Walter Geerts & René van Kralingen - The Teachers' Handbook

1 How do students learn?

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An instructive lesson Jeske is in the second year of VWO 9 at De Roerdomp comprehensive school in Zeist. She had an interesting art lesson with Mrs Ekkers today. Mrs Ekkers is an erudite art teacher who decided to supplement her lesson with some art history today. She started by gathering her students around her large desk. Next, with one large movement of her arm, she swept her desk clear. Everything tumbled onto the floor! Absolutely everything: books, papers, a glass jar with pencils and paint brushes, even a potted plant! The whole class went quiet and watched, their mouths wide open. Jeske thought her teacher had gone mad. But Mrs Ekkers looked around the classroom and said calmly, ‘Take a look, everyone, at what is now on the floor. Notice how everything seems nicely arranged. What you see here is Dadaism. Dadaism is an art move ment. What you see on the floor here is an example of a type of art you can call Dadaism.’ Next, Mrs Ekkers used the beamer to show some artists’ work that belonged to this movement. The students were spellbound. The lesson was so fascinating that Jeske couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the afternoon. She decided to demonstrate this Dadaism to her family when she got back home. Later that after noon, she suddenly swept everything off the kitchen table. It startled her mother, who gave her an inquiring look. Her brother thought it was funny and her older sister wondered out loud why she was behaving so oddly. Jeske then explained to her family what Dadaism was and why it had to be demonstrated in this way. What is needed to teach students? There is no simple answer to this basic ques tion. A student’s learning process mostly depends on his or her own learning activities. A lot depends on how well the teacher can explain the subject matter, but that is a separate issue from the student actually learning it. Learning is a pro cess that takes place inside the student’s head. You cannot learn for the student,

9 HAVO stands for hoger algemeen vormend onderwijs , or senior general secondary education. A HAVO diploma is awarded upon successful completion of a five-year course and allows admis sion to higher professional education (HBO) at a hogeschool (university of applied sciences).

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