Quote: “Some of the college students seemed to have unlearned number sense that most children have, like that adding two numbers gives you a third comprised of the first two” (Epstein 84).
Comment: This quote was particularly interesting to me because of all the different learning stages I went though when I was in grade school. They would continuously change the way that they taught math because they kept finding ‘new and better’ ways but, it just was confusing to all the students because we were taught one thing and then had to re learn how to do it differently another year. Everyone was taught how to do math differently and I presume that each person has a specific way they like to do things. For example, for multiplying polynomials I use a box method which I was taught by one of my teachers however the next year I was told I couldn’t use that method and had to switch to a different method. This frustrated me because I was able to get the same answer as everyone else most of the time quicker, but the teacher wouldn’t allow it. Going back to the quote it’s not as if we’ve unlearned it per say it’s just that we learned it a different way.
Question: Why fix something that isn’t broken? Why do we continuously have to change the way we learn for the ‘new and better’ way?
Quote: “The more confident a learner is of their wrong answer, the better the information sticks when they subsequently learn the right answer. Tolerating big mistakes can create the best learning opportunities”(Epstein 86).
Comment: We are always told to make mistakes and that is how we learn. Failure is key to understand what not to do. However, we learn as kids to do well in school and that if we fail a test or a quiz the whole world is going to come crashing down. Most people including myself are afraid of failing. It’s the uncertainty of the consequences and who is going to judge you if you fail. In school we are not taught to fail we are taught to succeed. For example, when you raise your hand to answer a question in class and get it wrong the immediate feeling you get is embarrassment because you said the wrong answer. Everyone is afraid of failing at something even if it is just saying the wrong answer in class.
Question: How can we teach kids that failure is good and promotes success in the long run?
Quote: “The more confident a learner is of their wrong answer, the better the information sticks when they subsequently learn the right answer. Tolerating big mistakes can create the best learning opportunities.” (Epstein 86)
Comment: I am solely pointing out this quote because I think it is very important to my future and something I should really remember. I wish I was taught this way of thinking earlier in life. Although, someone has probably mentioned this to me before, it was never actually something I was forced to do. A lot of us are actually forced to do the opposite, which is getting good grades and not actually caring about if we learn the material we are being taught.
Question: How can we apply this thinking to our situation as an undecided student?
Quote: “the ‘desirable difficulty’ coiner himself, Robert Bjork, once commented on Shaquille O’neals perpetual free-throw woes to say that instead of continuing to practice from the free-throw line, O’neal should practice from a foot in front and behind it to learn the motor modulation he needed.” (Epstein 96)
Comment: This is interesting because I have always wondered how NBA players can still be so bad at shooting even when they have all the resources needed to become better shooters, and I think this may have answered my question. They see they are struggling with a specific area of shooting and they go practice that same exact shot thousands and thousands of times. Instead, switch it up just a little to better understand what they are doing wrong.
Question: How could this be applied to our situation as an undecided student?
“For the lists that Macduff spent three days practicing with automatic hints, he got zero correct. It was as if the pair had suddenly unlearned every list that they practiced with hints. The study conclusion was simple ‘training with hints did not produce any lasting learning.'”
Comment:
This quote supported the kind of thinking I typically have regarding modern schooling. In virtually every class I have ever taken, I’ve been taught in the same way. The things we learn rarely every stick, yet we’re often asked to recall obscure information that was taught to us years in the past. It begs the question, “If this way of teaching is so ineffective when it comes to retaining information, why has it been adopted by almost every teacher, online course, and learning program?” Throughout high school homework was rarely assigned to me in the form of a paper, or book assignment, and rather an online assignment assigned through a third party learning software. These websites purposed with “teaching” students affectively almost always had the option of providing hints, or continuously answering the question for you, until you were able to complete the assignment with no wrong answers. Unfortunately for students, this was of learning is ineffective, and often results in loss of knowledge on the topics taught shortly after learning it. In the same way that college students had difficulty answering simple algebraic problems, and the monkeys had difficulty recalling the order of the images, most topics i’ve learned about have never been retained in the way that I would like?
