This document summarizes a parenting workshop on enhancing a child's capacity for learning. It discusses: 1. Different learning theories and how learning is an active process of making connections. 2. Practical tips parents can use to promote intellectual development in children, such as understanding learning, providing stimulation and motivation, establishing structure, and teaching thinking skills. 3. Five practical solutions discussed are choosing a supportive school, creating a stimulating home learning environment, maintaining good relationships between home and school, using quality mediation when issues arise, and focusing on the importance of relationships for a child's happiness and engagement in learning.

1. Learning without Limits
All children can learn
Do all parents know how to enhance their
children’s capacity for learning?
Dr. Dolapo Ogunbawo
Executive Director
Caleb Group of Schools
Saturday, May 23rd, 2015

2. Parenting Workshops
by
Caleb Group of Schools
in Collaboration with
Sterling Bank
Important websites for downloading materials
and registering for next workshop
www.sterlingbankng.com/parentingworkshop
and
www.calebschools.com

3. 2nd Workshop in the Series
Learning without Limits
Enhancing Your Child’s Capacity for Learning
“The greatest gifts you can give your
children are the roots of responsibility and
wings of independence”
Denis Waitley

4. Expectations
• Duration - 2 hours
• Presentation – 1 hour
• Light touches on learning theories
• Focus on what parents need to do –
practicalities
• Sterling Bank Message – 10 minutes while you
complete question/comment sheet
• Response to some questions and comments
• Follow up on websites to download materials
and register for next workshop

6. Vision, Optimism, Realism

7. V. O. R.
• Vision – of greatness and positive
outcomes
• Optimism – every day is a great
day
• Realism – work with what you’ve
got

8. Learning without Limits
Our ability to thrive depends on our
capacity to learn (Bentley 2000)
But....
Let’s begin with
What is Learning?

9. What is Learning?
• Learning is acquiring information or ‘knowing a
lot’.
• Learning is storing information that can be
reproduced.
• Learning is acquiring facts, skills, and methods
that can be retained and used as necessary.
• Learning is making sense or meaning of the
subject matter and the real world.
• Learning is interpreting and understanding
reality or comprehending the world by
reinterpreting knowledge.

10. Learning Theories
BEHAVIOURIST
Thorndike,
Pavlov, Watson,
Guthrie, Hull,
Tolman,
Skinner
COGNITIVIST
Koffka, Kohler,
Lewin, Piaget,
Ausubel,
Bruner, Gagne
HUMANIST
Maslow,
Rogers
SOCIAL AND
SITUATIONAL
Bandura, Lave
and Wenger,
Salomon
Change in
behaviour as a
result of stimuli
in external
environment
Internal mental
process
(including
insight,
information
processing,
memory and
perception) a
result of
internal cognitive
structuring
A personal act to
fulfill potential as
a result of
affective and
cognitive needs
Interaction and
observation in
social contexts.
Learning is in
relationship
between people
and
environment.

11. What we know about learning
• Learning is ...
– Intellectual, social and emotional
– Happens by design and by chance
– Influenced by context
– Different for everyone
– Takes time, conscious effort and focused attention
– We all do it and take it for granted
– Often, we fail to make the most of it

12. Learning is making connections
• Learning is a constructive process that occurs
best when what is being learned is relevant
and meaningful to the learner and when the
learner is actively engaged in creating his or
her own knowledge and understanding by
connecting what is being learned with prior
knowledge and experience.
Lambert and McCombs (1998)

13. Making Connections

14. Making Connections
• Learning is seeing patterns in the world
around us. Teaching is creating the conditions
in which pupils can see the known patterns of
our collective understanding. Nobel prize
winners see patterns where they have not
been seen before.
John Polanyi
Nobel Laureate
Chemistry (1999)

15. Developing the Whole Child
• Physically
• Mentally/Intellectually
• Spiritually/Morally

16. Our Brain and Learning
• Advances in understanding learning comes
from neuroscience by seeing inside the brain
using brain imaging technologies e.g. Pet
scan
• The brain is a living organism that grows and
reshapes itself as it develops
• We make our brains as we use them
• The shape or state of a person’s brain is the
result of interactions between genetic
inheritance and experiences

17. Our Brain and Learning
• At birth, the brain has all the neurons it will ever
have.
• The early years are the peak learning years
• The brain develops some capacities at critical
periods in the early years.
• Predispositions open up at points in children’s
development and if these predispositions are not
used, that section of the brain gets used for
something else or dies.
• Adult brains remain highly plastic and capable of
extensive neural reorganisation throughout life.
• There is no evidence that learning decreases with
age.

18. What All Children Need to Learn
The 5 Competences for the 21st Century
• Learn How to Learn
• Learn the Importance of Active Citizenship
• Learn How to Develop and Sustain
Relationships
• Learn How to Manage Situations
• Learn How to Manage Information
From UNESCO’s International Commission on
Education for the 21st Century (1996): learning to
know; learning to do; learning to live together and
learning to be.

