ESPECIALLY AFTER GOING TO SCHOOL ALL DAY!!!

ESPECIALLY AFTER “GOING TO SCHOOL” ALL DAY!!!

A Self-Analysis of Our Teaching• Willingham’s final advice: videotape yourself

teaching to “increase awareness of what is happening in your classroom and to gain a new perspective on what you are actually doing and why, and on what your students are doing and why” (p. 156).

• Are you as smart, profound, fascinating, funny, entertaining, or attractive as you think you are?– http://www.hulu.com/watch/112743/30-rock-take-

510

What We Think We’re Serving Up

What We’re Actually Serving Up

Three Things You’ll Learn in this Presentation

1. Thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain, but under the right conditions, students like to do it.

2. Most of the time, students don’t remember what you say in class (yeah, you probably already know this one). Unless they think about the material and its meaning, they probably won’t remember it well.

3. Learning styles don’t really exist in the way many people think they do.

Willingham’s Nine Principles1. People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally

good thinkers. 2. Factual knowledge precedes skill. 3. Memory is the residue of thought. 4. We understand new things in the context of things we

already know. 5. Proficiency requires practice. 6. Cognition is fundamentally different early and late in

training. 7. Children learn more alike than differently. 8. Intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work. 9. Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be

practiced to be improved.

Principle 1• Principle: People are naturally curious, but

they are not naturally good thinkers.

Try This Problem• In an empty room are a candle, some matches, and a box of

tacks. The goal is to have the lit candle about five feet off the ground. You’ve tried melting some of the wax on the bottom of the candle and sticking it to the wall, but that wasn’t effective. How can you get the lit candle five feet off the ground without having to hold it there?

What This Example Tells Us

• Thinking is slow• Thinking is effortful• Thinking is uncertain

• Twenty minutes is the normal allowed time for the candle problem, and most people aren’t able to solve it by then.

Thinking

• What do we mean by “thinking,” anyway?

A Simple Model of the Mind

• Willingham defines thinking as “combining information in new ways.”

Revised Model of the Mind

Memory in Thinking

• Given the importance of working and long-term memory in thinking, it seems as though we should also be devoting some attention to how students remember things!

• This leads us to a discussion of Willingham’s third principle.

Principle 3

• Memory is the “residue of thought.” Students need to think about meaning.

• Students also need to be thinking about the right aspect of meaning.

Attention and Emotion• If you don’t pay attention to

something, you can’t learn it! Whatever you think about, that’s what you remember.

• Things that create an emotional reaction will be better remembered, but emotion is not necessary for learning.

• How else do teachers encourage students to think about meaning?

Some Successful Teacher Types

Successful Teachers (ATW)

1. Are able to connect personally with students2. Organize material in a way that makes it

interesting and easy to understand

What About Learning Styles?

Principle 7: Children Are More Alike than Different in Terms of Learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk

Discussion Questions• What do you think of Willingham’s

definitions and claims about thinking?• What stories, mnemonics, or other

Willinghamian strategies have you used successfully in the classroom?

• What do you think about Willingham’s decision to ignore attention in his list of nine principles?

• What do you specifically agree/disagree with in his nine principles based on your experiences?

• What is he omitting/forgetting about why students don’t like school?