Questions:
If this study (and likely many others of a similar fashion) proves this way of teaching to be ineffective, why is it still used? Why are humans less likely to retain knowledge when assisted during the learning process?
Quote: “Interleaving has been shown to improve inductive reasoning. When presented with different examples mixed together, students learn to create abstract generalizations that allow them to apply what they learned to material they have never encountered before.”
Comment:
This style of practice, though generally more uncommon than “blocked” practice is proven to be more affective. I think that something like this should be more commonplace when it comes to learning new topics. The example used with Shaq’s free throw difficulty, stating that if he were to practice a foot in front, and a foot behind the free throw line, he would likely have improved his ability is a good example of this. By utilizing skills that may not be exactly the same as what you are hoping to improve, you’re teaching your mind to account for situations that differ from the one you are preparing for.
Questions:
Should most people adopt this style of practice? Or is it more likely that “choosing a strategy and then evaluating” will generate success for the vast majority of people. Is the best kind of practice dependent on the environment and topic you’re learning?
Quote
“If you are doing too well when you test yourself, the simple antidote is to wait longer before practicing the same material again, so that the test will be more difficult when you do. Frustration is not a sign you are not learning, but ease is.” Page 89.
Comment
This quote stood out to me because usually when I am given new academic material, I feel that I have truly learned it when it becomes easier and I continuously get correct answers. At first, I wasn’t sure if I completely agreed with this quote. Frustration is inevitable when it comes to learning and fully comprehending new subjects– I agree that it really is a sign that you are learning, and that you are being challenged, but ease can also indicate mastery of a particular subject. I suppose this quote could mean that when things do become easy, you should find ways to challenge yourself. After you master a particular skill, material, subject, etc, you will only grow by taking on new challenges– even if that means inviting some frustration into your life every now and then.
Question
How might people change if they viewed frustration as an indication of growth as opposed to something they should avoid/an unwelcome feeling?
Quote
“Toward the end of the eighth-grade math class that I watched with Lindsay Richard, the students settled into a worksheet for what I call “blocked” practice. That is, practicing the same thing repeatedly, each problem employing the same procedure. It leads to excellent immediate performance, but for knowledge to be flexible, it should be learned under varied conditions, an approach called varied or mixed practice, or, to researchers, “interleaving.” Page 94.
Comment
I feel like this sort of “blocked” learning practice was exhibited a lot throughout my elementary school years. I was given new material to digest, which usually came with a practice sheet(s) that helped ‘solidify’ the knowledge into my brain. I had a difficult time in school when I was younger, specifically because this method doesn’t always work for me. Interleaving sounds a lot more like my learning style– especially if it involves hands-on learning. Teaching kids broader conceptual knowledge of a particular subject I feel is a much better method of handling new material than practicing the same types of problems repeatedly. Yes, it prepares them for tests and quizzes, but it doesn’t teach kids how to apply these new ways of thinking to other aspects of their lives.
Question
If kids were taught from a young age this ‘Interleaving’ learning style, will we create a society with more free-thinkers?
Quote
“’ What they’re actually doing is seeking rules.’ They were trying to turn a conceptual problem they didn’t understand into a procedural one they could just execute. ‘We’re very good, humans are, trying to do the least amount of work that we have to in order to accomplish a task,’ Richland told me. Soliciting hints towards a solution is both clever and expedient. The problem is that when it comes to learning concepts that can be broadly wielded, expedients can backfire.” (Epstein 83)
Comment
This quote stood out to me because it shows the flaws of the modern-day education system. Students take problems they are given and rather than trying to complete them the right way they try to find the easiest way to solve them. The students were supposed to solve a concept by themselves and use critical thinking but instead, they wanted it to almost have a formula to solve to avoid doing a lot of work and making it as simple as possible. Instead of trying to learn and improve their skills, they just want to get it done in any way. To combat this, the education system needs to find a way or create better problems to help train their brains to solve conceptual issues. The system they have now is not helping the students create that skill within themselves.
Question
Will this change? How will teachers help students to solve conceptual problems without taking the easy way out?