19. Promoting Intellectual Development
• Understanding learning and the process of
intellectual development
• Stimulation/motivation
• Structure and discipline – setting
boundaries
• Teaching thinking and reasoning skills
• Developing an enquiring mind with critical
and creative thinking skills

20. Understanding Learning
• Read the theories of learning
• Learning is more than schools or teachers
• Learning is continuous adaptation
• Learning is building on children’s prior
knowledge
• Learning requires children’s engagement
• Learning is progression to higher order
tasks
• Learning requires second chances

21. Stimulation & Motivation
• Biological, developmental, cognitive, social,
psychological and emotional factors influence learning
• Children must be exposed to as much stimulation as
possible to grow intellectually. Parents can provide
stimulation and motivation by:
– Making tasks interesting, relevant and challenging
– Maintaining high expectation
– Making room for imagination and fantasy
– Using cooperative instead of competitive strategies
– Recognising the important roles of language & reading
– Encouraging self image as successful learner
– Encouraging risk taking
– Forstering independent learning

22. Structure and Discipline
• Establish a firm boundary with consequences
• Ensure a safe physical environment
• Nurture positive relationships
• Be fair and respectful
• Be consistent and reliable
• Actively promote positive behaviour
• Control frustration and risks
• Maintain the pursuit of the goal

23. Learning and Thinking
• We need thinking skills in order to learn effectively
• A new field of cognitive education teach children
how to think more effectively
• Children who are unable to learn from experience
are usually suffering from cognitive deficiencies
meaning they have not learned to think coherently
• Instead of considering new problems and thinking
them through with the benefit of past lessons such
children react impulsively or become inert in the
face of challenging tasks

24. Learning and Thinking
• Learning is thoughtful action
• Often we're not aware of our thinking - it happens
automatically - but if we stop to ponder what's
going on then we become more efficient and more
creative
• Critical Thinking is the process we use to reflect,
assess and judge the assumption underlying our
own and others’ ideas and efforts
• Creative Thinking is the process we use to
develop ideas that are unique, useful and worthy of
further elaboration
• The Marshmallow Test - delayed gratification or self
control
• http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/22/us/marshmallow-test/

25. PHASES OF CRITICAL THINKING
• Trigger Event: An unexpected happening that
prompts a sense of inter-discomfort and perplexity
• Appraisal: A period of self scrutinizing to identify
and clarify the concern
• Exploration: Search for ways to explain
discrepancy or to live with them
• Developing alternative perspectives: Select
those assumptions and activities that seem the
most satisfactory and congruent
• Integration: Becoming comfortable with, and
acting, on new ideas assumption and new ways of
thinking

26. Critical Thinking Habits
• Confidence: Assurance of one's reasoning abilities
• Contextual Perspective: Consideration of the
whole situation
• Creativity: Intellectual inventiveness to generate,
discover, or restructure ideas, imagining
alternatives
• Flexibility: Capacity to adapt, accommodate,
modify, or change thoughts, ideas, and behaviors
• Inquisitiveness: An eagerness to know by seeking
knowledge by exploring possibilities and
alternatives

27. Critical Thinking Habits
• Intellectual Integrity: Seeking the truth through
sincere, honest means, even if the results are
contrary to one's assumptions and beliefs
• Intuition: Insightful sense of knowing without
conscious use of reason
• Open-mindedness: Characterized by being
receptive to divergent views and sensitive to one's
biases
• Perseverance: Pursuit of a goal with focus and
determination to overcome obstacles
• Reflection: Contemplation of a subject, action or
behaviour for the purposes of deeper
understanding and self-evaluation

28. Practical Solutions
1. Choose your children’s schools wisely:
• It is not always your children who lack aspiration
or drive to achieve
• Sadly sometimes the schools you have placed
them lack belief in those they are teaching
• Ensure you have smart methods of discerning
the "type" of school that complement and fit your
vision and values
• If your child is not happy at the school, find
another

29. Practical Solutions
2. Create a home environment that is both
stimulating and conducive to learning:
• No matter how great your child’s school is and how
fantastic the teachers are, they cannot do it all
• You need to understand there is a major part the
parent plays in the child’s development and
learning
• Consider a variety of factors that are pertinent to
your child’s learning like language, reading and
thinking and develop strategies to foster and
develop them
• It is your responsibility to raise your child and you
cannot delegate that responsibility to another

30. Practical Solutions
3. Maintain an amicable and robust
relationship with your child’s school and
teachers:
• Whether you like the teachers and/or principal or
not you still need them!
• Make sure you are always positive when
speaking about the school, teachers and
principal because your child is listening!
• Keep communication channels open and
friendly and ensure you correspond regularly
• Always attend school functions to teach your
child school is important and high on your value
priorities

31. Practical Solutions
4. Quality mediation:
• Stuff happens!
• And when it happens between school and
home, it is important to create dynamic
avenues to restore peace and justice
• Your child is not always right or perfect!
• For this reason, ensure you listen to what the
school tells you about your child with an open
mind so that rifts can be resolved and not left
to linger or degenerate

32. Practical Solutions
5. Focus on relationship and remember that
happiness is important:
• Develop meaningful and effective relationships
with your child
• Also remember that it is important to teach your
child that relationship matters
• Happy relationship = happy life, so happy
children = happy family
• We are human and therefore relational beings.
We are designed to function in relationships
• If you get this right you can radically increase
the level of engagement, aspiration and
productivity of your child

33. Think About This

34. REMEMBER.....
Children Learn What They Live

35. Questions & Comments

36. Reflection
• What has extended or deepened your
learning?
• What has challenged your thinking?
• What do you intend to follow up on and
how?