Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
WORLD OF LEARNING: IS LISTENING LEARNING?
"Listening to Braille" The New York Times 12/30/09
More about the benefits and drawbacks of audio, as in, "Can you be literate if your only access to literature is audial?" It's a subject I've started getting obsessive about, as indicated previously in WORLD OF LEARNING: LISTENING IS LEARNING and RECENT NEWS: THE CASE FOR LISTENING.
On one side of the debate in the Times story, "the literary scholar Walter Ong, who argued that members of literate societies think differently than members of oral societies." And the National Federation of the Blind whose "mantra, 'listening is not literacy'" is "repeated everywhere" at their convention. On the other, the blind "managing director of a Wall Street investment management firm" who feels that Braille is "an arcane means of communication, which for the most part should be abolished." And the governor of New York, who "dictates his memos" and has "pertinent newspaper articles...read...aloud on his voice mail every morning." Are they illiterate?
More about the benefits and drawbacks of audio, as in, "Can you be literate if your only access to literature is audial?" It's a subject I've started getting obsessive about, as indicated previously in WORLD OF LEARNING: LISTENING IS LEARNING and RECENT NEWS: THE CASE FOR LISTENING.
On one side of the debate in the Times story, "the literary scholar Walter Ong, who argued that members of literate societies think differently than members of oral societies." And the National Federation of the Blind whose "mantra, 'listening is not literacy'" is "repeated everywhere" at their convention. On the other, the blind "managing director of a Wall Street investment management firm" who feels that Braille is "an arcane means of communication, which for the most part should be abolished." And the governor of New York, who "dictates his memos" and has "pertinent newspaper articles...read...aloud on his voice mail every morning." Are they illiterate?
WORLD OF LEARNING: LEARNING DOES NOT EQUAL LISTENING TO A LECTURE PART 2
I've been corresponding on Facebook about the Eric Mazur peer instruction approach with a parent. I've been working with her autistic son over the past year, and she was the one who guided me to the YouTube lecture (kind of ironic that we got inspired by a lecture that is against lecturing). So far:
PRAMILA: Focusing on another topic that is dear to me now, I am very inspired by Prof Muzur's talk. Yesterday at 12:43pm
LARS: This was fantastic, Pramila. Loved this: "The lecture method is a process whereby the lecture notes of the instructor get transferred to the notebooks of the students without passing through the brains of either." Yesterday at 7:26pm
PRAMILA: Amazing talk, isnt it? There should be a simplified way to adapt the approach of discussion for our kids. 11 hours ago
LARS: I agree. I think the key elements of the approach are: 1) ask a conceptual (rather than content) question with choices for the answer, 2) prompt learners to silently consider which answer they would would choose and to marshall arguments to back up that choice, and 3) talk to other learners to see whose choice is most persuasive. That's a process that seems adaptable, don't you think? 7 minutes ago
PRAMILA: Focusing on another topic that is dear to me now, I am very inspired by Prof Muzur's talk. Yesterday at 12:43pm
LARS: This was fantastic, Pramila. Loved this: "The lecture method is a process whereby the lecture notes of the instructor get transferred to the notebooks of the students without passing through the brains of either." Yesterday at 7:26pm
PRAMILA: Amazing talk, isnt it? There should be a simplified way to adapt the approach of discussion for our kids. 11 hours ago
LARS: I agree. I think the key elements of the approach are: 1) ask a conceptual (rather than content) question with choices for the answer, 2) prompt learners to silently consider which answer they would would choose and to marshall arguments to back up that choice, and 3) talk to other learners to see whose choice is most persuasive. That's a process that seems adaptable, don't you think? 7 minutes ago
Saturday, January 2, 2010
WORLD OF LEARNING: LEARNING DOES NOT EQUAL LISTENING TO A LECTURE PART 1
"Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur" YouTube 11/12/09
What could I, who suffers from an out-of-control fear of science instruction, learn about teaching from a Harvard physicist? A lot. A very inspiring, and entertaining, way to spend an hour and a half. Mazur's primary conclusion is that you learn new ideas much better from a fellow novice than from an "expert."
