Utah State University

DigitalCommons@USU TEaL Faculty Publications

Teacher Education and Leadership

1998

The Learning Spiral: Taking the Lead From How Young Children Learn Marth Taylor Dever Utah State University

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/teal_facpub Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Dever, M. T., & Hobbs, D. E. (1998). The Learning Spiral: Taking the Lead from How Children Learn. Childhood Education, 75(1), 7-11.

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1h~ Lear~ing

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S·p,ra .' I 'From Taking the Lead How Young inS~ i1dren Learn

L e questions at right. asked by 2nd-graders. launch a scientific about owls. As the 7~ yea r·olds investigate stuffed owl specimens, they express their need to know. Some children continue to stroke the owls' feat hers, touch a sharp cl aw, and ask questions about the mouth, while

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o thers immediately.tum to printed materials to clarify their questions., This. new experience with owls ignites the children's sense of wonder; and ..the intrinsically motivated scientific inquiry qegins.

Another group of 7-year-olds are also studying owls in a science unit. These students, however; sit at their desks attending to a textbook assignment. The room is fairly quiet, except fo r occasional trips to' the pencil sharpener o r the ba throom. The motivation for these learners.is externally supplied by· the teacher. Consequently, this learning ex'perien