An Introduction To Natural Learning
To Learn means to be in a state of play. To live a life of curiosity, a life of inspiring one another, a life of connecting with each other, and a life of real conversations. Welcome to Natural Learning.
So we’re in Lockdown. It was quite the news to hear on Monday that schools were closing. This has got many people asking, “What now? Do we homeschool? Do we treat it as a holiday? What do we do? How will my children keep learning?”
There has undoubtedly been a lot of advice from various people, and there’s certainly some good stuff coming out. There’s also plenty of websites being shared with a variety of activities. If you’re drawn to something like that then, yeah, go check them out. But what I’d like to share with you over the next few weeks is the idea of Natural Learning. This might be your best opportunity to really dig into this idea. I will be sharing a video and article like this with you every weekday. If you have a desire to explore this idea of natural learning more, then I encourage you to join me over these next Lockdown weeks. But first, let’s tell you more about what I mean by Natural Learning.
When I talk about Natural Learning, I’m not talking about a method or a program or anything like that. What I’m primarily going to be sharing with you is “How human beings learn”, how human beings have really always learned. And through understanding the principles in how we learn, you will be better able to look at what is happening within your family and then apply the principles to your family context in the way that you see best.
Natural learning is also the idea that learning happens naturally, impulsively. Education is not something that needs to be forced or manipulated into people. Our common misunderstanding of education is that we need to, “Make people learn”. Because we think that we must make people learn, we often resort to a variety of manipulative and coercive tactics.
But the attractive thing about natural learning is that we come to realise that the best learning happens when:
- We don’t use force
- We don’t seek to manipulate
- We don’t bribe with rewards
- We don’t cajole
- We don’t threaten with punishments
- We don’t coerce
We let go of all of that!
Instead of those things I will share with you the four key ingredients to natural learning, which are:
- Show curiosity about the world and each other
- Co-inspire each other
- Connect with each other
- Have Conversations with each other
If you like, you can think of these as the 4 C’s of Natural Learning
So Curiosity, Co-inspiration, Connection and Conversations.
There’s also really a fifth ingredient that is not only the way that we connect with other people but should also undergird our whole thinking, and that is to be in a state of playfulness.
The idea of play can seem a bit frivolous to us adults sometimes, but it’s more important than we might think. The naturalist Karl Groos put forward the theory that those animals whose way of life depends least on rigid instincts and most on learning are also the most playful. We need more play in our learning and reach a more playful state of mind. Learning is not about flogging yourself with disciplinarian measures, but we actually learn more when we are in a joyful state.
So that’s what I hope to share with you too, how to reach that state.
But don’t worry, I do not just want to give you dry and dull lectures. I’ll also be sharing some practical, fun and playful things to do. Things that will help stimulate your curiosity; become inspired by others in your family as well as being an inspiration; connect with your family at a deeper level; and have conversations that are engaging, fun and meaningful.
If you’re already in Lockdown around the world, I hope things are going fine, and there’s still plenty of fun and laughter at your house. But yeah, we’ve got some interesting weeks ahead of us!
So hope you can join me tomorrow as we really jump into it and I hope these articles and videos can become really useful for you.
