Neil Gershenfeld of the Media Lab notes that it is only through constant demonstration that his MIT students become good scientists. The many opportunities to explain what they're doing help them understand what they are learning. Adapt curriculum to address students' suppositions and development. Presenting developmentally appropriate work is a place to start. Most high-school students would find the preparation of a film script or a legal brief more engaging and relevant than the report format they mastered in sixth grade.
Role plays are also interesting ways for students to present information.
As students engage in the work, the teacher must monitor their perceptions and ways of learning. For example, a middle-school social studies teacher prepares for her students to study the concept of immigration through films, readings, examinations of firsthand accounts and photographs, and a field trip. In class discussion, she comes to perceive that her students found the multimedia presentations on the kiosks at Ellis Island effective. She also senses how many of her students empathize with the stories of the immigrants. She collaborates with the computer teacher to offer lessons in multimedia-presentation skills.