Fact Sheet 1: Literature is not Science ................................................................ 1
Fact Sheet 2: Making Connections.................................................................... 11
Fact Sheet 3: Mental Models ............................................................................. 25
Fact Sheet 4: Thinking About Thinking ............................................................ 37
Question: Is there an effective meeting ground between behaviorist and constructivist approaches; where do we use behaviorist approaches and where do we simply change the way we do things and focus on understanding?
DISCUSSION:
LtoT,LtoL:Teaching means teaching students to think, �..thinking skills may best be formed through discussions� .�
LtoT,LtoL: �Effective teachers create real discussions among students and between students and the teacher. Students learn to think by actively thinking and engaging with the subject in asocial setting. To teach students to look at both sides of an argument in history, have a debate or ask student to write from another person's point of view.�
Question: What constructivist approaches/strategies for the social interactions, such as discussion, exist for instructional programs which have students coming and going, use programmed texts or computer integrated question/answer computer drills? LtoT,LtoL: �..as soon as students can understand a passage, you can have a discussion about what it means. They do not have to become expert decoders before you can ever work on comprehension.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Always have a discussion before you read.�
CONTEXTUALISM:
�Skills need to be taught in the context in which they will be used.�
LtoT,LtoL:�Teaching thinking skills is most effective in the context of real problem-solving in a particular field. To learn to think, you have to have something to thing about!�
LtoT,LtoL:�In the middle of the road (there may be general skills, but they need to be taught in the context of subject matter), interestingly, are both E.D. Hirsch (a conservative) and Howard Gardner (a liberal).�
Question: Are we wasting our students time when we teach skills in isolation, outside the context of real problem-solving?"
LtoT,LtoL:�One approach to transfer is to teach skills in several different contexts. Another approach is to identify all of the situations where students could use the skill and teach them specifically how to use it in that context.�
LtoT,LtoL:�Students can get a better understanding of math problems by using many worked-out problems than from being lectured to. Teaching from examples is not just rote learning�theories are easier to understand in the context of a real problem than in the abstract.�
LtoT,LtoL:�Always give problems that have a context.�
MENTAL MODELS:
LtoT,LtoL:"Adult students have had a lot of time to build mental models that do not work well for them at school. They may be quite attached to their mental models, even if these models do not help them solve school problems well"
See Mind Mapping or Concept Mapping or Constructivism and Mapping
LtoT,LtoL:"Because mental models are organized, they help students think clearly. A person with facts but no mental model, �a) would have trouble learning similarly arbitrary additional facts about [the topic], b) would be vulnerable to confusions when attempting to recall and use facts about [the topic], and c) would be relatively slow to retrieve even well-known facts.�38 You can help your students by helping them organize their mental models."
1. Mental models are complex networks of information about a topic (an office, buying something, walking down the street) that change as we learn.
2. They affect how we understand what we read and hear.
3. People share similar models for common events.
4. Mental models help thinking: they are efficient and organized, create expectations,
provide memory cues, and include problem-solving models.
