Active learning – Being involved and concentrating

Children want to be in control and to act autonomously. They can be highly motivated to learn about things and to master different activities. Find out about how being deeply involved is one of the key features of learning to learn in an active way and how children achieve these levels of involvement. 

Good for looking at

  • The characteristics of effective teaching and learning
  • Active learning
  • Levels of involvement
  • Ferre Laevers
  • Motivation
  • Curiosity
  • Concentration
  • Self chosen activities
  • Working towards a goal
  • Self-regulation

When children are intrinsically motivated towards their own goals they’re much more likely to persist and concentrate. See what it looks like when children achieve something for themselves which is not reliant on external praise or rewards. 

Good for looking at

  • Characteristics of effective teaching and learning
  • Self-regulated learning
  • Concentrating
  • Persistance
  • Achieving a goal
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Social learning
00:06
Children want to be in control
00:07
and to act autonomously.
00:10
They need to have the freedom to act independently.
00:14
Babies concentrate enormously.
00:16
They're highly motivated to learn
00:18
about things and to master different activities.
00:25
They're deeply involved, and this is one
00:27
of the key features of learning,
00:29
to learn in an active way.
00:44
They're active in their own learning.
00:47
As babies, this mainly involves movements
00:50
and mastering activities and becoming competent
00:53
at an activity.
01:03
As they get older,
01:04
it includes working towards understanding some things.
01:25
Levers developed a scale that measured the level
01:27
of involvement in an activity.
01:30
The high score being total involvement and fascination.
01:34
This is what leads to deep concentration
01:36
and enjoyment as children in this state are determined
01:39
to master or work something out.
01:45
Children experience deep satisfaction
01:48
in getting involved in working towards a goal.
01:57
If one thing happens that doesn't fit in
01:59
with what they know, they'll concentrate
02:01
on trying to master it or understand it,
02:04
they're curious, they want to know how it fits in
02:07
or doesn't with what we know already.
02:10
These children are persistent
03:09
What is it?
03:37
Children who are becoming self-regulated
03:40
will be drawn towards things they can't quite do
03:43
or understand.
03:45
Oh yes.
03:46
It is here.
03:55
Oh, where did it go?
03:59
If one thing happens
04:00
that doesn't fit in with what they know, they'll concentrate
04:03
on trying to master it or understand it.
04:07
They're curious.
04:08
They want to know how it fits in
04:09
or doesn't with what they know already.
04:12
These children are persistent.
04:16
I wish we had a picture of it so we know
04:30
Oh yes see.
04:33
The level of involvement
04:34
is most readily achieved when children choose
04:37
their own activities.
04:39
They can choose their own level of challenge.
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Self chosen activities, whether it's time and freedom
04:45
for children to become involved are most likely to lead
04:48
to deep concentration and high levels of involvement.
05:01
When children are fully immersed
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in an activity and are not easily distracted,
05:05
this is described as being in a state of flow.
05:09
This happens most often when children are playing
05:11
at a self-chosen activity.

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