![]() I should also point out that I am not arguing that new knowledge should never be related to a child’s everyday experience: indeed, there are many times when this might be helpful. Indeed, these are precisely the kinds of examples where meaningful cross-curricular links can be teased out and built upon. I always find I can teach the Black Death more quickly if pupils know something about bacteria and the spread of diseases. Teaching the Reformation is a great deal easier if children have already learnt something about Christian theology in their lessons on religion. This is not to say of course that new knowledge should not be taught in the context of what has been learnt in other domains. Perhaps your time for history is very limited and you have not been able to focus on fifteenth-century monarchy, but perhaps they have studied kings from an earlier period, or from another part of the world. Have children already learnt about Edward IV and late-fifteenth century politics? If so, great, relate this new knowledge of Henry VII to that. ![]() To continue this example, a more meaningful approach would be to start with what the children already know within this particular domain. a king who lived half a millennium ago) with something that children can ‘relate to’ (e.g. Yet it is a question type that is quite common – and indeed seen in some published resources – precisely because it takes something which is supposedly distant and abstract (e.g. The assumption that new knowledge within the domain should be linked to something learnt beyond the domain results in questions like “Was Henry VII a gangster?” This question is nearly meaningless in historical terms, and indeed could easily result in anachronistic misconceptions. The mistake here is to think that new things that are learnt have to be linked to everyday experience, as opposed to what children already know. It is a position frequently associated with the idea of relevance: we make things meaningful to children when we make them relevant, and relevance means relating to a child’s experience. In some circles, this is framed as ‘drawing on a child’s experience’. We know that children are not empty vessels or blank slates, but what then are the implications of this for teaching? The most common response, and with some justification, is that teachers should attempt to relate the new knowledge being taught to what children already know. The problem here, however, is that the existence of that straw man often distracts from a more important debate. Although I am sure there are a few examples that can be found, I do not think that any voice in the great education debates ever claims that children are in fact ‘empty vessels’ or ‘blank slates’: it is a straw man position par excellence. In part this is a self-evident point – the vast majority of what we teach comes via the medium of language, and, to understand the meaning of what is being taught, children need to understood the words being used. Similarly, ‘cognitive’ theories of learning have argued that learning involves the growth of schema where new ideas are more likely to be remembered if associated with existing knowledge structures. Various ‘constructivist’ theories of learning have argued, time and again, that learning must be a meaningful experience where new knowledge is placed in the context of old. Send us feedback.We all should now know that Yeats never said that “education is not the filling of a pail”. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'vessel.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. 2023 Ironton was a 191-foot cargo vessel that was part of a two-ship sinking after a nighttime collision. 2023 The 191-foot cargo vessel sank in September 1894, after colliding with another ship, the Ohio, which was carrying 1,000 tons of grain and went down quickly, according to the NOAA. 2023 The planet’s marine life is facing multiple threats from overfishing, the effects of climate change, fossil fuel extraction, and escalating noise from vessel traffic. ![]() 2023 Antigua and Barbuda say the vessel, named the Alfa Nero, was abandoned in an Antiguan harbor last February and belongs to sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev. 2023 Each shipment comes with three or six bottles and your first one includes a nice wooden sake vessel, great for really enjoying the stuff. 2023 Three of the passengers, died after Hurtado abandoned the vessel, which eventually broke apart. 2023 The whole vessel, about 270 feet long and more than 100 feet tall, was shifted onto land. Recent Examples on the Web The towering vessel, which was carrying military and commercial cars for delivery all over the world, spanned the length of nearly two football fields.
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