When I was a little girl and I wanted to know something, I generally went to my Grandfather who took my questions seriously. He led me to his Library where he opened the Britannica volume, in the correct alphabetical sequence, and together we searched for information.

 

He then discussed what we found with me, and if necessary helped me look up further references, until we had what was considered adequate information and my question was answered with Britannica references which we carefully copied. Because of his love of learning, he enjoyed discussing issues with me and taking me a little further than my original question required. From him, I learnt what I call Discovery Learning.

 

I cannot remember much more about my early schooling, as it was what went on in those days. My next memory was Year 11 and 12 at Balwyn High School where a teacher called Mr Norman, who taught us English, again took me beyond the realms of basic school knowledge. Using Latin, and Greek, and other derivative languages as an adjutant to understanding the meaning of words, was his strength, and he was able to feed my hunger for knowledge by answering questions in a manner that like my grandfather, went beyond a base level. I became fascinated with words and the use of them.

 

Then the sixties, when open classes and child based education became fashionable, and schools immediately launched into opening the classroom and having the students select their own tasks, and programs were developed which gave students freedom of choice.

 

The seventies were years of consolidation and from the open classes, Education  moved into what was termed  Guided Directed Activities, and students were still in open type classrooms but were now following guided activities and keeping records of their own progress and taking responsibility for their own learning. Parents were brought into the learning cycle, with activities they could share with their children, and they became an integral part of the learning process, with many weekend activities that involved parents. Teachers were virtually doing what my grandfather had done with me, now with students. They were becoming involved with their students lives, and now  parents were also having a part in teaching their own children and sharing their learning activities by being involved too.

 This was also the beginning of Parent Associations and parents starting to want involvement in choosing school curriculum.

 

The Guided Activities naturally progressed to self paced lessons where students were working at their own levels and following paths set by other students, who had already travelled the same routes, and could now act as mentors and student guides. Students were more than ever immersed in their own learning and though following teacher controlled activities, were still working within their own level of understanding and interest.

 

 

Self pacing was based on my own experience as a student.  I realised that I kept getting bored, because I either could not follow the lesson, or was just not interested enough to try. I looked into why, and formalised that learning occurs best when the learner is motivated, and wants to learn, and has been somehow actively involved in the learning process in a way that somehow provides a feedback, external or intrinsic, a feedback that returns something to the learner. In other words the learner gets something from the learning experience, like the answer or a feeling, if the learning has been meaningful.

 

In School, the student cannot always select the content, so the educator has to direct the content in such a way that the student becomes involved, and thus wants to learn. With the Guided Activities, incentives were used that gave students chances to lead and direct the learning of other students, and learning became more social and self centred, which in turn lessened discipline problems, as motivated students just do not distract, as their peers do not let them.

 

 The Library became the main text, and students were directed to boxes of books borrowed from more than one library for their information. Projectors and slides were utilised, and research and discovery, look and find, became key learning key words. All classrooms had at least one typewriter where students diligently typed out their work for other students to use as reference material.

 

In the nineties, computers came into the world and were immediately utilized by these same teachers, as a powerful learning tool. The Guided Activities and Self Paced Learning took to computers as a natural continuation. The computers became the Library that superseded the encyclopaedia, and today the Internet is such a vast and outstanding reference source, one that can never be taken away, and one that can only be superseded maybe by astral travel.