This excerpt from New Scientist article (3-7-21) – “The seven ages of you” is worth sharing because it provides a scientific basis for alternative pedagogies.
It is a great shame we can’t remember our first few years. In terms of the sheer number of changes to the body and brain, early childhood sees the greatest transformations of our lives. We not only learn essential skills for survival – how to walk and feed ourselves- but also language and how to recognise what others are thinking and feeling.
Neurologically speaking, a lot of this transformation involves the steady strengthening of connections between certain brain cells and the pruning of unnecessary connections between others. For some areas, such as the visual or auditory system, this happens rapidly during the first few years. This could explain why childhood is a peak period for learning, especially for sensory skills such as developing the accent of a language or perfect pitch in music. For other brain areas, such as the prefrontal cortex involved in higher level thinking and decision-making, this neural pruning and strengthening continues beyond our teens.
Much of this childhood brain development may arise from a form of statistical learning that resembles the scientific method: making predictions about the world and updating them according to evidence gained through experience. To gather this information, a baby’s attention will drift to anything that is unexpected or surprising-explaining why they are so intensely curious about even the most trivial details. Over time, the process helps them to recognise objects and sounds and to work out what different words mean.
Imaginative play can aid this process, particularly as the child begins to explore the sophisticated thinking that defines our species. Humans engage in counterfactual reasoning, for example, which involves considering complex hypothetical scenarios and exploring the consequences. Playing pretend seems to train that capacity. As developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik points out in her book The Philosophical Baby, children spend a huge amount of time in imaginary worlds honing those skills, compared with adults.
This might explain why childhood is a key period for creativity and imagination, with youngsters scoring highly compared with older people on tests of original thinking-up unexpected uses for an object such as a brick, for instance (adolescents generally score more highly too).
As a child grasps more words, a growing ability to tell stories will also affect their ability to remember their life; our autobiographical memory seems to grow with our language skills, which may explain why our recollection: of the first few years are hazy at best.
Jam Butty's Alternative Education 