a
guided environment. When students actively construct things in the physical world, it helps them to build
understanding in their own minds. This enables them to create even more sophisticated solutions, yielding
more skills, more knowledge, and more solved challenges in a self-reinforcing cycle. Students retain more of
what they learn from a creative process of this kind. This is called learning by making.
Let It Flow
Research into human development and learning has demonstrated that being challenged to the limits of one’s
ability is fun, and creates experiences that are rich in learning. When students are sufficiently challenged, and
thus enjoying themselves, learning becomes as natural as breathing - you aren’t even aware that you are doing
it. And when the challenge of solving a problem is matched to the student’s current level of knowledge and
skills, a formula for optimal learning emerges. This state is called Flow. Students who create their own
solutions to problems experience the thrill of genuine achievement - an experience altogether different from
simply memorising the achievements of others. This makes learning an adventure. The more empowered
students feel, the more they enjoy their classes, and the more they begin to take charge of their own learning
process.
The Learning Process
The classroom solutions are designed to support a four-step learning process consisting of the following
phases: Connect, Construct, Contemplate and Continue.
One of the key aspects to learning by making is the fact that students learn best when they can either relate
new experiences to their existing ‘knowledge bank’ or are exposed to an idea so compelling that it inspires
them to learn more about it. This is the Connect phase.
The Construct phase is all about constructing things in the real world and piecing knowledge together in the
mind. The children plan, program software or build solutions to solve given assignments.
An important phase in an effective learning process is the Contemplate phase, which involves students taking
time to think about what they have seen or constructed, and deepening their understanding of what they
experience. They discuss the project, reflect and adapt their idea, and the teacher encourages this process by
asking questions.
The Continue phase builds on the natural urge to want to know more. Doing so will lead students to a new
Connect phase, thus allowing them to enter a positive learning curve, where they overcome increasingly
difficult challenges.