On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Laura Creighton <l...@openend.se> wrote: > A problem arises when one has to learn new material. For many of us, > actually writing the material down makes us retain it better. And for > me, at any rate, writing it down in longhand works better for the > memorisation of facts than typing things in. >
When still in Manila at International School, I enrolled in Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics class. We were taught some techniques I was skeptical about, but practiced anyway (this was costing my parents some money). One such technique (which I immediately saw the point of), was regarding reading technical literature (such as computer science books): study any pictures, diagrams, charts, ahead of reading the article or chapter so that when you're reading, you don't have to break off when the text mentions said figures, as you already have some sense of them. Another technique was to immediately do a "closed book recall" after reading i.e. write something to summarize the content. We were encouraged to diagram our recalls i.e. lots of nodes and edges, circled and boxed concepts, connecting lines -- many examples were given in the course of the training. Students often don't get enough constructive coaching in learning how to learn. They get to college and maybe just resort to imitating what others are doing e.g. put a tiny tape recorder on the lecturer's desk thinking "why try to transcribe in my notebook if I can get a complete audio recording?" From there it's a short hop to "why even go to class if I can hear the tape later and maybe download the slides from a web site?" But is that the right question to be asking in the first place? How is an audio tape going to solve the "in one ear, out the other" problem for you, if that's the problem you're having? I really enjoy a good lecture and like to sit mesmerized, without taking any notes. In many geek conferences, the attendees in a presentation are sampling a technical topic (e.g. Xul or AJAX) that's not necessarily their cup of tea and they want to "half listen" in the sense of "get the flavor". Everyone has a lap top and many gaze into their screens as the presentation unfolds, not taking notes but doing other things. We accept this from adults (they have this freedom, are present voluntarily), but the stereotypical teacher is typically asking for "your undivided attention" (a common phrase). We've all seen the movie where the teacher discovers Johnny is doodling and holds up the paper for classroom ridicule. Of course that might be considered highly unprofessional by today's standards, but that doesn't change the past. Constructivism was/is in large degree about developing a more student-centric model of learning that demanded more active participation from students, less passive listening and regurgitating of stuff memorized just long enough to pass a test, then forgotten. Computer programming is a constructive activity and many students appreciate the impartial and immediate feedback of the Python interpreter, which gives error messages, raises exceptions, without any sense of a personal judgment. Teachers are often unable to keep a tone of impatience out of their voice in response to some questions, so you often get that stereotypical classroom with "star students" asking the "right questions" and/or giving the "right answers" with a marginalized pool afraid to "sound stupid" in front of their peers. > I wish I knews of studies of retention like that. I'd really like to > know why it is that this is so, in order that we can make sure we do > not cheat our students of the tools they need to learn things. It is > complicated by the fact that people differ in this matter, from the > people with eidic or near eidic memories, who don't understand why > people need tricks to learn how to memorise things, to people who can > remember things that they read easier than things that they wrote, to > people who can remember neither of those well, but do remember the > spoken voice well. Why are we like this? Has anybody figured this > out yet? > > Laura We're probably a long way from having an authoritative brain science on this, plus many would turn to psychology. The explanations will differ as well, e.g. so-and-so has a problem with lectures because so-and-so had a strict father and is angry against authority figures, so tunes out, insists on daydreaming and clinging to a personal train of thought as an act of defiance against perceived oppression. Someone else has a problem with lectures because they have an undiagnosed hearing problem or is chronically malnourished. Many a teenager is up late watching TV or playing multi-user games over the Internet, comes to school groggy, half asleep. Many high school teachers have become truly accomplished thespians in their desire to win the undivided attention of their kids. One of my daughter's teachers gesticulates wildly, inadvertently gave a kid a bloody nose the other day when making a dramatic hand gesture. Many have resorted to techniques of stern intimidation. The classroom is less about curriculum content than power politics or class issues under the surface. Even if someone loves the lecture format, that may not be the best way to learn the subject. The experimental sciences have led the charge in constructivist circles (ala Karplus et al) given lab work is not just about developing one's passive listening skills. My overall impression is constructivism has had more success in science teaching circles than math teaching.[0] My own journey: I was a full time high school math teacher for two years in the 1980s. I've also worked in text book publishing (McGraw-Hill). Since I've started frequenting geek conferences, I've been more interested in taking what I've seen in that subculture and adapting it for classroom situations, e.g. the idea of a lightning talk (similar to the older idea of "show and tell"). I've continued sporadic teaching of high school aged students via Portland's Saturday Academy though am currently not doing that. I volunteer with a lobby that wants to converge computers and mathematics more successfully and that is working on fine tuning the mix.[1] Back to Python and polyhedra: I think it's the feedback cycle that's important, closing the gap between "things I do as a student" and "changes I see in my environment". So like with Python or POV-Ray code, we'll pull up an already written script that already does something cool, then look for ways to simply tweak the code slightly, to get an almost immediate change. Color and camera angle come to mind, as obvious places to start. Kirby [0] http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/02/about-constructivism.html [1] http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/08/education-planning.html _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
