Saturday, July 14, 2012

Willingham's latest book comments

When Can You Trust the Experts: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education
Daniel T. Willingham (Author)
Let's give this a read and share our thoughts about it in this post. Thanks! I don't know who, if anyone, may ever join with us in these posted conversations. But so far it feels as if this may be a great forum for us to hold lots of our good conversations! Please keep subscribing to each posted topic so that you will be notified when I add a comment. You can "subscribe" near the place where you are about to type in a comment. Thanks!!

14 comments:

  1. I ordered the book on Sat. I should have it by mid-week. I'm sure Willingham will have some useful information about research and its application to teaching.

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  2. He certainly has a way of coming out with books on timely topics!

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  3. I really am excited about reading this after his comprehensive introduction. It seems as if we have talked about ALL of his points previously! Sounds like after we read this book, it would be fun to "redo" our Mt. Olympus lesson, just for the exercise of reflecting on what we will read here. Interesting to read that in medicine it is illegal to say that something is research-based unless it really is. But in education there is no such constraint...

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  4. There is no lab evidence that people learn in different ways. Is that what the brain researchers you work with would say?

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    1. Very interesting ideas about how beliefs impact memory and recovery of information. Huge implications for why some teachers struggle with change. The two meta-beliefs have such an influence on how we think- they might make for some interesting discussions about how our beliefs impact perception of information and retention of content in students.

      Should teaching be more like advertising, and prey upon the beliefs and bias of students?

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    2. John, you bring up an interesting point here about teachers. We often focus on how STUDENTS learn. Willingham writes about education but generalizes a bit more. I think your comment raises the question of how TEACHERS learn as well and how do we move teachers forward. Willingham does two things that I can see (and I haven't read the entire work). First, he examines the theory of learning styles and our general mis-understanding of those styles. This mis-understanding leads to mis-application. Second, he doesn't say the theory is wrong, only that it is not supported by research. I enjoyed his explanation of our mis-understanding. Auditory learners don't learn through auditory means. They are more able to learn auditory information - they may be more musically inclined or better able to discern one sound from another. It doesn't mean they will learn scientific principles more easily if they HEAR rather than SEE them. Its a subtle but meaningful distinction and one that is rarely made to educators.

      This is, of course, only an example of his larger point - when do we know to trust the "experts?"

      Also, I know this isn't really my discussion but I'm intrigued by your question: Should teaching be more like advertising? Can you give an example to clarify my thinking? Thanks.

      Sorry to butt in but I miss you guys!

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    3. In my review, the first three chapters seem to be on how people perceive information and the effects of prior knowledge and beliefs on long-term memory. When you think about teaching, what we really want kids to learn and remember should be like an advertising jingle. Willingham does an excellent job describing the psychology of getting people to believe you. Perhaps we (teachers) should be using the meta-beliefs like advertisers do to sell their products.

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    4. It feels as if the teacher is doing more and more of the motivating and almost "defending" why what they teach is important to learn. What responsibility do/should students have toward providing their own motivation to learn? I don't remember growing up simply reacting to the more inspirational teachers. It seems as if I felt a responsibility to learn, whether the teacher and/or curriculum were entertaining or intriguing or not.

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  5. I was disappointed to realize when Willingham pointed it out that in medicine, it is illegal to say that something has been scientifically tested if it has not. And yet in education, everything that is brought to teachers, principals, and districts is "research based" and yet that has NO meaning and NO responsibility. At the end of his book, Willingham suggests that it is the role of the teachers unions to coordinate and validate and legitimize the research and to act as a clearinghouse for telling educators at what level particular research has been done. Wow - it seems to me that the NEA and the AFT have nothing like that on their agendas. The AFT has their ER&D annals which have indexed level 3 research that has been proved to be replicatable. However, it takes sometimes decades for research to be confirmed as level 3 research. And the public seems to be demanding quick and effective changes as soon as possible. I know that the What Works government site is available. However, I don't think that the efficiency is too great at that site either. I wish Willingham would just take on the responsibility of "grading" educational "research" and develop a clearinghouse that he would share with educators. He seems to be working with/for the AFT since his writing is always in their journals. So maybe from his view he and the AFT can take some leadership on this.

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  6. As far as there being no evidence that people have predominant learning styles that can be noted and responded to by the teacher, I would say that gives formative assessment a major boost. It is incumbent upon the teacher to constantly be allowing for and responding to feedback from students to guide them as to pacing and pedagogy. To go along with my earlier comment about student responsibility, it seems that the more the students can realize that their feedback is valued by the teacher, the more attention they can give to the quality of the feedback they provide the teacher. Wouldn't it be neat if students worked as hard as teachers to communicate how the learning is progressing and how it might progress better?! When we provide students with opportunities to take responsibility (trust) we can open doors and move mountains and anticipate students will respond with integrity and honesty. I think that is a way to motivate students to "become fishermen" instead of just giving them fish or "advertising" that we have good fish to give them.

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  7. Good to see Willingham talk about the important balance of factual knowledge with application. Again, I think this adds to the motivation of students. They will not respond eagerly to being handed learning as they will to having support in developing their knowledge and skills and then given an appropriate challenge. Again, the fisherman analogy is right in our face.

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  8. Willingham comes back to the importance of the personal relationship between teacher and student and how central that is to learning. I think the way we "advertise" our curriculum begins with convincing each student that the teacher is a worthy guide. After that, the student will respond to the trust and challenges offered through effective teaching that allows the student to grow with their knowledge and skills (sense of progress is KEY) and provides opportunities for the student to use the knowledge and skills to affirm their use and value and allows for there to be a huge feedback loop from the student to the teacher informing the teacher of the student's progress, academically and emotionally.

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  9. We have teachers who do not feel accountable. State test results are so far from the classroom that many variables fog up the data. I think teachers should be accountable for student learning at the classroom level. The responsibility should be on the teacher to show principal/parents/students that student learning is occurring and HOW that learning is being demonstrated. This will vary from each teacher and classroom. The principal/parents/students should have the right to ask of every teacher: what is the student learning and how do you know? When the teacher can develop a responsibility/feedback loop with each student that shares the accountability and responsibility for learning between teacher and student, then both the teacher and student can be involved in telling the principle/parent/themself the progress that is being made. In addition to or instead of having a presentation at the end of the year by each student to defend their learning for the year, why can't a system be set up (portfolio? journal?) that reflects accountability and defense for progress being made at the classroom (student) level during the year? Why can't that system be credited as evidence that measures teacher quality as well as student growth?

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  10. I am not sure that I agree with Willingham when he says that institutions like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics lack the clout of the unions when it comes to promoting change based on research. I believe I have seen more change in mathematics education throughout the nation because of the NCTM standards than I have from actions taken by unions (ER&D for example).

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