Dan+Willingham

I'm impressed by the educational thinking of Dan Willingham.

This is a summary of his book, //Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about how the Mind works and what is means for the classroom//

NB. The repetition / motivation dilemma "Repetition is good for learning but terrible for motivation. With too much repetition, motivation plummets ..." (p.1)
 * Introduction**

BK: Is this true? Direct Instruction (DI) advocates argue that repetition creates success and success is a key motivation factor ... when someone decides to learn something, eg. the words of a song, they will do the repetition, if they are intrinsically motivated ... it is meaningless repetition imposed from the outside (extrinsic) that destroys motivation ... But what about imposed repetition that the student is persuaded by stages, perhaps reluctantly, but gradually comes to accept that it is leading to valuable learning and / or success at learning? I think the latter is what DI does when it goes over again and again addition facts, multiplication facts so that students become more fluent in those facts. That fluency is necessary for when they do "harder maths".

DW argues that the 9 principles of the book "are so fundamental to the mind's operation that they do not change as circumstances change". There is a summary of the 9 principles at the end of the book, p. 163


 * **Cognitive Principle** || **Implication for the classroom** ||
 * 1 People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally good thinkers || Problems and challenges need to be optimal (not too easy, not too hard) because we are not great at thinking ||
 * 2 Factual knowledge precedes skill || It is not possible to think well on a topic in the absence of factual knowledge about the topic ||
 * 3 Memory is the residue of thought (we remember what we think about) ||  ||
 * 4 We understand new things in the context of things we already know || Shallow knowledge must come first ... Sure, deep knowledge should be the goal but you won't get there without the shallow knowledge ||
 * 5 Proficiency requires practice || What material will students need at their fingertips ... then practice, practice, practice ||
 * 6 Cognition is fundamentally different early and late in training ||  ||
 * 7 Children are more alike than different in terms of learning || Talk about learning styles is usually not helpful ||
 * 8 Intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work || Talk about success and failures in terms of effort, not ability ||
 * 9 Teaching must be practiced to be improved || Improvement requires reflection on what is working and not working ||


 * Chapter 1: Why Don't Students Like School**

Problems and challenges need to be optimal (not too easy, not too hard) because we are not great at thinking

Note (p.17): "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labour of thinking". Sir Joshua Reynolds, 18th C British painter

//Thinking is slow, effortful (requires concentration) and uncertain (wrong answers)//

When we can get away with it we don't think but instead rely on memory. //We don't think, we remember.//

Humans are naturally good at vision and movement, hard wired traits that evolved early to ensure our survival. After that we rely on memory. Thinking is hard to do and hard for a teacher to get students to do.

Movement || Memory || Thinking || People are naturally curious, but **curiosity is fragile**
 * LESS EFFORT || MORE EFFORT || MOST EFFORT ||
 * Vision

NB. Content does not drive interest!! Any topic from sex education to motivation / cognition can be made boring by presenting material that is too far above the heads of the audience

Working on problems that are of the right level of difficulty is rewarding, but working on problems that are too easy or too difficult is unpleasant.

"... we like to think if we judge that the mental effort will pay off with the pleasurable feeling we get when we solve a problem ... curiosity prompts people to explore new ideas and problems, but when we do, we quickly evaluate how much mental work it will take to solve a problem. If it's too much or too little, we stop working on the problem if we can" (p. 10)

How Thinking Works (10)



"very simple model of the mind" (p. 11)

Thinking is when you combine knowledge from the environment and long term memory in new ways!

BK: cf. Hofstadter: the crux of creativity is variations on a theme (1982 article)

Long term memory contains both procedural knowledge and factual knowledge

Procedural knowledge is like a recipe to accomplish a particular type of thought. eg. procedure of multiplying 18x7 or to calculate the area of a triangle or to copy a computer file, etc.

Factual knowledge - discussed more in Chapter 2

"... successful thinking relies on four factors: information from the environment, facts in long term memory, procedures in long term memory, and the amount of space in working memory. If any one of these factors is inadequate, thinking will likely fail" (p. 14)


 * Implications for the Classroom**

Be sure that there are problems to be solved: moderate challenges

Respect students' cognitive limits: avoid overloading of working memory, eg. multistep instructions, lists of unconnected facts, chains of logic more than 2 or 3 steps long and the application of a just learned concept to new material. Use scaffolding, eg. writing on the board, to assist working memory

Clarifying the problems to be solved: ask interesting questions that can be solved, organise around questions that provide the answers that we want our audience to learn Key question How to frame that question Right level of difficulty to engage students Respect your students cognitive limitations

Puzzles evoke interest!

Build on individual ability

Change the pace

Keep a diary


 * Chapter 2: Factual Knowledge must precede skill**

Negative Stereotype: Narrow minded schoolmaster demanding that students parrot facts ... as old as Dickens Hard Times (1854)

Many think that the regurgitation of facts works against the higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis or critique

Truth 1: memorising lists of dry facts is not enriching Truth 2: It is **impossible** to teach skills such as analysis or synthesis in the absence of factual knowledge

Einstein: "Imagination is more important than knowledge" WRONG!!

"to think is a transitive verb. You need something to think //about//"

BK: cf Papert: "You cannot think about thinking, without thinking about thinking about something" (Society of Mind, p. 22)

a transitive verb takes a direct object, eg. think about maths, read a pamphlet, played the piano, loves, eats an intransitive verb doesn't have an object, eg. snored, laughed, work

Thinking (from Chapter 1): combining information in new ways. The information can come from long term memory or the environment. So, in today's world, where you can find information quickly on the internet, is there a reason to memorise anything?

