As ponder the ideas in the book Why Don’t Students Like School, the types of memory , Einstein’s idea that imagination is more important than knowledge, praising students for their effort more than performance, answering whether the intelligence is due more from nurture or nature, and students need the basics before they can work to achieve at higher critical thinking levels.
I think that what Einstein was referring to was that if anyone that has imagination will be able to develop the knowledge. Someone that has imagination will have curiosity and hence they will develop the knowledge on their own.
It was very interesting to me to read of the different types of memory as limited resources and as one fills up, the only option is for the extra information to flow over into the other area. While making sense, it is such an abstract idea to me that it is difficult to understand.
I did relate very much to the idea of praising students for their efforts rather than their performance. I think that in approaching it in this way, it allows all students to improve. This praises gifted students for their efforts as much as it does students that are challenged.
The nature versus nurture question is much like the memory idea to me. It is such an abstract idea that seems to not have a specific answer that you can point to, to “prove” the answer to the question. I don’t know that I’m convinced either way on this one yet and I tend to think that it is a combination of the two.
I absolutely think that we need to get back to some of the idea that students must have the basics before you can expect them to perform at the higher thinking skills of analysis and synthesis. If you don’t know the basic ideas of the topic, I don’t think that you can analyze or synthesize the information effectively.
The book overall has given me some new tools for my teaching belt. It has made me evaluate what I’m doing in the classroom and the way that I approach each individual student.
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