Quote
“The overall experiment results went like this: the more hints that were available during training, the better the monkeys performed during early practice, and the worse they performed on test day. For the lists that Macduff spent three days practicing with automatic hints, he got zero correct. It was as if the pair had suddenly unlearned every list that they practiced with hints. The study conclusion was simple: ‘training with hints did not produce any lasting learning.’” (Epstein 87)
Comment
This quote is talking about an experiment that tested monkeys abilities to remember a certain order of different things. The monkeys were given hints during the learning process and training. The monkeys performed very well when they were repeatedly given hints. The problem with this is that during test day the monkeys did not get any right because the repeated hints did not help the monkey learn. Giving him hints just made it easier to get the task at hand that day, complete. The monkeys were not trying to improve their learning abilities but rather they were trying to get the task done. This Carries over to the modern day education system because students are doing the same thing. They are not trying to improve their learning abilities they are trying to just get the job done.
Question
Why do our brains automatically try to find the easy way out of situations? Why does the brain not want to improve and challenge itself?
Quote “Short-term rehearsal gave purely short-term benefits. Struggling to hold on to information and then recall it had helped the group distracted by math problems transfer the information from short-term to long-term memory” (89).
Comment I think that this is the way wee should be teaching all subjects. Kids struggle with different subjects and this way of teaching could help all students realize that they can do this and they can find a way to do it. They way that we are teaching kids now its crazy, just take in the information then when the test comes through it all out and you don’t remember anything from the lesson that the test was on.
Question Do you think that all schools could chance their way of teaching or do we need to chance the way that teachers learn in college?
Quote In that way, they are just about precise opposite of experts who develop in kind learning environments, like chess masters, who rely heavily on intuition. Kind learning environment experts choose a strategy and then evaluate; experts in less repetitive environments evaluate and then choose”(96).
Comment Thinking about anything in this way is interesting. They way that the environment around the person could change who they learn and how much they learn is intriguing. Kind environments make people chose first then think about it, but more competitive environments have them think about it and then chose. I think that kind and competitive learning environments rely on the person learning in them, I think that everyone learns different so of course the environment around them would be different.
Question Should the learning environment be different or the same for everyone? Should people do both to see that they think is right for them?
1. Quote: “What they’re actually doing is speaking rules.” They were trying to turn a conceptual problem they didn’t understand into a procedural one they could just execute. “We’re very good, humans are, at trying to do the least amount of work that we have to in order to accomplish the task” (83).
Comment: One thing that I took away from this chapter was the overall idea that people often try to take the easy way out when it comes to learning. They often accept answers being spoon fed to them instead of actually trying to learn the material in a way that will stick with them for a long time. This brings in the idea of teachers valuing products instead of understanding big ideas. The education system focuses on memorization and wants students to spit out facts instead of students demonstrating that they actually understand the information. This quote made me think about the saying “work smarter not harder.” This statement is not always true: sometimes you have to mess up and work really hard to get through something in order to learn better.
Question: If it’s a known fact that the type of education that values products doesn’t actually help students work in the long run, why is it still widely used in schools?
———————————————
2. Quote: “Obstacles that make learning more challenging, slower, and more frustrating in the short term, but better in the long term. Excessive hint-giving, like in the eight-grade math classroom, does the opposite; it bolsters immediate performance, but undermines progress in the long run” (85).
Comment: This quote talks about how hint-giving is harmful to students learning. When students are not made to work through issues on their own and are given step by step directions about how to do everything, they will not obtain the critical thinking skills needed to succeed. This brings back the concept of growth mindset: when students are having a hard time producing answers, that means they are actually helping their brain more as opposed to just getting the right answer. Failing and then learning from your mistakes is very important. Students who are rewarded too often and are given too many hints will learn to rely too heavily on them. For instance, they will not be able to complete tests and other activities when they don’t have their teacher’s help. Also, in the adult world, no one will be there to hold their hand when things get tough. Students have to learn to advocate for themselves, work through issues and must take responsibility for their learning.