"The better you know something," Mazur remarks, "the more difficult it becomes to teach, because you’re no longer aware of the conceptual difficulties of the beginning learner." He gives his students many opportunities to test their understanding on each other, rather than just testing them on how much they remember of what he said.
This is subversive in the amphitheater classes used for college survey courses, and his lecture halls are raucous and filled with students twisting and turning in their seats. But Mazur has the data to show that it works, and that, "It’s not about remembering the information; it’s about using the information."
As he points out, "The lecture method is a process whereby the lecture notes of the instructor get transferred to the notebooks of the students without passing through the brains of either."
What could I, who suffers from an out-of-control fear of science instruction, learn about teaching from a Harvard physicist? A lot. A very inspiring, and entertaining, way to spend an hour and a half. Mazur's primary conclusion is that you learn new ideas much better from a fellow novice than from an "expert."
"The better you know something," Mazur remarks, "the more difficult it becomes to teach, because you’re no longer aware of the conceptual difficulties of the beginning learner." He gives his students many opportunities to test their understanding on each other, rather than just testing them on how much they remember of what he said.
This is subversive in the amphitheater classes used for college survey courses, and his lecture halls are raucous and filled with students twisting and turning in their seats. But Mazur has the data to show that it works, and that, "It’s not about remembering the information; it’s about using the information."
As he points out, "The lecture method is a process whereby the lecture notes of the instructor get transferred to the notebooks of the students without passing through the brains of either."
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Mind Reading" The New York Times 12/31/09
Alison Gopnik's review of Stanislaus Dehaene's Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention. Gopnik indicates that Dehaene writes from a Chomsky/Pinker perspective of "innateness," which I didn't realize from what I've read about the book before. She also indicates that he makes a strong argument for that perspective. One fascinating example that she cites are the shapes of letters: "It turns out that T shapes are important to monkeys, too."
That very "innate" quality of letters, however, Gopnik thinks, might mean Dehaene is not completely convinced that “new cultural inventions can only be acquired insofar as they fit the constraints of our brain architecture.” While monkeys (and children and dyslexics) have trouble with "p," "q," "d" and "b"—primate brains identify them identicallly—most of us learn to distinguish them. Indeed, we have an "extraordinary ability to 'mirror-read' and 'mirror-write.'"
This back-and-forth type of brain investigation, which tries to balance what we're given with what we make of it, really intrigues me. How structured are our brains? How flexible are our brains?
Alison Gopnik's review of Stanislaus Dehaene's Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention. Gopnik indicates that Dehaene writes from a Chomsky/Pinker perspective of "innateness," which I didn't realize from what I've read about the book before. She also indicates that he makes a strong argument for that perspective. One fascinating example that she cites are the shapes of letters: "It turns out that T shapes are important to monkeys, too."
That very "innate" quality of letters, however, Gopnik thinks, might mean Dehaene is not completely convinced that “new cultural inventions can only be acquired insofar as they fit the constraints of our brain architecture.” While monkeys (and children and dyslexics) have trouble with "p," "q," "d" and "b"—primate brains identify them identicallly—most of us learn to distinguish them. Indeed, we have an "extraordinary ability to 'mirror-read' and 'mirror-write.'"
This back-and-forth type of brain investigation, which tries to balance what we're given with what we make of it, really intrigues me. How structured are our brains? How flexible are our brains?
Friday, January 1, 2010
WORLD OF LEARNING
"How to Train the Aging Brain" The New York Times 12/29/09
Love the idea of the "disorienting dilemma" as key to learning. I believe it applies to young minds as well as old in strengthening brain power. It connects to an observation of Isaac Asimov's I came across in Stuart Brown's Play: "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That’s funny…'" The hardest part of learning is often accepting disorientation. It's also the critical, and easily accessible, part of humor.
Love the idea of the "disorienting dilemma" as key to learning. I believe it applies to young minds as well as old in strengthening brain power. It connects to an observation of Isaac Asimov's I came across in Stuart Brown's Play: "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That’s funny…'" The hardest part of learning is often accepting disorientation. It's also the critical, and easily accessible, part of humor.
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