Effectiveness of Self-Organised Learning by Children: Gateshead Experiments

Abstract

Children, working in groups and using the Internet, seem capable of learning content traditionally considered to be ahead of their time and comprehension levels. In this paper we describe four experiments to measure children's achievements in learning in Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs). We report the results that seem to suggest that, in Self Organised Learning Environments, children can learn ahead of their time, retain the learning over time and enjoy the process enough to explore further on their own. The results also suggest that children in groups can read and comprehend at higher levels than the comprehension levels of each individual in the group.