Question: What is a better way to help students during the learning process, instead of hint giving when they are having trouble?
Journal 10 (pp 78-98)
Quote: “The overall experiment results went like this: the more hints that were available during training, the better the monkeys performed during early practice, and the worst they performed on test day…The study conclusion was simple: training with hints did not produce any lasting learning. (Epstein 87)”
Comment (150-200 words): I think a lot of teachers use this approach toward learning because they have a reputation to uphold. It has become a habit in learning also a certain percentage has to pass the class each time and without hints which a lot of students have become adjusted towards. It is not entirely the teachers’ or students’ fault, but many students like this easy way out. It relieves them of the trouble of putting in the work and effort but also can leave them unprepared and learning less than they should. Overall I think this has become a common thing, yet I think that It has its downfalls because it leaves students unprepared for learning and retaining information, and ultimately if you push yourself you can learn more even if it means failing
Question: Why have our school systems not changed this way of learning even if they recognize the downfalls?
Quote: “Before our eyes, progress reinforces our instinct to do more of the same, but just like the case of the typhoid doctor, the feedback teaches the wrong lessons. Learning deeply means; learning slowly. The cult of the head start fails the learners to seek to serve”(Epstein, 97)”
Comment (150-200 words): I feel that many people want to be more knowledgeable and learn everything so fast that we don’t take the time to slow down or process the information we are learning so that we can apply it to things that matter or even just being able to retain that information. As it says the “cult of the head start” does not always give people an advantage, as we must find our own ways to seek out information and princess and learn the actual values from the information, this quote made me stop and think about how I don’t always use these strategies and how I have had downfalls to be able to process this knowledge to the best of my ability, and yet I feel that this isn’t something that will break easily as I know I will find myself in the future using these head starts and not learning as “slowly” as possible, this is just how I was taught to learn, but reading this quote I now have a sense that I do these things and can hopefully beak these habits as I notice them.
Question: Why do we never take the time to learn “slow”, are we afraid to fall behind even tho not doing this puts us at a disadvantage, how do we break this system within ourselves?
8 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 10”
Quote: “Some of the college students seemed to have unlearned number sense that most children have, like that adding two numbers gives you a third comprised of the first two” (Epstein 84).
Comment: This quote was particularly interesting to me because of all the different learning stages I went though when I was in grade school. They would continuously change the way that they taught math because they kept finding ‘new and better’ ways but, it just was confusing to all the students because we were taught one thing and then had to re learn how to do it differently another year. Everyone was taught how to do math differently and I presume that each person has a specific way they like to do things. For example, for multiplying polynomials I use a box method which I was taught by one of my teachers however the next year I was told I couldn’t use that method and had to switch to a different method. This frustrated me because I was able to get the same answer as everyone else most of the time quicker, but the teacher wouldn’t allow it. Going back to the quote it’s not as if we’ve unlearned it per say it’s just that we learned it a different way.
Question: Why fix something that isn’t broken? Why do we continuously have to change the way we learn for the ‘new and better’ way?
Quote: “The more confident a learner is of their wrong answer, the better the information sticks when they subsequently learn the right answer. Tolerating big mistakes can create the best learning opportunities”(Epstein 86).
Comment: We are always told to make mistakes and that is how we learn. Failure is key to understand what not to do. However, we learn as kids to do well in school and that if we fail a test or a quiz the whole world is going to come crashing down. Most people including myself are afraid of failing. It’s the uncertainty of the consequences and who is going to judge you if you fail. In school we are not taught to fail we are taught to succeed. For example, when you raise your hand to answer a question in class and get it wrong the immediate feeling you get is embarrassment because you said the wrong answer. Everyone is afraid of failing at something even if it is just saying the wrong answer in class.
Question: How can we teach kids that failure is good and promotes success in the long run?
Quote: “The more confident a learner is of their wrong answer, the better the information sticks when they subsequently learn the right answer. Tolerating big mistakes can create the best learning opportunities.” (Epstein 86)
Comment: I am solely pointing out this quote because I think it is very important to my future and something I should really remember. I wish I was taught this way of thinking earlier in life. Although, someone has probably mentioned this to me before, it was never actually something I was forced to do. A lot of us are actually forced to do the opposite, which is getting good grades and not actually caring about if we learn the material we are being taught.
