Knowledge Matters - But How Does it Grow?
- Lynne Howard
- Mar 21
- 2 min read
The Cornerstone Advantage: A Fresh Start Built on the Science of Reading
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Part Two of a Three-Part Series: What Research Tells Us About How Children Learn
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We Are Wired to Learn
Humans are learning machines. We are wired to build knowledge. Our survival depends on adapting to new environments, making sense of the world, and solving problems. Learning is deeply satisfying, inherently motivating, and rewarding. It is how we grow.
You can see this quality most especially in very young children. They spend their days engaged in learning for its own sake. Many children become immersed in certain topics, such as dinosaurs, dragons, trucks, space, or building. They strive to know as much as they can about what they care about.
As we get older and life becomes more demanding, we may, out of necessity, become less interested in learning new things. But cognitive science shows us that by continuing to learn new things, our brains remain healthier for longer.
How Does Learning Grow?
Clearly, learning is part of who we are as humans, evident from early childhood through adulthood. The question is, how do we nurture it?
Two Classrooms, Two Approaches
In Ms. York’s classroom, students sit at their desks while she reads a short text and points to a diagram at the front of the room. Afterward, students independently complete a worksheet, filling in the names of plant parts and their functions. The room is quiet as the students complete their work.
Mr. Dion’s second-grade class listens to a story about the life cycle of a seed from the seed’s point of view as part of a larger unit on the environment. The students have been growing their own plants over the past week, checking them every day and noticing small changes.
As the students make observations, Mr. Dion asks probing open-ended questions: Why do you think that is? What would happen if...? Students begin wondering, making predictions, and asking more questions.
Mr. Dion provides several interesting fiction and nonfiction books for students to reference and asks them to work in groups to create a project that answers the question “What threatens plants, and how can we protect the plants in our environment?” The students work together to create projects that stretch their thinking beyond the classroom.
Knowledge Matters
In Ms. York’s classroom, students quietly complete assigned worksheets, focusing on recalling facts. In contrast, Mr. Dion’s classroom involves students in hands-on exploration and collaborative projects, encouraging them to investigate, discuss, and solve problems about plants together. The difference lies in students doing tasks versus actively building and applying their knowledge.
One approach asks students to receive information, while the other invites them to think, question, and connect. When students are actively engaged in building knowledge, they are more likely to stay curious, persist through challenges, and see themselves as capable learners.
Our Approach at Cornerstone
At Cornerstone, this is the heart of our work. We build knowledge intentionally in ways that keep curiosity alive and learning meaningful.
Because knowledge matters. But how we build it matters even more.
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