Intentional Learning Experience Paper

Introduction
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onnections made to one’s self and community are hallmarks of optimum pedagogy. Offering learning opportunities that make connections to students’ prior knowledge, their interests, and their curiosities, in the context of their physical, social and cultural environment, promotes a way for them to make their own meaning and understanding. These experiences employ critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration as they are processed through an integration of multiple curricular disciplines. Intentional learning experiences are carefully implemented to assist children in extending their conceptual understanding rather than depending on random occurrences. Intentionality does suggest the importance of the adult/child
Fred Newmann and Gary Wehlage (1995, 31) conducted a five-year study of mathematics and social studies education. This study showed that students had to work to solve problems, document their findings, and produce meaningful products and solutions. The authors found that authentic and meaningful projects that were absorbing for the children enhanced their performance. The work was authentic to the work of real life. Debbie Muthersbaugh, Anne Kern, and Rebecca Charvoz (2014, 323-324) studied elementary students’ understanding of environmental science in place-based integrated lessons. The outcomes of the study indicated that through the use of visual representations students could critically analyze their understanding of environmental science, yet, held some misconceptions of the concepts. It was clear, however, in the students’ oral responses and written documentation that they valued the place where they lived and they desired to have a positive impact on their location and the
Young children aged 4 to 7 are in the stage of “Empathy: Finding Animal Allies” during a life stage in which the home and school are the sum and total of a child’s world. Connection can be piggybacked onto the natural empathy for creatures during this stage, fostering feelings of ecological sensitivity and healing. The second stage during the ages 7 to 11, “Explorations: Teaching the Landscape,” focuses first on familiar immediate places and then expands into the child’s relevant community and world. Learners can then move to the third phase of social action, David Sobel called, “Saving the Neighborhood” (ages 12 and beyond). In this stage, the learners’ interest concentrates on social connections, themselves, their peers, and society (Sobel