Chapter five builds on what was learned in chapter four, illustrating these exact principles. It explains the capacity of our minds and the limits that our working memory has. The guiding principle of this chapter is: “It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice.” The author then explains the importance of practicing to “gain competence and improve.” It is important to practice basic skills and ideas so that more capacity is available in working memory to solve the task at hand. The examples used to illustrate this point were tying shoes and driving. Two things, that when they are first learned require a large amount of concentration and working memory. Yet, as time goes on they require less thought and become “automatic processes” thus requiring less working memory. It should be noted that this principle works best when the practice is spread out over time and not crammed into a short amount of time. The author ends the chapter by explaining that practicing mental processes provides three benefits: it helps the processes become automatic, it helps the memories to last, and practice improves the likelihood of transfer.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Section 3
Chapter four begins by describing abstract principles and the need for concrete examples. The guiding principle of the chapter is: “We understand new things in the context of things we already know, and most of what we know is concrete.” The author then claims, “Understanding is remembering in disguise.” One must pull old information into working memory and relate new information to what is already known. Our knowledge builds on basic facts as we add new knowledge. Two factors play into this equation: 1.) there are degrees of comprehension and 2.) the knowledge may not transfer. It is important that we, as teachers, work to ensure that our students develop a deep understanding of principles instead of just memorizing what we say. It is also important that our students are able to apply these principles beyond the particular problems or examples that we cover in class.
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The section of Chapter 4 that addressed knowledge not transferring was very appropriate last week. I had rewritten some math story problems as a replacement assignment. We discussed strategies for solving the originial problems. The students were told they would be using the same skills as the first set (shared deep structure), but they seemed completely hung up on the surface structure.
ReplyDeleteIt was encouraging to see, in Chapter 5, that practice improves transfer. I also appreciated the advice of spacing out the practice. I believe this to be true from experience, but it's good to have the research support it.