Quality in school library media programs: focus on learning - Perspectives on Quality in Libraries

Library Trends, Wntr, 1996 by Barbara Stripling

An examination of research about learning reveals a few underlying principles; these ideas must form the structure of our schools and our school libraries. These principles have been previously described by the author in a Chattanooga, Tennessee, Power News newsletter article (Stripling, 1994, pp. 1-2).

Self-Knowledge

The early years of a child's life are spent in self-discovery as the child steps out and tries to make his or her way. In the Western philosophy of learning, called by the educator Howard Gardner the "transformative" approach, the child is encouraged to teach himself/herself through discovery; the caretaker's role is to provide opportunities for engagement with the world. Gardner contrasts that approach to the Chinese philosophy of teaching, the "mimetic" approach, in which the caretaker provides models and careful guidance on specific tasks. The child does not find his or her own way to create art, for example; instead, he or she is taught specific techniques.

Cognitive research in the Western world shows that, unless children are given the opportunity to get to know themselves and to discover their own world, they cannot relate learning to the outside world. A student must progress through both self-knowledge and an understanding of the outside world before he or she can wrestle with universal issues. That progression from personal to social to universal has obvious implications for the curriculum.

Cognitive research has also made clear that learning related to real life is more relevant, powerful, and long lasting for a student. The real-life aspect of the classroom that is important, then, probably follows the same progression, from personal to social to universal.

Core Understandings/Learning How to Learn

Students do not learn effectively from collections of facts; new information must be put into a meaningful context for it to become knowledge. As information proliferates and student access explodes, the challenge to educators is to discern core ideas that students should understand and revolve the curriculum around these ideas. The movement to map curriculum around concepts is an expression of this approach to learning. Once concepts have been defined, students and educators should mutually decide essential questions that will help them grapple with key ideas embedded in the concept.

Throughout learning, students reflect on understandings they have gained. Each understanding should lead to new questions so that the students become involved in a thoughtful learning cycle. As they experience this cycle, they are learning how to learn.

Personal Need

Research certainly shows that students learn better when they are intrinsically motivated. That motivation must stem from personal interest. The job of the educator is to help students find that personal hook to the essential understandings of the curriculum, not to relinquish all responsibility for deciding what students should learn.

We also know that each student learns differently. Students have different strengths and, according to Gardner (1983, 1993), a number of different intelligences. One student may be particularly talented verbally, another may excel artistically, and another physically. Since each student's approach to a learning task will vary, educators cannot predetermine the path; they must simply provide challenges and scaffolding to help students along their own paths.