The Cycle of Learning
The Cycle of Learning (from Marjorie J. Kostelnik, Anne Soderman, and Alice Phipps Whiren, Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum, Best Practices in Early Childhood, 4th ed. )
When children first become aware of a new idea or skill they go through a process to be able to independently understand and apply what they are learning. Children move through this process differently - some may move through the process from awareness to generalization (depending upon the idea or skill) over hours, days, weeks, and sometimes years. Children advance at varying rates - children becoming aware of the same idea at the same time may be in different phases of the learning cycle - and that is ok. In fact, it's developmentally appropriate. Children come into a situation with different experiences and levels of understanding. In fact, children, given a specific idea or skill may even enter into the learning cycle at different points (and it is a cycle - there is no definitive start and stop).
With this in mind, it's important to remember that children need opportunities to learn that are flexible and able to address where they are at in the cycle. When observing your child's classroom, your child's teacher should be teaching in a manner that addresses all five phases of the learning cycle at once so any child within the classroom can engage the learning process.
There is a match between teaching and learning when:
there are open ended activities enabling each child to engage at a point in the cycle that best fits him/her
there are small groups working together
children can explore new objects and experiences without having to complete a task too quickly
there are a wide variety of materials available for children to explore
there is relevant feedback given to your child and a lot of questions to encourage understanding and gauge learning
practice opportunities are available throughout the year
there are may opportunities provided for children to generalize what they have learned to new situations