I found this book easy to read because Willingham kept my interest throughout the whole book. He built every subsequent chapter upon the preceding one very well. As I read through the book, I reflected on my own students and my teaching and thought about how I can apply this information to my current students and my teaching approach.
Section 1 – The cognitive principle is: People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking. (pg.3)
Thinking is slow, effortful and uncertain, but despite this fact, we actually like to think. Teachers need to make the conditions “right” for the curiosity to thrive or the students will lose interest and quit thinking. The “right conditions” are a fine balance of how much mental work it will take to solve the problem. If it is too much or too little, we stop working on the problem.
Applying this knowledge in my classroom means that I need to be sure that the problems to be solved are attainable without great mental effort, but yet some. I need to respect my student’s cognitive limits and provide the background knowledge they will need in order to help solve problems. I also should keep a diary of how the lesson went in order to improve the next time I present it.
Section 2 – The cognitive principle is: Factual knowledge must precede skill. (pg. 25)
Trying to teach students skills such as analysis or synthesis in the absence of factual knowledge is impossible. (pg.25) One of the main points that stood out to me in this section was the amount of information you retain depends on what you already have, so if a person has more factual knowledge in long-term memory, it makes it easier to acquire still more factual knowledge. (pg.44)
Factual knowledge makes cognitive processes work better, so we must help children learn background knowledge. (pg. 47)
Applying this knowledge in my classroom means that I need to be sure that all of my students have the adequate background knowledge they need in order to succeed and apply the knowledge to higher levels of thinking. In order to give my students background knowledge, I need to expose them to new vocabulary and ideas through books, magazines, newspapers and real life experiences. I also need to help them connect all this information by chunking the information, so they remember it better.
Section 3 – The cognitive principle is: We understand new things in the context of things we already know, and most of what we know is concrete. (pg.88)
In order to understand new ideas, we need to relate them to old ideas (things we already know.) A useful way to do this is through analogies. Analogies help us to connect what we know to what we do not know.
Applying this is my class should include: providing examples and ask students to compare them; thus relating old ideas to new ideas. Also, I need to make deep knowledge the emphasis of lessons through my questions. By asking deeper questions, this sends a message to students that a deeper understanding is expected and just knowing the facts is not enough. At the same time, I need to make my expectations for deeper knowledge realistic.
Section 4 – The cognitive principle is: Cognition early in training is fundamentally different than cognition late in training. (pg. 127)
Basically this section says that an experts mind thinks differently than novices do. Experts not only have a lot of information in their memory, but it is organized differently from the information in a novice’s long-term memory. Experts don’t have trouble understanding abstract ideas, because they see the deep structure of problems. (pg. 133)
Another important point made in this chapter was that we can’t expect to be experts until we put in at least ten years in our field. (pg.139)
Applying this in the classroom is to expect our students to comprehend information but not to expect them to create it. Drawing a distinction between knowledge understanding and knowledge creation is…….experts create, novices understand. (pg. 141)
Section 5 – The cognitive principle: Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work. (pg. 170)
Americans view intelligence as a fixed attribute, whereas China and Japan view it as malleable. (pg. 170)
As teachers, we must model the belief that intelligence is malleable. We can do this by how we administer praise and in how we talk to students about their successes and failures.
I can apply this knowledge in my classroom by
· Praising effort, not ability
· Telling my students that hard work pays off
· Treating failure as a natural part of learning
· Teaching students how to study
· Being realistic about what it will take for my lower students to catch up
· Showing students that I have confidence in them
Section 6 – The cognitive principle: Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.
Willingham states that everything he has said about the students’ minds applies to ours as well. (pg.189) He also explains the difference between experience and practice. Experience means you are simply engaged in the activity and practice means you are trying to improve your performance. (pg.192) I like the way he defines these processes, it helps me to visualize what the difference is and that practice is consciously trying to improve, whereas experience is improving through years of teaching.
How do I apply this to myself:
Team up with another teacher to work with. Tape yourself and watch the tapes of other teachers and then, with your partner, reflect on these lessons noting what went well and what could be improved on.
Other suggestions were: keeping a diary, starting a discussion group and observing students in other areas of their life.
Willingham offers some great advice for teachers and how we can be more effective with our students. To sum up this book in one small paragraph is difficult, but I really like what Willingham says in the conclusion of the book. He states that, “Teaching is the act of persuasion.” (pg.208) Thus to ensure that my students follow me, I must keep them interested; to ensure their interest, I must anticipate their reactions; and to anticipate their reactions, I must know my students. It is all about knowing your students and I believe that we all know our students very well. (pg. 209)
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