Adam Boxer adamboxer1 aboxerjcossbarnetschuk Takehomes Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thing Knowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thing ID: 718811
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Slide1
Knowledge at the core: why all students need facts
Adam Boxer
@adamboxer1
aboxer@jcoss.barnet.sch.ukSlide2
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingKnowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to solve problems related to that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to be creative in areas related to that thing
Knowing lots about things means you have enriched experiences of those thingsSlide3
“When they are allowed to apply their natural creativity and curiosity, children love learning…Then they get to school, and we suppress this instinct by sitting them down, force-feeding them with inert facts and testing the life out of them.”Slide4
Defining terms
Fact:A thing that is known or proved to be true.Slide5
Fact or non-fact?
The chemical formula for water is H2OIn Nietzsche’s opinion, God is deadBritish security services kidnapped the
Skripals
The capital city of Israel is Jerusalem
Superman would beat Batman any day
According to
Pyrrho
, nothing can be provedSlide6
A cognitive approach to facts
I am going to use “fact” to refer to any piece of informationWe will look at:How facts are arranged in the mindHow facts help learning
How facts help thinking
Comprehension
Problem solving
Creativity
PhenomenologySlide7
I am going to use “fact” to refer to any piece of information:
Adam is the presenter of this session
He appears to be Jewish
Adam is representing
researchEdSlide8
He is representing
researchEd
Evidence based education
Direct Instruction is an excellent way to teach
Metacognition boosts progress
Marking is probably a waste of time
Zooming in…Slide9
Schema
Schema theory was introduced in the 1930s by Sir Fred Bartlett…The core idea is that a schema is a sort of mental template that describes the key features of something. For instance, the schema for a typical car includes having four wheels, a chassis, a body, doors, seats and a steering wheel.
(Gordon
Rugg
, 2013)Slide10
How do facts help?
How facts are arranged in the mindHow facts help learningHow facts help thinkingComprehension
Problem solving
Creativity
PhenomenologySlide11
How do facts help?
“For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”Matthew, 25:29Slide12
Which “new fact” is easiest for you to remember?
Harry and Meghan just got divorcedAdam’s friend David recently got a job in the tax department at Bambridge & Lesser
Adam’s uncle
Yerucham
Barkani
lives in
Silwan
and served in
Duvdavonim
я уверен, что вы этого не понимаетеSlide13
When you learn, new information is placed into the context of old informationSlide14
Tricot &
Sweller, 2014At any given time, we are unaware of the huge amount of domain specific knowledge held in long-term memory…
With access to so little of our knowledge base at any given time, it is easy to assume that domain-specific knowledge is relatively unimportant to performance. Slide15
New knowledge
Learner with well-developed schema
Learner with poorly developed schemaSlide16
Beier
and Ackerman, 2005“Research generally shows that prior knowledge is important for new knowledge acquisition...“We found, as we expected, that prior knowledge was an important and significant predictor of knowledge acquisition for learning for both topic areas examined.”Slide17
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingSlide18
Comprehension
Harry and Meghan just got divorcedAdam’s friend David recently got a job in the tax department at Bambridge & Lesser
Adam’s uncle
Yerucham
Barkani
lives in
Silwan
and served in
Duvdavonim
я уверен, что вы этого не понимаетеSlide19
The Chinese RoomSlide20
Working memory
Long-term memory
Environment
This process is what we call
learning
–
it only occurs with
practice
and
thinking
The working memory can hold approximately five items. This is universal.Slide21
Symbol input
The rule book
Output
Knowledge of languageSlide22
Long-term memory
Symbol input
OutputSlide23
To
comprehend something, new information must be tied to old informationSlide24
This study deals with the nitration of phenol in a multimode MW reaction system operating under continuous microwave (MW) irradiation. Reactions were carried out with two nitric acid (HNO
3)/phenol molar ratios: 1.25 and 1.1, under the following conditions: applied (nominal) MW power, Pnom
= 600 W, adsorbed power
P
= 16.0 kW dm
−3
, reaction temperature,
T
R
= 68–90 °C, reaction time,
t
= 5–9 min, heating rate 0.1–0.25 °C s
−1
. At the end of the synthesis, para/
ortho
(p/o) isomer distribution of
nitrophenol
product was determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, conventional (CH) experiments were conducted also under the same conditions. Then, MW and CH methods were compared in terms of product yield and isomer distribution. According to results, yield and para-selectivity of MW-assisted synthesis were higher than the CH counterpart although the reaction temperature of the MW method was lower than that of the CH method.Slide25
One of the fundamentals of social life is a standard temporal reference framework which is shared by all members of the society. Since time is among the major parameters of the social world, any social organization presupposes a coordinative calibration of subjective temporal references in accordance with a standard yardstick. Subjective temporal formulations such as "a while," "soon," "then" or "later" ought to be definable in terms which are accessible to others besides their user (e.g., "twenty-six minutes," "next Monday," "on May 19, 1977" or "at 10:45 P.M."). This impersonal, collective, or intersubjective modality of temporal reference has been brought into sociological focus by both Durkheim, in his discussion of a "time common to the group," and
Schutz, in his discussion of "standard time." The evolution of a standard system of units of time and standard time-reckoning and dating frameworks is quite parallel to the evolution of such systems as language, religion and law and to the transformation of subjective spatial formulations such as "here" and "there" into a standard grid system. They are usually internalized during primary socialization, and Defoe's satirical portrayal of Robinson Crusoe's habit of keeping track of the days of the week (and his naming of the first person he encountered "Friday") far away from civilization is highly suggestive of their coercive power once internalized. Slide26
In the beginning, under the administration of the dogmatists, her rule was despotic. Yet because her legislation still retained traces of ancient barbarism, this rule gradually degenerated through internal wars into complete anarchy; and the
skeptics, a kind of nomads who abhor all permanent cultivation of the soil, shattered civil unity from time to time. But since there were fortunately only a few of them, they could not prevent the dogmatists from continually attempting to rebuild, though never according to a plan unanimously accepted among themselvesSlide27
Schmitt et al., 2011
This study focused on the relationship between percentage of vocabulary known in a text and level of comprehension of the same text….The results revealed a relatively linear relationship between the percentage of vocabulary known and the degree of reading comprehension.
