Voices From The Field

Eric and all,

I don't want to get deep into the political rhetoric, other than to offer
right off the bat that I have always assumed that all dichotomies are
false and a mirage of the western mind.

Rhetoric aside, I want to play out what I have been drafting lately as I
step back and grapple with the big picture of how we have gotten to where
we are in education and a future course. What first comes to mind is
this: we have no where else to go but up in the info/knowledge age ... to
focus on thinking processes, cognitive development and critical thinking
and reflective practice by teachers. What does this mean? Basically,
educators do not explicitly teach students that they (and all of us around
the world) embody and use fundamental human cognitive processes every day.
Just test this out: ask any group of students this question as I have for
many years: what are your basic thinking processes (or skills)? Most will
fumble and make something up. Ask any group of teachers the same question
and they will pinpoint a few skills, but without coherence and mostly
grounded in the subject(s) that they teach. Often the answer is a
reference to Bloom's taxonomy (and few know of the powerfully revised
Bloom). Ask most any student: what are some basic steps for you when you
are trying to solve a problem? They often look dumbfounded.

Many if not all teachers will say that they "use" comparisons, causes and
effects, and sequencing skills-- but importantly these are not articulated
as interrelated and a foundation for students as they master their own
craft of thinking grounded in cultural frames and languages. They are not
given explicit tools for showing these processes as rich--often nonlinear
patterns--that are overlapping. [For those who know our work with
Thinking Maps over the past 20 years-- this is of course my passion. But
it is also in the research.]

So. What? After 70 years of research in the cognitive sciences, the
unresolved "thinking skills" movement of the 70' and 80's and including
more recent brain research, we know this: that cognitive development IS
happening for every child even as we blanket them with content knowledge
and content specific skills. We thus "cover" the content. We deliver
more "content" on the web. This is the blind spot in education, or as the
Zen master Alan Watts used to say about the unspeakable in societies: it
is part of the "hushed up" side of things. Educators rarely name these
fundamental processes, educators rarely teach these processes directly,
educators rarely assess the fundamentals of thinking (other than for
coding special ed. kids!) and almost never engage students in looking at
how these processes work together in unison as a foundation for learning
content knowledge and skills-- deeply, rigorously. We have, instead,
standardized the mind as contents, as reductionist in nature.

The historical reasons for much of this, as I and many of us believe, are
that it is framed by the antiquated paradigm that intelligence is
fixed--and that children will perform over time according to this mythical
"fixed' capacity. Thus educators give them more content and see "how they
do" given their "ability"... See Gladwell's "Outliers" for a different
view on intelligence and performance. We can argue about this and get
angry about the obvious and often unspoken racist practices of past and
present. Still we must be clear that the implications are that what
educators focus on is not the explicitness of thinking processes, but
indirectly and haphazardly on some generalized view of "skills" through
testing the ability of individual students to learn language/numerating
through content knowledge tests that are complex and getting more
convoluted as we move forward. The gap widens because the goal posts are
moved. We need a reframing of the playing field.. and this is doable.

Consider, then, that every child has an evolving river of cognition that
is flowing and growing day to day below the surface of the classroom flood
of content. That few talk about. Do you EVER hear educators talk about
cognitive development? It must have disappeared! Cognitive development
goes unmediated other than by the daily learning that often washes over
the heads of kids every day in and out of school.

So when this undercurrent of cognition is brought to the surface, defined
and directly mediated (as shown by Feuerstein long ago and our work with
the maps more recently) then students--as they become autonomous mental
tools users-- become self-regulating and, shall I venture to say,
meta------cognitive... !?

So I believe we need to get below the rhetoric of "21st century skills"
and begin to articulate the essence of human cognition within a new
paradigm... and I believe that we are on the cusp of this transition
toward a redefinition of the mind.

Please excuse my long message... but alas, I am rarin' to go!

David

David Hyerle, Ed.D.
Founding Director, Thinking Foundation
www.thinkingfoundation.org
www.mapthemind.com

Thanks for the "living literacy" article, Eric. It raises some good
points. The heavy skills approach to reading does, indeed, discourage
many kids from experiencing genuine pleasure and satisfaction with
reading. And expecting everyone to learn to read at the same time is
as questionable now as it has ever been. There's really no good reason
to expect everyone to read by the end of first grade except that
schools have been doing it for years and most parents have been led to
believe that it's essential. There's no child-development reason to
support it that I'm aware of.

That's not a bad idea from Seymour Sarason to teach kids to read only
when they demand to learn. That has little chance of becoming
education policy, of course, but it's a thought-provoking statement.
An interesting seminar activity would be to put teachers in groups and
have them devise plans for getting primary-grade children so excited
about reading that they demanded to learn how to do it.

It's too bad that "traditional literacy" (reading print material)
continues to be lauded over online reading. The wealth of material on
the Internet far exceeds the capacity of any print library, putting
vast resources at the fingertips of readers everywhere in the world
and making it possible to tempt even the most reluctant readers by
finding something related to their interests. In fact, I find it hard
to believe that "reading is declining," as this article maintains,
unless "reading" is defined only in relation to books and other
physical reading materials and ignores online reading.

We've known for years that interests should drive reading, especially
for reluctant readers; that substantive reading is more important than
skill practice, especially for underachieving readers; and that
children become lifelong readers by early on developing the habit of
reading. It's good to see these authors bring these ideas to readers'
attention once again.

Cheers from Denise


On 07/03/2009, at 12:40 PM, NUA4556@aol.com wrote:

> From one of our partners. Thoughts?
>
> From: exg0368@lausd.net
> Sent: 3/6/2009 3:36:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
> Subj: Living Literacy
>
> Funny how the ominous clouds always deem to give way to
> sunlight...........
>
>
> This piece was written by Eliot and Charlie, hope you enjoy it.....
>
> Have a great weekend.
>
>
> Enrique Gonzalez
> Principal / Frida Kahlo High School
> "One Kid at a Time"

"The changing conception of intelligence is one of the most powerful,
liberating forces ever to influence the restructuring of education,
schools, and society. It also is a vital influence behind the development
of the Habits of Mind... "

Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
"Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind"
(2008, A.S.C.D.)

> Those who know of Joe's work with his UCONN colleagues understands the
> deep
> success his programs
> bring to classrooms across America. For some he is the Godfather of
> Gifted
> Education. For the NUA he is a partner and an advocate for applying
> "TAG"
> strategies for all students. Educators as advocates. Educators as
> leaders.