Intentional Teaching

One of the articles that I read while researching this topic, "Rethinking (e)learning: a manifesto for connected generations", by Roderick Sims (2008), refers to design and teaching theories that parallel early childhood theories and teaching practices. Intentional teaching is a balance of teacher facilitated and child initiated activities. Teachers plan activities and provide materials for exploration based on what children know and where they are developmentally (physical, cognitive, social/emotional, and language). Children use materials available to them to explore and discover the world around them and to make sense of their world (we call this play). Because a group of young children in a preschool classroom are not all on the same developmental level and also have different learning styles, teachers must plan activities that help each individual child have successful experiences. Adult learning is similar to that of children - we use materials available to us to explore, discover, and make sense of the world around us - we just don't call the process 'play'.

As with children, adult learners have different learning styles and are on different developmental levels. As in preschool, it is unlikely that the same instructional approaches will work for each adult learner. Sims suggests that, "a combination of bottom-up (learner-prompted) and top-down (teacher-prompted) strategies become appropriate". Incorporating these strategies for e-learning effectiveness, rather than trying to replicate traditional classroom practices makes sense.

Perhaps it would be beneficial for all adult educators to spend a few hours observing a preschool classroom. Children can teach us a lot about how we should teach adults and this knowledge can carry over into the design for e-learning. Maybe we should call it e-play!