Ten Things Homeschools Can Do Better than Public School

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Ten Things Homeschools Can Do Better than Public
School
Dr. David Klein 10th Annual InHome
Conference Chicago February 23 24, 2007
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Overview

• Significant learning principles that we know now
• Public school system
• What you can do better

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Learning Takes Effort
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Learning Has Context

• Starts with the senses
• Concrete to abstract
• Multiple senses better
• Imagination
• Meaning
• Relevance
• Socialization

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New Learning Connects with Prior Knowledge

• Elaboration
• Deep processing
• Otherwise,
• Can remember only about seven items at a time
• Cant retain memories

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Social Component of Learning

• Meaning is social
• Words
• Values
• Models
• Show skills in context
• Pass values
• Mentors
• Investment in the learner
• Communities of practice

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Expertise

• Automate skills
• Solve problems based on patterns
• Chunk information
• Become highly efficient

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Public School Assumptions

• Everyone develops at the same rate
• Learning can be isolated into discrete elements
• Factory model

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1 Allow Play

• Already occurs naturally
• Creates context (imagination)
• Multisensory

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2 Create Products

• Uses the five senses
• Promotes relationships
• Types of activity
• Projects
• Research
• Construction / destruction

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3 Encourage Intellectual Freedom

• Pursue personal interests
• Explore
• Acquire deep knowledge
• Increase motivation
• Children find their own developmental level
• View problems from different perspectives

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4 Provide Role Models

• Parent
• Sibling
• Extended family
• Other skilled models
• Carpenter, musician, farmer, engineer, healthcare
  professional, pastor

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5 Cultivate Real Socialization

• Conversations with people
• Multiple ages
• Diverse backgrounds
• Diverse abilities
• Extended interpersonal activity
• Modeling / mentoring
• Real-world situations (workplaces)
• Childrens needs are being met, so socialization
  is possible

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6 Talk about Learning

• Metacognition
• Meta beyond, above
• Cognition thinking
• How do you learn?
• What do you do to learn in different domains?
• How do you go about solving problems?
• How can you improve your learning?

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7 Teach Complexity

• Real, complex problems
• No well-defined solutions
• Multiple possible questions and answers
• Start with the problem and work on skills as
  needed
• Learn trigonometry concepts to measure a land
  plot
• Ways to measure cooking ingredients

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8 Explore Connections

• Relate learning to childs experiences
• Relate learning to childs prior learning
• Connect ideas between domains
• Math concepts as expressions of beauty
• Literature as history
• Music as cultural and spiritual expression
• Connect with people talk to family members,
  community, experts

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9 Make Learning Relevant

• Follow childs interests
• Create useful products
• Work toward goals
• Hone skills to apply to a larger project
• Worksheets
• Drill practice
• Help others

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10 Foster Expertise

• Encourage depth of knowledge
• Apply skills (learn what it feels like to be an
  expert)
• Increase self-esteem
• Improve social standing
• Develop intrinsic love of learning
• Connectedness of knowledge
• The more we know, the more we are capable of
  knowing