Harvard University professor: How to cultivate children to learn independently

Perhaps most parents think that children\’s playing is a waste of time and will hinder learning. Edward M. Hallowell, who has taught at Harvard Medical School for more than 20 years, believes that children’s learning and play are actually inseparable. Here is the answer to why some children still feel happy doing difficult math problems, while others feel miserable when it comes to learning. 01. Playing doesn’t seem to improve academic performance, but children who can play learn better. We all know that playing is a child’s nature. The Israelis even summarize children as having enough to eat and drink, and having clean diapers, and they just want to play. But none of us know exactly what playing can bring to our children. Professor Edward believes that our definition of children\’s play is too narrow and should be redefined as: spontaneous and creative interaction with the surrounding environment. In the book \”The Gardener and the Carpenter\”, Alison Gopnik, a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Oxford, even lists an entire chapter to explain the innate connection between children and play. \”Foxes know many things, hedgehogs only know one big thing.\” The smarter the animal, the more interested it is in everything. Social animals with longer childhoods have a higher need for play. Because early childhood play experiences not only prompt the brain to produce chemicals but also make the brain more sensitive to these chemicals, helping to maintain brain plasticity. The better a person is at playing, the younger his brain is and the higher his curiosity and learning ability for new things. Jim Anderson, chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University, discovered that the best graduate students and postdocs in the department were children who knew how to play. They can complete an experiment from scratch and make their own results. In recent years, scientists have discovered that children are born with a scientific spirit and joked that babies may be better suited to be scientists than adults. When they encounter a situation that goes against their predictions, they will pay special attention, observe for a long time, and even conduct experiments on their own to find out what happened. They don\’t suffer from the \”confirmation bias\” that adults do, which is to ignore things that might shake our preconceptions because of what is already known. Children’s desire for learning and knowledge is innate, and so is their ability to learn. Vita Jun, a post-10s programmer on Station B, was already proficient in using the programming languages ​​​​of Scratch, C++ and Swift when he was 8 years old. His series of teaching videos \”Primary School Students Teach You to Learn Programming\” has been viewed more than 7 million times on Station B. In the video, he will patiently explain each knowledge point, and will also ask questions from time to time, which is very formal. His father also mentioned in an interview that at first he played games in this area for his children, but slowly he got into it on his own, and sometimes the programming he wrote was even more beautiful than what he wrote himself. Most parents don\’t believe that learning is really a child\’s own instinct, and this instinct can be brought out through the child\’s nature. 02. Play that is truly helpful to their children. Many parents think that play is not helpful for their children’s learning, but in fact, “education through fun” and “entertainment”\”Fun is the best teacher\” are never empty words. Children can indeed benefit a lot from playing, as long as we can find the right direction: · 1. Limit electronic entertainment time, increase open-ended games 1. Limit and It does not mean prohibition. In today\’s developed Internet era, not allowing children to play video games will undoubtedly derail them from the times. What we should do is to limit the time of games, whether it is from the attributes of the games or from the needs of children\’s physiological development It seems that playing video games for a long time is not beneficial to them. Instead, children should be allowed to find friends to play, let children make up their own games, read books or play imaginative games. The more proactive, the more Child-led games, such as Lego, dolls, games with others, card games, etc., are all beneficial to children. Because \”teaching\” is a double-edged sword for children, they are more sensitive to what they receive The education of children is very sensitive. After receiving teaching, they are more likely to choose to imitate rather than discover things themselves, which hinders them from discovering other possibilities for toys. · 1. Let the family be full of humor 1. Humor itself is a kind of game. If a person If you can often laugh with your family members, their mental health and emotional stability index will be higher. Laughter and play can keep people away from depression, anxiety and fear. Daily parent-child reading, interesting children\’s songs, and a Playing games together as a family is a good choice. The book \”You Are Your Child\’s Best Toy\” says: \”What children really value is the happy time with you. They need to be valued and need to be alone with their parents. Interrupted time. \”Those enviable and longed-for families are also full of laughter: like the magical kid Tiantian who imitates Li Jiaqi to get out of the circle, and Deng Chao who always \”complains\” on Weibo. Games with children not only make Children benefit from the family, and parents can also relax and decompress, thereby improving all aspects of life. · 1 In addition to studying, try to give your children some free time to play 1 Biologists have summarized 5 characteristics of play, among which are mentioned Here it comes: Play is a desire. Just like when we are hungry, we will eat a lot at once. If the opportunity to play is deprived, it will continue to accumulate. Therefore, if you want to prevent children from being addicted to games, the best way is to give them A period of \”break\” time. Small amounts and multiple times, giving them some free entertainment time is also a kind of recharging for them. Research has found that children who study after exercising are more efficient than children who study all the time. High and more focused. If it is not convenient for them to play outside, they can arrange their activities on the safe balcony. Smells related to nature, such as grass and fresh air, can make children feel better, so reading outdoors can Or doing homework on the balcony can increase their happiness. 03. What really hinders children\’s learning? Most parents think that what hinders their children\’s learning are video games, mobile phones, computers, toys, and novels. But Edward found that For children, what really hinders their learning is their fear, shame and embarrassment. Fear of not learning wellBeing blamed, being afraid of not being able to study even though you work hard, being ashamed of your own incompetence, being embarrassed because your learning method is clumsy than others… The American FCB company is studying \”how digital technology and corresponding lifestyles affect children\’s play and thinking\” When looking at \”methods\”, I made an unexpected discovery: parents unintentionally forcefully instilled the concepts of efficiency and productivity into their children. In terms of activities and the cultivation of interests and hobbies, we hope that children can achieve high achievements. Winning event prizes, getting high scores on exams, and hobbies should also be shown on your resume. Learning without grades is not learning, and achieving high achievements is a successful life. It is this overemphasis on having results that prevents children from learning to enjoy the process, and learning is precisely a process. 04. In the end, children can learn teamwork, team loyalty, unity, compromise, sacrifice, how to get along with people who are worse than themselves or less capable, and face success and failure calmly through the game. More importantly, play itself is a satisfying pleasure and a source of joy and laughter for parents and children.