There was no indication of a vocabulary “threshold,” where comprehension increased dramatically at a particular percentage of vocabulary knowledge.
Results suggest that the 98% estimate is a more reasonable coverage target for readers of academic texts.Slide28
Take-homes
People who already know lots about something find it easier to learn more about that thingPeople who already know lots about something find it easier to understand texts about that thingSlide29
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingKnowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thingSlide30
Problem solving
Everyday problemsVocational problemsAcademic problemsSlide31
Seminal example: chess grand mastersSlide32
Two steps to deciding your move
RecognitionWhich areas are contested, which pieces are in strong or weak positions
Search
Looking for the best move to playSlide33
Two steps to deciding your move
RecognitionFAST
Search
SLOWSlide34
Burns, 2004
First, although blitz chess allows little time for slow processes (such as search), performance in blitz chess correlated between .78 and .90 with performance in non-blitz chessSlide35
Everyday problems
Problem: I have lost my keysProblem: what is the best way to keep track of my domestic finances?Slide36Slide37
Vocational problems
Palumbo et al 2005“…the job knowledge measure was a stronger predictor of performance than cognitive ability. “Slide38
Academic problemsSlide39
E.g. 1 surface vs. deep structure
Interpreting physics calculation questions“71J of energy are transferred by a device with a potential difference of 12V. How much charge has passed through it? Show all your working”Slide40
Deep structure: relevant equation
Surface structure: the values in the questionSlide41
Long-term memory
71J energy
12V potential difference
Other details from Q
Which equation to choose, how to manipulate it…Slide42
E.g. 2 surface vs. deep structure
Sodium carbonate is a white solid. When sodium carbonate is heated, a chemical reaction occurs to form a different white solid and another product. The symbol equation for the reaction is: Na
2
CO
3
Na
2
O + CO
2
If the reactant and the product are both white solids, how can you tell from the symbol equation that a reaction has still taken place?Slide43
Deep structure: in a chemical reaction gases can be produced
Surface structure: the substances in the equationSlide44
E.g. 2 surface vs. deep structure
Answer: as carbon dioxide has been mixed with itSlide45
Long-term memory
Knowledge of chemical reactions, common formulae e.g. CO
2
Reactant
Product 1
Product 2Slide46
Take-homes
People who already know lots about something find it easier to learn more about that thingPeople who already know lots about something find it easier to understand texts about that thingDomain knowledge improves your problem-solving in that domainSlide47
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingKnowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to solve problems related to that thingSlide48
CreativitySlide49
“You have to draw on a fair amount of experience in order to be able to put ideas together”Slide50Slide51
At what age do scientists tend to produce great ideas? Slide52
Focusing on great scientific achievements of the 20th century, this article shows that the age–creativity relationship demonstrates much greater variation over time than across fields. Moreover, field-specific dynamics in the age–creativity relationship are closely associated with variation in other field-specific characteristics, including the prevalence of theoretical contributions, educational duration, and citation patterns. These dynamics were especially pronounced in physics during the 1920s and 1930s, when quantum mechanics was developing. Thus, although the iconic image of the young, great mind making critical breakthroughs was a good description of physics at that time, it turns out to be a poor descriptor of age–creativity patterns more generally or even of physics today, where the mean age of Nobel Prize winning achievements since 1980 is 48 y.Slide53
Heisenberg's example points toward two features of this period that may illuminate the age dynamics: the prevalence of abstract/deductive work and the obsolescence of existing knowledge. One line of age-creativity research has emphasized that abstract/deductive contributions tend to come at earlier ages than inductive contributions, which draw more heavily on accumulated knowledge (
11, 12). Kuhn (14) points to the role of theoretical contributions like Heisenberg's in this episode. Thus, there may have been a shift to theoretical work, which tends to be abstract and deductive, in physics at this time. A second line of age–creativity research has emphasized that the expansion of foundational knowledge in a field may increase training requirements, making contributions at younger ages more difficult (
9
,
10
). From this perspective, age dynamics might be associated with changes in a field's foundational knowledge, which may typically expand with time but may also contract in a case where new knowledge devalues old knowledge. Heisenberg, for example, nearly failed his PhD examinations at age 21, because he knew little of classic electromagnetism (
19
); his contributions in the subsequent 4 y suggest that training in classic physics may have become less salient.Slide54Slide55
Edge of the domain: New knowledge being added to the domainSlide56
Take-homes
People who already know lots about something find it easier to learn more about that thingPeople who already know lots about something find it easier to understand texts about that thingDomain knowledge improves your problem-solving in that domain
Domain knowledge improves your creativity in that domainSlide57
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingKnowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to solve problems related to that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to be creative in areas related to that thingSlide58
PhenomenologySlide59
But what if Mary had a brother?Slide60
Take-homes
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to learn more about that thingKnowing lots about something makes it easier to understand texts about that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to solve problems related to that thing
Knowing lots about something makes it easier to be creative in areas related to that thing
Knowing lots about things means you have enriched experiences of those things