5. Mental models are closely tied to background knowledge.
6. Experts� models are highly organized.
7. Many students have a model for stories (narratives), but not textbook writing (expository prose).
8. Mental models allow us to make inferences.
9. Good problem-solvers have mental models for many types of problems.
BEHAVIORISM and CONSTRUCTIVISM:
LtoT,LtoL: �Thirty years ago, most theories about teaching and learning (for children and adults) were based on drill.� � �This approach can be described as a �behaviorist� approach to learning.�
Question: Since �skill and drill� behaviorist approaches do not prompt students to formulate their own questions about what they have read, which does not help students become aware of their own thinking, nor help them be aware when they do not understand, or that they need to change the strategies they are using, how can we take apply constructivist approaches in programs that have invested so heavily in the application behaviorist approaches in technology; is it possible? Are we talking about a revolution in learning or an integration? LtoT,LtoL: �Since the 1970s, the field of cognitive psychology has taken a different approach�looking at what people believe about what they are studying, how they go about solving problems, and how aware they are of whether they understand what they are reading�. � �This approach can be described as a �cognitive� or �constructivist� approach to learning, which is the focus of this book.�
REAL-LIFE:
LtoT,LtoL: ��adult educators like Paolo Freire and Malcolm Knowles encouraged teachers to use real-life examples��
LtoT,LtoL: �Have you ever done logic puzzles (such as brain teasers)? Do you think they have helped you solve real-life problems in your personal life or at work? Why or why not?�
LtoT,LtoL: �Teaching thinking skills is most effective in the context of real problem-solving in a particular field. To learn to think, you have to have something to thing about!�
LtoT,LtoL: �Effective teachers create real discussions among students and between students and the teacher. Students learn to think by actively thinking and engaging with the subject in a social setting.�
Question: Many programs ask their questions in a multiple-choice format and designate the correct answer (not real-life problem solving); a lot of resources, intrastructure and publisher buy-in make it difficult for programs to step back an honestly evaluate without defending. How do we get past teaching for the test and testing for understanding? LtoT,LtoL: �Teaching the same problems in �real world� language can help students bridge the gap from real life to school questions.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Teaching from examples is not just rote learning�theories are easier to understand in the context of a real problem than in the abstract.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Mayer & Wittrock point out that school problems usually have �one right answer� (are well-defined), but real-life problems often have many �right answers� (are ill-defined, such as a business letter, which could be written in many different ways), Problem�solving transfer, p. 48.�
Question: How do we encourage discussion in a social setting when the programs require so much time trying to find the one correct answer? LtoT,LtoL: �Knowing when to use information makes the link between �school learning� and �real life.�
LtoT,LtoL: �These strategies work best when they are taught in a structured way using real reading materials. They probably work because they get students to engage actively with reading and really think about and make sense of what they read.�
ROTE:
LtoT,LtoL: �Students who learn new facts through patterns or principles), rather than by rote, are better able to transfer that knowledge.� LtoT,LtoL:
LtoT,LtoL: �Part of the problem, of course, is that many teachers do not teach for understanding.
LtoT,LtoL: Teaching for understanding takes longer than teaching by rote.�
PROBLEM-SOLVING:
LtoT,LtoL: �Problem-solving skills in one subject (like reading) are different from those in other subjects(like math). Problem-solving skills need to be taught separately for each subject.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Most adult learners have a very limited number of strategies for understanding new material or solving problems. Teaching them more strategies can help them learn much better.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Hundreds of studies of thinking and problem-solving programs show that people only improve on the type of problems they learn in the programs. In programs that use logic problems to teach thinking, people become better at solving logic problems.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Are there general problem-solving methods that transfer broadly across content domains and can be taught? A long line of research (starting with the work of Thorndike and James) casts a gloomy pall on the prospect of general transfer.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Effective programs identify the kinds of problems students must be able to solve, and teach students how to solve those problems.�
LtoT,LtoL: �Good problem-solvers have more and better-developed mental models than poor problemsolvers.�
THINKING ABOUT THINKING (metacgonition):
LtoT,LtoL:�Good readers ask themselves a lot of questions before, during, and after reading.�
LtoT,LtoL:�Some thinking about thinking is about being aware of your own thinking while you read.�
LtoT,LtoL:�But being aware of your own thinking is not enough. Readers also need to know when they do not understand. And they need to change their strategies, which they do not always know to do.�
Question: Some research indicates that it takes 30-40 exposures to a new word before a studnte starts to think with the word. Cromley, states, "Teaching strategies take time! Students need to practice strategies up to 60 hours." Do we need to spend more time with learning and thinking strategies than we do?
LtoT,LtoL:�An early study found that while teachers asked a lot of reading comprehension questions they did not teach students how to answer the questions. The advantage of teaching strategies is that students can become more independent learners and can continue to learn on their own after they leave school.10 It is important to understand that these kind of strategies are just one tool, not the only way to improve comprehension.�
LtoT,LtoL:Strategies That Are Not Effective Enough
Several �sacred cows� of the teaching world have been shown to be ineffective. That is,
students either do not learn from them, or learn much less than from proven strategies:
Background Knowledge
Using analogies if learners do not know the original concept and limitations of the analogy
are not explained.
Forming mental images of abstract ideas or areas that students know nothing about.
Activating prior knowledge about a topic when students do not have any.
Reading�Decoding
Whole language reading instruction that uses no phonics at all when students do not know
how to decode.
Using only context clues to figure out an unknown word (students also need to know how to
use the word itself�prefixes, suffixes, sounding out, etc.).
Reading Comprehension
Asking comprehension questions without teaching students how to answer them.
Explaining the relationships between a question and its possible answers.
Explaining to normal readers how stories are put together.
Teaching �good reader� strategies that are logical, but unproven, such as spending more time
studying less precise passages.
Simply explaining how to do a strategy without making time for students to practice with
some guidance and get feedback.
Teaching Vocabulary
Teaching vocabulary with dictionary definitions (more detailed plain-language definitions
are needed).
Teaching vocabulary by simply having students write new sentences.
Other
Doing labs or discovery learning without preparing students for what they are looking for and
why, or without giving feedback."
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