There is no concrete formula that explains how children learn. Every child learns in a way that is unique to them. Some children learn best by reading a book while others require a hands on activity. We must be able to recognize each child's learning style and incorporate that into our teaching. This idea is not new. Dr. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences supports the idea that each person has different strengths.
While each child learns in their own way, there are still some universal methods that we as teachers can utilize. Presenting the same information over and over again in a variety of ways helps children commit it to long term memory. On this topic, Santrock notes:
"Repeat with variation on the instructional information and link early and often. These are memory development research expert Patricia Bauer's (2009) recommendations to improve children's consolidation and reconsolidation of the information they are learning. Variations on a lesson theme increase the number of associations in memory storage, and linking expands the network of associations in memory storage; both strategies expand the results for retrieving information from storage" (208)It should also be noted that how children learn is closely tied to their development level. A toddler learns very differently from an adolescent. More on this topic can be found in my next post ("How Child Development Affects Learning").
So, how do children learn? That's not really a question that can be answered in a brief blog post. It can't even really be answered in an essay. But when we boil it down to it's most basic points, children learn according to their own intelligences and utilizing repetition and variation can help children learn.
