Running head: LEARNING IS… 1

Learning is…

Amber Kingery

Baker College of Muskegon

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Learning is…

Learning is a whole body activity. In my experiences, the brain responds better when it is

physically and emotionally engaged. For example, when you read about the Jim Crow laws, or

anti-black laws, online or in a text book they seem terrible but you don’t really grasp how much

of an impact it had on society. The article I read before I entered the exhibit stated that “Under

Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow

represented the legitimization of anti-black racism.” (Pilgrim, 2000). This article did affect my

emotions, but not like the Jim Crow exhibit at Baker College. If you had the chance to watch a

movie or even visit a museum, like our class, you would understand the concept and it would

most like be stored in your long term memory.

The Hierarchy of Learning is a great tool to use in your classroom because it puts the way

kids learn into perspective. The Hierarchy is as follows; Being there, Immersion, Real hands-on,

Hands-on representation, Second hand learning, and Symbolic. When I plan a lesson, the first

thing I want to refer to is the Hierarchy. If I can’t get the kids to a museum, I’ll try for the next

best way for them to grasp the concept. I want to give them three chances, or ways, to learn the

material depending on their learning style. Our goal is to provide the students with the “being

there” experience on the Hierarchy. This option isn’t always available, but a hands-on

representation or a second hand learning experience always is.

When I visited the Jim Crow Law exhibit, it made the understanding real. There were real signs

that said “Whites Only” and real pictures of lynching. I saw photos of these things in my article,

yet it didn’t seem to affect me because they it was symbolic learning instead of hands on

representation. The exhibit is a good hands-on representation on the hierarchy because there are
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physical objects that are in front of you to see but not touch to represent that time period. They

were also using second hand learning as well because there was a video playing on a big screen

that included experts talking about the time period when the laws were in place. There was one

representation of the time period that impacted a few of us in the Jim Crow exhibit. It was a

picture of the lynching. We talked about the way it made us feel that lynching was actually

happening. Graphic representations such as the lynching pictures are a definite way to impact a

classroom.

Conceptual understanding needs to be in place in order to achieve a light bulb go off in a

child’s brain. Many educators are not aware that conceptual understanding is the “key aspect of

learning” (Santrock, p.295, 2011). When educators understand how conceptual understanding

needs to be used in the classroom, children benefit. Students form concepts by grouping objects

and experiencing. In order to teach a concept, an educator must define the concept, clarify the

definition, give examples, and then provide additional examples (Santrock, p.297, 2011).For

example, if we were studying the Jim Crow Laws I would start out by reading a book together

about the laws, then create a definition with group work, we would talk about our definitions, we

would dig further and find a video, then possibly go to an exhibit or create our own exhibit.

When you enter the last steps of examples, you are trying to store this information into their

long-term memory. You want to immerse them in the lesson. The goal is always to get your

lesson to the “Being there” example on the Hierarchy of learning.

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References

Pilgrim, D. (2000, September). What Was Jim Crow?. In Ferris State University . Retrieved

January 24, 2014, from http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

Santrock, J. W. (2011). Educational Psychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.