Galef 2000 - 2001 Galef’s 9 Theoretical Understandings Learners learn what matters to them. The most significant learning arises from that which arouses the interest and meets the needs of the learner. Different Ways of Knowing enables you and your students to make choices about the instructional pathway you'll follow. Learners construct meaning for themselves. Different Ways of Knowing teachers understand that the most significant and enduring learning is constructed by the learner, with guidance and assistance provided by many people. Students learn best when they are actively engaged in planning, monitoring, and directing their own learning. The arts are critical to the process of making meaning. When children express themselves through the arts, they are involved deeply in thinking processes and discovery. They also become skilled in the various arts disciplines. Learners thrive in a safe, supportive environment. Different Ways of Knowing begins with children's strengths, celebrating all that they can do, encouraging them to take risks as learners, and to develop trusting relationships with other children and with adults. Learners use both content knowledge and skills as tools to learn more. Different Ways of Knowing develops the intellectual tools that will serve students for a lifetime through the use of rich, cross-disciplinary research which focuses on big ideas. Learners use the world as their laboratory. Different Ways of Knowing helps students understand and appreciate their community. Students explore resources outside the classroom and invite experts in to share information. Learners explore their learning over multiple drafts. Different Ways of Knowing encourages children to explore, refine, and elaborate their meaning over multiple drafts and to express their evolving understandings through a variety of presentational formats which include the visual arts, dance, drama, music, science, and mathematics, as well as oral and written language. Learners learn in collaboration with others. Learners learn best when they are not isolated from others, but are part of a community of learners that invites dialogue, exchange, and collaboration. Learners never stop learning. One line of inquiry leads to another. This is one of the major understandings of Different Ways of Knowing. The measure of true learning is not recall of material, but new questions that address new possibilities, leading the learner into new realms of exploration. So Different Ways of Knowing modules end not only with the question, "What did you learn?" but also "What will you learn next? For more information about Galef, Click Here!