Question: How can we apply this thinking to our situation as an undecided student?
Quote: “the ‘desirable difficulty’ coiner himself, Robert Bjork, once commented on Shaquille O’neals perpetual free-throw woes to say that instead of continuing to practice from the free-throw line, O’neal should practice from a foot in front and behind it to learn the motor modulation he needed.” (Epstein 96)
Comment: This is interesting because I have always wondered how NBA players can still be so bad at shooting even when they have all the resources needed to become better shooters, and I think this may have answered my question. They see they are struggling with a specific area of shooting and they go practice that same exact shot thousands and thousands of times. Instead, switch it up just a little to better understand what they are doing wrong.
Question: How could this be applied to our situation as an undecided student?
Quote:
“For the lists that Macduff spent three days practicing with automatic hints, he got zero correct. It was as if the pair had suddenly unlearned every list that they practiced with hints. The study conclusion was simple ‘training with hints did not produce any lasting learning.'”
Comment:
This quote supported the kind of thinking I typically have regarding modern schooling. In virtually every class I have ever taken, I’ve been taught in the same way. The things we learn rarely every stick, yet we’re often asked to recall obscure information that was taught to us years in the past. It begs the question, “If this way of teaching is so ineffective when it comes to retaining information, why has it been adopted by almost every teacher, online course, and learning program?” Throughout high school homework was rarely assigned to me in the form of a paper, or book assignment, and rather an online assignment assigned through a third party learning software. These websites purposed with “teaching” students affectively almost always had the option of providing hints, or continuously answering the question for you, until you were able to complete the assignment with no wrong answers. Unfortunately for students, this was of learning is ineffective, and often results in loss of knowledge on the topics taught shortly after learning it. In the same way that college students had difficulty answering simple algebraic problems, and the monkeys had difficulty recalling the order of the images, most topics i’ve learned about have never been retained in the way that I would like?
Questions:
If this study (and likely many others of a similar fashion) proves this way of teaching to be ineffective, why is it still used? Why are humans less likely to retain knowledge when assisted during the learning process?
Quote: “Interleaving has been shown to improve inductive reasoning. When presented with different examples mixed together, students learn to create abstract generalizations that allow them to apply what they learned to material they have never encountered before.”
Comment:
This style of practice, though generally more uncommon than “blocked” practice is proven to be more affective. I think that something like this should be more commonplace when it comes to learning new topics. The example used with Shaq’s free throw difficulty, stating that if he were to practice a foot in front, and a foot behind the free throw line, he would likely have improved his ability is a good example of this. By utilizing skills that may not be exactly the same as what you are hoping to improve, you’re teaching your mind to account for situations that differ from the one you are preparing for.
Questions:
Should most people adopt this style of practice? Or is it more likely that “choosing a strategy and then evaluating” will generate success for the vast majority of people. Is the best kind of practice dependent on the environment and topic you’re learning?
Quote
“If you are doing too well when you test yourself, the simple antidote is to wait longer before practicing the same material again, so that the test will be more difficult when you do. Frustration is not a sign you are not learning, but ease is.” Page 89.
Comment
This quote stood out to me because usually when I am given new academic material, I feel that I have truly learned it when it becomes easier and I continuously get correct answers. At first, I wasn’t sure if I completely agreed with this quote. Frustration is inevitable when it comes to learning and fully comprehending new subjects– I agree that it really is a sign that you are learning, and that you are being challenged, but ease can also indicate mastery of a particular subject. I suppose this quote could mean that when things do become easy, you should find ways to challenge yourself. After you master a particular skill, material, subject, etc, you will only grow by taking on new challenges– even if that means inviting some frustration into your life every now and then.
Question
How might people change if they viewed frustration as an indication of growth as opposed to something they should avoid/an unwelcome feeling?
