There are many different forms of non-traditional – i.e. non-hierarchical – teaching and learning. Perhaps the most important (and one that has certainly won wide-spread acceptance in many schools today) is constructivist teaching. Constructivism is based on the idea that learning is as natural to humans as breathing air. We can’t help doing it, especially when we are children. Our desire to find out how the world works is deeply programmed into our brains, encouraged over the generations by evolutionary selection. But while learning is natural, teaching is not and much of the goal of constructivism is an attempt to create the best possible match between the natural desire for children to learn (and their inherent skill at doing so) and the artificiality of the classroom environment. A key element of the creation of such a naturalist learning environment is the use of hands-on activities.
