KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERED

In an effort to focus on the organizational and instructional needs of American schools, a coalition of research specialists at K-12 PATTERNS™  and Jones Consulting Partnerships fashioned an alliance with Educational Foundations, multiple southern California school district representatives (e.g., Los Angeles Unified, Compton Unified and Inglewood Unified School Districts), school-site councils, and the University of Washington’s Institute for Educational Leadership. This 1996 effort had as its targeted outcome the research, design, and implementation of powerfully new concepts needed to increase learning outcomes.

The initial impetus for the organizational focus of the endeavor was founded on large-scale, quantitative studies of the late 1980s and early 1990s that firmly established small school practices as more productive and effective than large, comprehensive practices.

These studies, involving large numbers of students, schools, and districts, confirmed that students learn more and better in small schools (Lee & Smith, 1995). One significant reason for the successes was the establishment of deep, meaningful connections with every student within smaller learning communities (SLC’s).

UNDERSTANDING PRECEDES LEARNING

All learners, in an effort to first “understand,” must attempt to absorb and identify patterns within the context of learning. These patterns are absorbed at random and may only be discovered through multiple experiences. These experiences must allow learners to create structures through which the patterns are absorbed, understood, aligned, and retrieved for later use. This absorption fuels the fire for learning.

Schools must reconstruct their beliefs about learning by realizing it is not enough to simply be taught and “learn” a given subject; First, the learners must be given the opportunity to learn how to learn the patterns of the subject. Only this will lead to deeper understanding, greater learning, and ultimate mastery.

As such, the primary instructional focus of the Learning Patterns model program requires establishing a collaborative environment of instructional teams intent on deepening their understanding of the learning process. These partnerships emphasize embedding conceptual understandings necessary for learning, PRIOR to delivering content.

The Importance of Understanding... An Analogy

Imagine the effort required to build a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle of Mt. Rushmore. Hundreds of pieces, when first poured out of the box, seem to make little sense and leave the builder wondering just how much time it will take to piece together the picture. What is happening in the mind of the builder?

Back and forth, the puzzle maker shifts attention between the larger “whole” of the eventual picture of Mt. Rushmore (as shown on the box-top of the package) and the many smaller “parts” of the whole that must be pieced together. That is, the builder (or learner) must attend globally and locally in order to ensure a successful process. The mental skills required to attend globally and locally are an integral part of all learning episodes.

One can only imagine how difficult putting together a puzzle would be if there was not a picture of the final product. With so many pieces looking so similar in shape, and no way to approximate the final product, frustration would quickly set in. This is the dilemma of many school-age learners: lacking the ability to move between global and local attending, they struggle while attempting to “learn” without first understanding. They are building content puzzles without an understanding of what the final product is supposed to look like.

All learners, in an effort to first “understand,” must attempt to absorb and identify the vast amounts of patterns (“puzzle pieces”) scattered throughout the context of learning. These patterns are absorbed at random and are only discovered through compound experiences. These experiences allow learners to create the necessary structures through which the patterns are absorbed, understood, aligned, and retrieved for later use.


K-12 PATTERNS™ adopts the belief that children do not need to simply “learn” a given subject; they need to learn how to learn the patterns of the subject. Only this will lead to deeper understanding, greater learning, and ultimate mastery.