Quote
“Toward the end of the eighth-grade math class that I watched with Lindsay Richard, the students settled into a worksheet for what I call “blocked” practice. That is, practicing the same thing repeatedly, each problem employing the same procedure. It leads to excellent immediate performance, but for knowledge to be flexible, it should be learned under varied conditions, an approach called varied or mixed practice, or, to researchers, “interleaving.” Page 94.
Comment
I feel like this sort of “blocked” learning practice was exhibited a lot throughout my elementary school years. I was given new material to digest, which usually came with a practice sheet(s) that helped ‘solidify’ the knowledge into my brain. I had a difficult time in school when I was younger, specifically because this method doesn’t always work for me. Interleaving sounds a lot more like my learning style– especially if it involves hands-on learning. Teaching kids broader conceptual knowledge of a particular subject I feel is a much better method of handling new material than practicing the same types of problems repeatedly. Yes, it prepares them for tests and quizzes, but it doesn’t teach kids how to apply these new ways of thinking to other aspects of their lives.
Question
If kids were taught from a young age this ‘Interleaving’ learning style, will we create a society with more free-thinkers?
Quote
“’ What they’re actually doing is seeking rules.’ They were trying to turn a conceptual problem they didn’t understand into a procedural one they could just execute. ‘We’re very good, humans are, trying to do the least amount of work that we have to in order to accomplish a task,’ Richland told me. Soliciting hints towards a solution is both clever and expedient. The problem is that when it comes to learning concepts that can be broadly wielded, expedients can backfire.” (Epstein 83)
Comment
This quote stood out to me because it shows the flaws of the modern-day education system. Students take problems they are given and rather than trying to complete them the right way they try to find the easiest way to solve them. The students were supposed to solve a concept by themselves and use critical thinking but instead, they wanted it to almost have a formula to solve to avoid doing a lot of work and making it as simple as possible. Instead of trying to learn and improve their skills, they just want to get it done in any way. To combat this, the education system needs to find a way or create better problems to help train their brains to solve conceptual issues. The system they have now is not helping the students create that skill within themselves.
Question
Will this change? How will teachers help students to solve conceptual problems without taking the easy way out?
Quote
“The overall experiment results went like this: the more hints that were available during training, the better the monkeys performed during early practice, and the worse they performed on test day. For the lists that Macduff spent three days practicing with automatic hints, he got zero correct. It was as if the pair had suddenly unlearned every list that they practiced with hints. The study conclusion was simple: ‘training with hints did not produce any lasting learning.’” (Epstein 87)
Comment
This quote is talking about an experiment that tested monkeys abilities to remember a certain order of different things. The monkeys were given hints during the learning process and training. The monkeys performed very well when they were repeatedly given hints. The problem with this is that during test day the monkeys did not get any right because the repeated hints did not help the monkey learn. Giving him hints just made it easier to get the task at hand that day, complete. The monkeys were not trying to improve their learning abilities but rather they were trying to get the task done. This Carries over to the modern day education system because students are doing the same thing. They are not trying to improve their learning abilities they are trying to just get the job done.
Question
Why do our brains automatically try to find the easy way out of situations? Why does the brain not want to improve and challenge itself?
Quote “Short-term rehearsal gave purely short-term benefits. Struggling to hold on to information and then recall it had helped the group distracted by math problems transfer the information from short-term to long-term memory” (89).
Comment I think that this is the way wee should be teaching all subjects. Kids struggle with different subjects and this way of teaching could help all students realize that they can do this and they can find a way to do it. They way that we are teaching kids now its crazy, just take in the information then when the test comes through it all out and you don’t remember anything from the lesson that the test was on.
Question Do you think that all schools could chance their way of teaching or do we need to chance the way that teachers learn in college?
Quote In that way, they are just about precise opposite of experts who develop in kind learning environments, like chess masters, who rely heavily on intuition. Kind learning environment experts choose a strategy and then evaluate; experts in less repetitive environments evaluate and then choose”(96).
Comment Thinking about anything in this way is interesting. They way that the environment around the person could change who they learn and how much they learn is intriguing. Kind environments make people chose first then think about it, but more competitive environments have them think about it and then chose. I think that kind and competitive learning environments rely on the person learning in them, I think that everyone learns different so of course the environment around them would be different.
