How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds - WSJ.com - 0 views
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bestpractices review cognition styles learning education
shared by Ed Webb on 27 Jul 09
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what school requires students to do -- think abstractly -- is in fact not something our brains are designed to be good at or to enjoy
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it is critical that the task be just difficult enough to hold our interest but not so difficult that we give up in frustration. When this balance is struck, it is actually pleasurable to focus the mind for long periods of time
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Students are ready to understand knowledge but not create it. For most, that is enough. Attempting a great leap forward is likely to fail.
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students cannot apply generic "critical thinking skills" (another voguish concept) to new material unless they first understand that material
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Trying to use "reading strategies" -- like searching for the main idea in a passage -- will be futile if you don't know enough facts to fill in what the author has left unsaid.
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what is being taught in most of the curriculum -- at all levels of schooling -- is information about meaning, and meaning is independent of form
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At some point, no amount of dancing will help you learn more algebra