How We Learn

Can Critical Thinking Be Taught?

A primary goal of learning in school is to be able to think critically (right?).

Cognitive Psychologist Daniel Willingham describes critical thinking as:

...seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.

So can the skill of "critical thinking" be taught?

According to Willingham, decades of research point to: probably not.

Research from cognitive science shows that thinking is not that sort of skill. The processes of thinking are intertwined with the content of thought (that is, domain knowledge).

Deep background knowledge is essential to critical thinking.

With Deep Knowledge, Thinking Can Penetrate Beyond Surface Structure

This whole article is well worth the read.

So what does this all have to do with the SAT?

Start with the fact that I do believe that the SAT is in large part a test of critical thinking, and every day I become more convinced that "test prep" without a deep understanding of the content, is not the most effective route to a high score.  It's like trying to build a mansion on a bed of quicksand.

All the test taking tips and shortcuts will get you just so far, but trying to shortcut that rock solid foundation is like adding curtains and paint to a straw house.

I've quoted this fine man before, but I think it bears repeating:

When parents asked me when a student should begin preparing for admissions tests, I always answered, “in kindergarten.”  -- Stanley Kaplan

 

P.S. I signed up solo for Kumon and I LOVE IT.  My gut tells me it's a great place to build a solid foundation.  We shall see.

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
48 Comments | posted July 3rd, 2011
 

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How We Learn

Studies Show Students Prefer Print Books In Some Situations And E-Books In Others

 

I continue to feel resistant to "studying online," and it  continues to baffle me as to why.

I love the internet; I love SATs.  How can I not like studying for the SATs online?

It's that I can't seem to get that sensation of deep understanding from online studying; the experience feels ephemeral, and the distraction factor too much for me.

Nicholas Carr has written a few recent blog posts referring to studies showing the advantages of printed text books over e-books.  I read through the UC Libraries Academic e-Book study and was surprised at how precisely these students articulated my sentiments:

  • Many undergraduate respondents commented on the difficulty they have learning, retaining, and concentrating while in front of a computer.
  • Preference? “Paper because it keeps me focused and away from distractions that may arise from computer usage.” (Undergraduate, Life & Health Sciences)
  • Preference? “Paper. I have some difficulty paying careful attention to long passages on my computer.” (Undergraduate, Physical Sciences & Engineering)
  • Each have their role – e-books are great for assessing the book, relatively quick searches, like encyclopedias or fact checking, checking bibliography for citations, and reading selected chapters or the introduction. If I want to read the entire book, I prefer print.
  • Paper formats are preferable because it is easier to memorize things that are in my hand and that I am physically underlining, highlighting, etc.
  • Being able to search the book for keywords is fantastic.
  • E-books are a convenience to see if I need that book. Once I have figured out that I do indeed need the book, I either go purchase it or borrow it from the library.

 

(Am selling iPad on e-bay because I haven't touched it in six months.)

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
7 Comments | posted July 1st, 2011
 

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How We Learn

How to Increase Students’ Self-Control

In addition to emotional support, studies show that cognitive support from parents is also important. As you might expect, one source of cognitive support is intellectual stimulation from parents (e.g., posing questions to the child, using complex sentence structures) and intellectual resources in the home (e.g., books, engaging toys). Other data show that kids gain self-regulation skills when their parents encourage them to be autonomous, and provide support for that autonomy. Somewhat more subtle is the cognitive support that comes from the principles of behavior and limits that parents set. Children appear to develop better self- regulation skills in homes where there are well-structured and consistent rules.

 

From Can Teachers Increase Students' Self-Control? by Daniel Willingham

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
Leave a Comment | posted June 28th, 2011
 

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How We Learn

Brain Books (I’m Obsessed)

 

I'm using the term "brain book" loosely.  These books all in some way relate to "how we learn."  They also basically say the same thing in different ways.

Here are my favorites:

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr  -- MUST READ!

 

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer -- Very enjoyable. I learned a lot while being entertained. Picks up steam in second half.

 

Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom by Daniel Willingham -- Haven't actually finished this, but only because I'm savoring.  Love.

 

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina -- Very fast read.  Not as in depth as some of the others I've read -- but good for an overview of how the we learn.  Very much in line with what the others are saying.


Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck -- She says what I already knew in my gut -- which is that having a positive attitude makes a difference.

 

What Can I do to Help my Child with Math When I Don't Know Any Myself? by Tahir Yagoob -- Every Parent and Every Student needs to read this book.  It goes way beyond what the title suggests.