Thinking - Calculator comparison: the data (numbers) and operations (+ - * /) are separate (22). BK: cf Brian Harvey, SNAP manual: Alonzo Church: procedures as data. In SNAP all data is first class. In Scratch numbers and text strings are first class but lists are not. In Scratch you can't put a list into a variable, into an input slot of a block or into a list item. In SNAP you can. I need to explore this concept more. It sounds more powerful but it is not clear to me why it is more powerful.

Thus if you learn a new thinking operation (for example, how to critically analyse historical documents), that operation should be applicable to all historical documents ... NOT SO ... critical thinking about WW2 does not transfer to thinking about the current situation in the Middle East or the start of the American Revolutionary War. Critical thinking processes are tied to background knowledge - although they become much less so when we become quite experienced, described in Chapter 6


 * Knowledge is essential to reading comprehension**

1 it provides vocabulary 2 it allows you to bridge logical gaps that writers leave 3 it allows chunking, which increases room in working memory and thereby makes it easier to tie ideas together 4 it guides the interpretation of ambiguous sentences

the fourth grade slump - students from underprivileged homes often read to grade level through to third grade but then suddenly in the fourth grade they fall behind (as the emphasis shifts from decoding to comprehension)

Background knowledge is necessary for cognitive skills

Factual knowledge improves your memory

Implications for the classroom

How to evaluate which knowledge to instill

Be sure that the knowledge base is mostly in place when you require critical thinking

Shallow knowledge is better than no knowledge

Do whatever you can to get kids to read

Knowledge acquisition can be incidental

Start early

Knowledge must be meaningful


 * Chapter 3 Memory is the residue to thought**

Your memory is a product of what you think about

Paying attention 44

What good teachers have in common

(unfinished)


 * Chapter 4 Why is it hard for students to understand abstract ideas?**

Abstraction is one of the key goals of schooling

We understand new things in the context of things we already know, and most of what we know is concrete

When we first hear, Force = mass * acceleration, we ask for a concrete example

Expose students to many versions of the given principle. eg. Area of rectangles. Have them solve problems about tabletops, soccer fields, envelopes, doors and so on


 * Understanding is remembering in disguise**

Don't assume that students understand new facts. They understand things they don't know by relating them to things they do know.

Analogies are useful

Ohms Law R = V/I or I = V/R

I = electric current, how fast electrons are moving V = voltage, the potential difference, the force pushing the electrons R = resistance, different materials vary in how easily electrons can flow (metals good, non metals poor)

To explain this use a hose analogy. The current is how fast the water flows. The voltage is how much you turn the tap. The resistance is how much you turn the nozzle to prevent or slow the water flowing.

Concrete examples: It's not the concreteness but the familiarity that's important. But most of what students are familiar with is the concrete.

Understanding is remembering in disguise. To understand current, voltage and resistance we remember the water / hose analogy.

No one can pour new ideas into a student's head directly. Every new idea must build on ideas that the student already knows. The right ideas from the student's long term memory are pulled up and put into working memory.


 * Why is knowledge shallow?**

Rote learning: Memorising words without understanding ... very rare, what is described as rote is more often shallow knowledge

Shallow knowledge: Limited understanding

Deep knowledge: rich connections b/w the topic specific concepts, requires much study, time, experience, effort

Example: teaching the idea of government to young kids using the analogy of a classroom having rules


 * Why doesn't knowledge transfer?**

If someone understands an abstract principle, we expect they will show transfer, they can successfully apply old knowledge to a new problem.

Problems have a Surface structure and a Deep structure. Transfer only occurs if people see the Deep structure of a problem. Examples are provided on pp. 75-6, one of them straightforward and the other more difficult.

Transfer is poor because people get caught up in the surface structure of a problem. Their background knowledge of the problem domain is surface knowledge. There is no easy way around this. Deep structure is not obvious. An almost limitless number of deep structures might be applicable.

The trick is to see the analogy.

Provide examples of a given concept, eg. irony, and ask students to compare them. From Ch 2, we remember what we think about Make deep knowledge the spoken and unspoken emphasis. The low level facts are important but if that is all you ask you send a message that that is all there is. If it's on the test then it's important. Make your expectations for deep knowledge realistic. It may take a long time.
 * Implications for the classroom**

References mention analogical reasoning
 * Bibliography**

YES! It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice
 * Chapter 5 Is Drilling Worth It?**

Practice Enables Further Learning

Improve working memory by Chunking: storing facts in long term memory Automisation eg. tying laces, driving car

What it's like to be a beginning reader

Must practice

Alfred North Whitehead: "Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them"

Practice makes memory longer lasting

Practice improves transfer

Implications for the classroom

What should be practiced? Retrieving number facts from memory Retrieving letter sounds from memory Basic facts about elements

Space out the practice

Memory is more enduring when practice is spaced out

Fold Practice into more advanced skills


 * Chapter 6 What's the Secret to Getting Students to Think like real Scientists, Mathematicians and Historians?**

Cognition early in training is fundamentally different from cognition late in training

What is in an Expert's Mental Toolbox?

How can we get students to think like experts?

Implications for the classroom

Students are ready to comprehend but not to create knowledge

Activities that are appropriate for experts my at times be appropriate for students, but not because they will do much for students cognitively

Don't expect novices to learn by doing what experts do

Chapter 7: How should I adjust my teaching for different types of learners?

Children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn

Styles and Abilties

Cognitive Styles

Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic learners

Abilities and Multiple Intelligences

Conclusions