I may be late out of the gate on this one, but in reading about the difficulty we face as teachers in trying to change/expand our students' neuronal networks, it occurred to me that we face the same challenge with regard to our own networks.
I have established networks that affect my teaching. To change my teaching, to be more effective in the ways Zull describes, I have to work on changing/expanding my own networks.
I may need to read further to see how/if Zull addresses this point.
I have never heard that learning is a process of building neuronal network through stimulating of synapses. I would be interested in knowing, at our next meeting, your ideas about how to help students build neuronal network.
I am also interested in hearing more about memory: explicit memory and implicit memory; episodic memory and semantic memory; feelings affect reasoning and memory,etc.
We talked about misconception (may due to common senses) in our last whole group meeting. Zull says that maybe it is better not to mention the mistakes, concentrate only one correct ones. I feel ignoring misconception may not be effective in teaching. I would be interested to know how you feel about this point.
Chris Denecker repeated to me a comment that someone made to her, "I can no quickly teach my students what has taken me 30 years to learn than I can forget what took me 30 years to learn."
One challenge as an instructor can be to see just how second-nature many of my analytical movements have become. Often, I try to give my students step-by-step instructions for analysis, since they can't make interpretive leaps quickly. Still, as I pat myself on the back for being so careful to make the work approachable, I overlook just how far the gap is.
During peer review this week, one of my students commented, "I really like your paper--you use a lot of big words. It makes you sound so educated. I know what those words mean, but I never think of using them when I write. I just write like I talk." The other students in the group nodded with sincere appreciation.
I used that as an opportunity to talk about word choice and scholarly tone. Then I looked over the paper and thought, "Where are all the big words? All of these words seem pretty common usage to me!"
I'm not sure that ignoring mistakes is necessarily want Zull says directly, Heather, though I could be reading him incorrectly. He notes (emphasizes actually) that students aren't likely to be negatively affected by negative comments on their academic work. What I find interesting is that both positive and negative (stressful) emotional reactions coupled with learning experiences have different, yet arguably positive and negative effects. Cortisol, produced by stress, enhances long-term memory while it reduces short-term memory. Yet, (think Anita, his student who couldn't remember anything about Zull) positive short-term memory acquisition did not transition to positive long-term memory retention.
I may be late out of the gate on this one, but in reading about the difficulty we face as teachers in trying to change/expand our students' neuronal networks, it occurred to me that we face the same challenge with regard to our own networks.
ReplyDeleteI have established networks that affect my teaching. To change my teaching, to be more effective in the ways Zull describes, I have to work on changing/expanding my own networks.
I may need to read further to see how/if Zull addresses this point.
Sarah
I have never heard that learning is a process of building neuronal network through stimulating of synapses. I would be interested in knowing, at our next meeting, your ideas about how to help students build neuronal network.
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in hearing more about memory: explicit memory and implicit memory; episodic memory and semantic memory; feelings affect reasoning and memory,etc.
We talked about misconception (may due to common senses) in our last whole group meeting. Zull says that maybe it is better not to mention the mistakes, concentrate only one correct ones. I feel ignoring misconception may not be effective in teaching. I would be interested to know how you feel about this point.
Heather
Chris Denecker repeated to me a comment that someone made to her, "I can no quickly teach my students what has taken me 30 years to learn than I can forget what took me 30 years to learn."
ReplyDeleteOne challenge as an instructor can be to see just how second-nature many of my analytical movements have become. Often, I try to give my students step-by-step instructions for analysis, since they can't make interpretive leaps quickly. Still, as I pat myself on the back for being so careful to make the work approachable, I overlook just how far the gap is.
During peer review this week, one of my students commented, "I really like your paper--you use a lot of big words. It makes you sound so educated. I know what those words mean, but I never think of using them when I write. I just write like I talk." The other students in the group nodded with sincere appreciation.
I used that as an opportunity to talk about word choice and scholarly tone. Then I looked over the paper and thought, "Where are all the big words? All of these words seem pretty common usage to me!"
I agree Sarah.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that ignoring mistakes is necessarily want Zull says directly, Heather, though I could be reading him incorrectly. He notes (emphasizes actually) that students aren't likely to be negatively affected by negative comments on their academic work. What I find interesting is that both positive and negative (stressful) emotional reactions coupled with learning experiences have different, yet arguably positive and negative effects. Cortisol, produced by stress, enhances long-term memory while it reduces short-term memory. Yet, (think Anita, his student who couldn't remember anything about Zull) positive short-term memory acquisition did not transition to positive long-term memory retention.