Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/making-learningn-visible/5025145/
Documentation can make children’s learning visible, but what is meant by “learning?” If learning is thought of as simply entering information into a child the way someone might enter information into a database, then a product of what was entered—or taught—is all that is needed. Here is an example of what that might look like:
Salif, a 4-year old, sits quietly while his teacher, Miss Tanya, reads a book about alligators, apples and airplanes. The children are then given a picture of apples with a big letter A to color. When his Mom arrives to pick him up, he shows her the picture and says, “Miss Tanya told us that crocodiles like to eat apples and ride on planes.”
As you can see, the picture of the apples did not serve as documentation of what was learned, but rather what the teacher was attempting to teach. Children do not simply take in what an adult tells them. Rather, they have to actively make sense of it based on their current understanding.
When learning is looked at as a process of constructing knowledge from experience and reflection on that experience, then the documentation of that learning would try to show a ...