 

On the night table: Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life by Sam Wang

In the mail: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
Leave a Comment | posted June 20th, 2011
 

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How We Learn

The Pleasure of Problem Solving

I'm reading Daniel Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School?, and two things have jumped out at me:

1) The reason I love doing SAT work is because it's like a puzzle.  According to Willingham, solving problems brings pleasure:

There is a sense of satisfaction, of fulfillment, in successful thinking......It's notable too that the pleasure is in the solving of the problem.  Working on a problem with no sense that you are making progress is not pleasurable.  In fact, it's frustrating.  And there's not great pleasure in simply knowing the answer either.

2) The reason that the SAT is so difficult for me is because it's a major strain on my working memory.

There's a final necessity for thinking: sufficient space in working memory.  Thinking becomes increasingly difficult as memory gets crowded.

I don't have the facts stored in my long-term memory, so I'm constantly straining to remember this and that when it should be second nature.

I'm not sure I was ever even taught a lot of this material in the first place. Did someone teach me about dangling modifiers, linear equations, slope, and faulty parallelism? If so, I do not recall, and I certainly never learned it to a point where it became second nature.

 

(Quotes are from Why Don't Students Like School? in the American Educator.)

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
20 Comments | posted June 6th, 2011
 

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How We Learn

Learn to Mastery, Then Add 20% More Study Time

 

 

A few weeks ago, my friend Catherine said, "Debbie, it's time for you to read Daniel Willingham."

Willingham is a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Virginia.  His website is a treasure trove of useful information about how we learn.

From Willingham's article, What Will Improve a Student's Memory:

Wanting to remember some-thing doesn’t have much bearing on whether or not you will actually remember it….Here’s how you should think about memory: it’s the residue of thought, meaning that the more you think about something, the more likely it is that you’ll remember it later.

Students allocated, on average, just 68 percent of the time needed to get the target score.  We can sum this up by saying the third principle is that people tend to think their learning is more complete than it really is.

The final strategy to avoid forgetting is to overlearn…..Students should study until they know the material and then keep studying……A good rule of thumb is to put in another 20 percent of the time it took to master the material.


The whole article is well worth the read.

I've been doling out the tips like little Scooby snacks to my son, as he prepares for finals. Surprisingly, he's interested and is using the advice.

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis


 
1 Comment | posted May 26th, 2011
 

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How We Learn

The Benign Cousin to Rote Knowledge

 

 

The more I read Daniel Willingham, the more I understand why the SAT is so difficult for me.  I am lacking the foundation knowledge that I need to problem solve on these tests.

From Willingham's article on Inflexible Knowledge:

A more benign cousin to rote knowledge is what I would call "inflexible" knowledge. On the surface it may appear rote, but it's not. And, it's absolutely vital to students' education: Inflexible knowledge seems to be the unavoidable foundation of expertise, including that part of expertise that enables individuals to solve novel problems by applying existing knowledge to new situations—sometimes known popularly as "problem-solving" skills.

Knowledge is flexible when it can be accessed out of the context in which it was learned and applied in new contexts. Flexible knowledge is of course a desirable goal, but it is not an easily achieved one. When encountering new material, the human mind appears to be biased towards learning the surface features of problems, not toward grasping the deep structure that is necessary to achieve flexible knowledge.

 

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
1 Comment | posted May 25th, 2011
 

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How We Learn

Familiarity Fools The Mind

 

I had this distressing moment last week when I discovered that I was back to square one with my SAT score, despite the fact that I feel like I'm learning, and was certain that my score must be improving as a result.

Wrong.

Turns out feelings aren't facts!

According to Daniel Willingham, in his article on Why Students Think They Understand -- When they Don't, “familiarity” fools our mind into thinking we know more than we do.

Psychologists distinguish between familiarity and recollection. Familiarity is the knowledge of having seen or otherwise experienced some stimulus before, but having little information associated with it in your memory. Recollection, on the other hand, is characterized by richer associations.

Although familiarity and recollection are different, an insidious effect of familiarity is that it can give you the feeling that you know something when you really don’t.

 

He says that the feeling of knowing becomes a problem when you have the feeling, without the knowing.  That turned out to be my case, and reminds me that when my kids tell me they are ready for a test, I need to verify!

But on the brighter side, I'm working with Stacey Howe-Lott for the month of May (LOVE), and she has shared interesting insights in the comments of this post.

Debbie, your top line scores are also hiding major progress (functions and slopes, anyone?)  Not to mention you are comparing apples to oranges.  Your testing conditions vary (some times you get interrupted, sometimes you don't. Some times you do one section at a time, sometimes you do all three sections. Some times you do them in the morning, sometimes late at night.)  It's almost impossible to compare scores across these wildly varying conditions.

My gut tells me that Stacey is right.  I always say, the progress I've made isn't showing up in my scores........Yet.

Stacey's full comments are insightful, and worth taking the time to read.

 

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
17 Comments | posted May 23rd, 2011
 

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