Question Should the learning environment be different or the same for everyone? Should people do both to see that they think is right for them?
1. Quote: “What they’re actually doing is speaking rules.” They were trying to turn a conceptual problem they didn’t understand into a procedural one they could just execute. “We’re very good, humans are, at trying to do the least amount of work that we have to in order to accomplish the task” (83).
Comment: One thing that I took away from this chapter was the overall idea that people often try to take the easy way out when it comes to learning. They often accept answers being spoon fed to them instead of actually trying to learn the material in a way that will stick with them for a long time. This brings in the idea of teachers valuing products instead of understanding big ideas. The education system focuses on memorization and wants students to spit out facts instead of students demonstrating that they actually understand the information. This quote made me think about the saying “work smarter not harder.” This statement is not always true: sometimes you have to mess up and work really hard to get through something in order to learn better.
Question: If it’s a known fact that the type of education that values products doesn’t actually help students work in the long run, why is it still widely used in schools?
———————————————
2. Quote: “Obstacles that make learning more challenging, slower, and more frustrating in the short term, but better in the long term. Excessive hint-giving, like in the eight-grade math classroom, does the opposite; it bolsters immediate performance, but undermines progress in the long run” (85).
Comment: This quote talks about how hint-giving is harmful to students learning. When students are not made to work through issues on their own and are given step by step directions about how to do everything, they will not obtain the critical thinking skills needed to succeed. This brings back the concept of growth mindset: when students are having a hard time producing answers, that means they are actually helping their brain more as opposed to just getting the right answer. Failing and then learning from your mistakes is very important. Students who are rewarded too often and are given too many hints will learn to rely too heavily on them. For instance, they will not be able to complete tests and other activities when they don’t have their teacher’s help. Also, in the adult world, no one will be there to hold their hand when things get tough. Students have to learn to advocate for themselves, work through issues and must take responsibility for their learning.
Question: What is a better way to help students during the learning process, instead of hint giving when they are having trouble?
Journal 10 (pp 78-98)
Quote: “The overall experiment results went like this: the more hints that were available during training, the better the monkeys performed during early practice, and the worst they performed on test day…The study conclusion was simple: training with hints did not produce any lasting learning. (Epstein 87)”
Comment (150-200 words): I think a lot of teachers use this approach toward learning because they have a reputation to uphold. It has become a habit in learning also a certain percentage has to pass the class each time and without hints which a lot of students have become adjusted towards. It is not entirely the teachers’ or students’ fault, but many students like this easy way out. It relieves them of the trouble of putting in the work and effort but also can leave them unprepared and learning less than they should. Overall I think this has become a common thing, yet I think that It has its downfalls because it leaves students unprepared for learning and retaining information, and ultimately if you push yourself you can learn more even if it means failing
Question: Why have our school systems not changed this way of learning even if they recognize the downfalls?
Quote: “Before our eyes, progress reinforces our instinct to do more of the same, but just like the case of the typhoid doctor, the feedback teaches the wrong lessons. Learning deeply means; learning slowly. The cult of the head start fails the learners to seek to serve”(Epstein, 97)”
Comment (150-200 words): I feel that many people want to be more knowledgeable and learn everything so fast that we don’t take the time to slow down or process the information we are learning so that we can apply it to things that matter or even just being able to retain that information. As it says the “cult of the head start” does not always give people an advantage, as we must find our own ways to seek out information and princess and learn the actual values from the information, this quote made me stop and think about how I don’t always use these strategies and how I have had downfalls to be able to process this knowledge to the best of my ability, and yet I feel that this isn’t something that will break easily as I know I will find myself in the future using these head starts and not learning as “slowly” as possible, this is just how I was taught to learn, but reading this quote I now have a sense that I do these things and can hopefully beak these habits as I notice them.
Question: Why do we never take the time to learn “slow”, are we afraid to fall behind even tho not doing this puts us at a disadvantage, how do we break this system within ourselves?