ABSTRACT
How does the child’s ability to pay attention impact on learning? Is there a role for play at school? Few would disagree with the notion that the primary goal of schooling is child learning. We as teachers (preschool through the college years) bear responsibly the burden of deciding what and how to teach, of packaging the wisdom of our culture appropriately for delivery to young minds. In return, we expect students to learn. The question addressed here is: How can our knowledge of the developmental abilities, tendencies, and learning capacities of young children help in the process of packaging and delivering information for learning? Children are designed to learn: The more we can learn about and use the child’s own design features, including the role of attention and play in their learning, the more effective will be our instruction.
