From Research to Practical Applications: Daniel Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School?

WhyDontStudentsCover

OK. First, the title of the book is dorky. And it is a little misleading.

Second, if you are a teacher, run out and get a copy. Quick. Because this book takes 9 well-proven findings from neuroscience, explains them in plain English and then tells you what the implications are for your classroom.  There is not much that is new here, especially if you have had your ear to the tracks the last few years, or if you have read one of several other books about the brain and how it works,  such as the Brain Rules. But unlike many books, this one is especially written for teachers by someone who spends a lot of time working with teachers–he also writes the Ask the Cognitive Scientist column for American Educator magazine, where you can find this article that appeared last year and is basically the first chapter of the book.

The 9 principles that are covered in the book were selected because they are well-established, are always true either in the lab or the classroom, and can have important consequences if acknowledged or ignored. They are, therefore, cognitive “rules” for teaching and learning. Each unit deals with one principle and starts with a question, such as “Why is it so difficult to make school enjoyable for students?” The principle is then introduced and explained. Following that are several suggestions under the heading Implications for the Classroom. And each unit ends with two lists of references, less and more technical–something which is very much appreciated in a world where many authors assume readers do not want or need references (Yes, Rick Lavoie, I’m talking to you).

Here are the 9 principles:

  1. 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 are more alike than different in terms of learning.
  8. Intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work.
  9. Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.

Well-organized, to the point, and with a clear description of what the research has to say about what you should be doing or not doing in your classroom, this book is well worth a little of your time.

July Treasure Hunt Column: Visual Search Engines

My original Treasure Hunt column many, many months ago introduced several search engines that were alternatives to the Google-centric mindset of Internet queries and this month I think it is time to re-visit the topic. Not that I have anything against Google, but the increasing number of paid listings and the increasing use and sophistication of search engine optimization techniques means that the list of returns we get when we google aren’t as useful as they could be sometimes. So here are some alternatives for searching. The key word here is “visual” and if you start to make more use of these engines, you may find yourself getting out of your Google habit.

First up is a search engine that I introduced before but it deserves a re-mention. Wolfram Alpha doesn’t even call itself a search engine. It is instead a “computational knowledge engine.” What does that mean? Well, it means mostly that it doesn’t work the same way as a regular search engine. But type in “Temperature in Yokohama” to see a quick example of what it does do. Or type in your birthday to see how many days old you are and what was happening at the time. One of the things to keep in mind with Wolphram Alpha is that it is improving all the time and what it doesn’t do well now, it will likely do well sometime in the future.

Now let’s get really visual. Spezify is a visual search engine that returns a wonderful collage of visual links for your search. The search results are often surprising and this is a great way to search if you are not sure of what you are after.

Viewzi is a little more organized than Spezify. The returns are shown as text in organized boxes. Roll over then to see the page the information came from. At the top of the page you can select how you want the search results to come up: web shot, simple text, power grid, timeline, site info, photo tag cloud, video, etc.—about 15 options in all. Very nice.

Another visual search engine is Search-cube but I found that it looks kind of cool but is difficult to use. Give it a try and see what you think.