The first chapter addresses the question: Why don't students like school? Willingham studies the question from a cognitive perspective. He contends that if a student does not or can not experience the pleasure of solving a problem, he/she will become disinterested in a class or school itself. The problem can be any aspect of an assignment or curriculum. Students must have the appropriate background knowledge so that they can understand the problem first and then use their working memory to solve it. As a teacher, one should start with the information you want the student to know by the end of the lesson. You need to think about what the key question for that lesson may be in a way that will respect the abilities of your students. If the question is too hard, a student may walk away frustrated. If it is too easy, another student may be too disinterested to bother. The lesson may have to be individualized or have the students grouped to ensure success.
Willingham suggests that teachers should pose a problem that the student will find interesting enough to want to find the answer. He also suggests that you ". . . use the technique not only at the beginning of a lesson but also after the basic concepts have been learned." Once the student has the background knowledge, the technique will lead him/her to experience the pleasure of solving the problem using their working memory. The science demonstration explained on page 21 is a good technique to use before, during, and after the lesson. I found this technique very interesting and I'm planning on using it in my language arts class when we read a novel set during World War II.
How could you change a lesson that you teach every year, or have already taught this year, so that you allow a student to use his/her working memory to solve a problem?
Daniel Wellingham is not wrong about a student experiencing a pleasurable rush when given a problem to solve and successfully doing so. The trick, of course, is choosing the appropriate problems. My husband and I laughed when I shared what I was reading and the image of the Sudoku puzzle. I would have loved to have been assigned something of that nature in school, and he would have found it ludicrous. He would have tackled any issue that required a breakdown of the inner workings of any mechanizm, where I would have immediately thrown in the towel.
ReplyDeleteWe can support the limitations of the working memories of our students by allowing adequate 'think time' and presenting the information in a format they may access later.
I really appreciated the idea that Wellingham says that in order to tackle more difficult questions the student needs to first acquire background knowledge. Many times as teachers we are told to get to the higher levels without the understanding that many of the higher levels require students to have that base knowledge and that can take time.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I liked the idea of getting the brain to release hormones that give that sense of accomplishment, but in order to get it the right difficulty level of question is needed. Too easy and the student realizes it isn’t much of an accomplishment; too difficult and the student may never get the solution. I like using what I call “silent think time” in my classroom. Before anyone can answer the question or say anything about the solution, everyone gets 2 minutes to think and write about the problem in an attempt to solve it.
Kirk, that 2 minutes of think time is a great idea. It can be frustrating when someone figures out a question and blurts out the answer before I have a chance to figure it out. Why would I want to solve it now? That feeling is similiar to the one experienced when you are given the answer to a logic puzzle before you have solved it, the fun has been removed.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I find it difficult for some students to take the 2 minute wait time for an answer. I think it is good and this allows more time for a response. I like to allow one minute response time and then I allow 1 minute partner time to get an answer. This seems to help the students that may not know the correct answer.
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