Reading up on Caleb Gattegno is one of the areas we were pointed to as part of our study of ‘Pattern’ as a big idea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Gattegno
This article gives a brief description of his work and ideas. I’m not sure that I totally understand his idea of awarenesses but it seems to relate quite closely to the idea of relational rather than instrumental learning. The idea that just committing something to memory does not mean that it has been truly learned is common to both Skempe and Gattegno.
Gattegno’s ideas seem to be to do with the idea of creating links with what is already known so that new information is not just arbitrary but links with what is already in the learner’s brain. There is also a strong emphasis on images which he sees as low energy learning so there are obviously links between his ideas and representations in maths.
I probably haven’t understood this properly and need to read up on ‘the Silent Way’ and other ideas but these are just my initial thoughts.
Wicked Witch's Blog 