At SWS, Students Construct Meaningful Knowledge Together with Peers, Teachers, and Other Adults
Our society increasingly requires that citizens think creatively and work cooperatively to solve problems. Much of the research on learning and the brain emphasizes a shift in education away from the transmission of knowledge from teacher to students to and towards the construction or co-construction of knowledge by students in cooperation with their peers, their teachers, and other adults.
In their book, Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain, Rennata and Geoffry Caine describe two kinds of knowledge: surface knowledge and meaningful knowledge:
Surface knowledge is based on memorization of facts that are only a part of what children need to know.
Meaningful knowledge is the knowledge that comes from being able to perceive relationships, create new meanings, develop new insights and solve problems; it is based on creative process that engages students intellectually and does not limit learning to predetermined outcomes.