In Willingham’s chapters 2 and 3 he mainly discussed two major concepts, first that students must have background knowledge in order to think critically about a concept and second how human memory systems work and how that relates to making meaning. Both concepts have major implications for teachers and students when it comes to learning.
Background knowledge is essential for learning for a few reasons. First, background knowledge is essential for critical thinking because in order for students to practice skills they must first have factual knowledge about a topic and an understanding of the vocabulary surrounding it. Additionally, students need background knowledge because it allows for new information to be connected to new concepts and for content to be chunked into manageable parts that your working memory can make meaning from. Background knowledge also serves to help clarify details of a story, problem, or concept that might be “ambiguous and confusing” (Willingham, pg 12).
When thinking about the impact background knowledge has on learning, it reminds me of how important it is for an educator to first assess students' background knowledge. The last few years I have stopped giving pre-tested because of the lack of classroom time and because our units sometimes are really short. However, after reading this chapter, it has reminded me how important some form of pre-assessment is. If I am not aware of the vocabulary or background knowledge my students have I will not be able to anticipate the meaning they are making from new information. Additionally, this chapter made me wonder, how could I help students with little background knowledge? Many of my students are ELLs who come to school never having spoken English and little background knowledge. After doing a little research, I found a few suggested ways I can help students who lack a lot of background knowledge. A few suggested ways I found are to: teach language in categories, use contrasts and comparisons, use analogies, encourage topic-focused wide reading, and embrace multimedia (Neuman, Kaefer & Ashley Pinkham, 2022).
The human memory system works quite logically according to Willingham. Memory is the residue of thought. (Willingham, 2009, pg 47) When you remember something, you are remembering what you were thinking about when you were exposed to it. As a teacher this has many implications. One implication is that I need to try to anticipate and think critically about what I want my students to specifically get out of a lesson or task. My students frequently will take a lesson in a different direction or can easily be led off track if the lesson is not clearly aimed directly at answering my guiding question. Willingham suggested several teaching strategies to best assure students are making meaning and thinking about the concept of a lesson. One possible way to achieve critical thinking is through teaching a lesson using a story structure which includes the four C’s (causality, conflict, complications, character). He also suggest using mnemonics if there really isn’t much meaning to be made by a concept.
Resources
Neuman, S., Kaefer, T., & Pinkham, A. (2022, September 1). Building background knowledge. Reading Rockets. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-background-knowledge
Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School? In Why don't students like school?: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how The mind works and what it means for the classroom (2nd ed., pp. 41-117).
You write, "After reading this chapter, it has reminded me how important some form of pre-assessment is."
ReplyDeleteThis is a profoundly important part of learning, but I can see why so many teachers skip it. We're already pressed for time and on a strict schedule. However, if we don't take the time to do this (and then to end a unit with time to reflect on learning) then we could be wasting so much time during our teaching. By building on best practices, proven by cognitive science, we can make the most of our learning time.
You make a great case for Learning Targets in the second half of your entry. I'm always of two minds with targets. It can be a struggle to do them well. Sometimes if I think about them as "thinking" targets instead of learning targets, I can use them better. When I post them in the classroom, it's a public way to consider what I want students and I to think about during a day. They may more closely resemble essential questions than they do traditional targets, but it's an interesting thing to think about for sure.