Chap 6: Get beyond and learning styles

Bruce Hendry's early set backs helped seed the skills of shrewder judgment; and how he developed a nose for value where others can only smell trouble ( P139). True/False.

True.

Distill the underlying principles ; build the structure: pause periodically and ask what the central ideas are, what the rules are. Describe each idea and recall the related points. which are the big ideas, and which are supporting concepts or nuances? if you were to test yourself on the main ideas, how would you describe them? True/false.

True.

For example, if you start with a textbook full of ideas, you must set out to build a coherent mental model of the knowledge they contain. True/ false

True.

High structure builders and rule learners are more successful in transferring their learning to unfamiliar situations than are low structure-builders and example learners. True/False

True.

High structure builders develop the skill to identify foundational concepts and their key building blocks and to sort new information based on whether it adds to the larger structure and one's knowledge or is extraneous and can be put aside. True/False

True.

In Sternberg's view, we are all in a state of developing expertise, and any test that measures only what we know at any given moment is a static measure that tell us noting about our potential in the realm the test measures. True/False.

True.

Rule leaning

the idea : - that people who able to extract underlying principles or rules from new experiences are more successful learners than those who take their experiences at face value, failing to infer lessons that can be applied later in similar situations. -

The idea of learning styles raises concerns about (143) ....

the temptation to classify, label, and stereotype individuals.

Sternberg's concept of developing expertise holds that....

with continued experience in a field we are always moving from a lower state of competence to a higher one.

Knowhow

learning that enables you to go do.

The high achievers interviewed for the Fortune article argue that ...

some people with dyslexia seem to possess, or to develop, a greater capacity for creativity and problem solving, whether as a result of their neural wiring or the necessity they face to find ways to compensate for their disability.

Fluid intelligence

the ability to reason, see relationships, think abstractly, and hold information in mind while working on a problem

Idea put forward by Howard Gardner to account for the broad variety in people's abilities is...

the hypothesis that humans have as many as eight different types of intelligence.

Rule learner vs example learner

- Rule learner: tends to abstract the underlying principles or rules that differentiate the examples being studied. ( later when they encounter a new chemistry problem or bird specimen, they apply the rules as a means to classify it and select the appropriate solution or specimen box.) - example learner: tend to memorize the examples rather tan the underlying principles. ( when they encounter an unfamiliar case, they lack a grasp of the rules needed to classify or solve it, so they generalize from the nearest example they can remember , even if tis not particularly relevant to the new case. )

Sternberg's model 's 3 types of intelligence ( P150 )

- analytical, creative, and practical.

The honey and Mumford Learning styles questionnaires

- is popular in managerial settings - helps employees determine whether their styles are predominantly activist, reflector, theorist or pragmatist and to improve in the areas where thy score low so as to become more versatile learners.

Successful intelligence

- one's ability to set and accomplish personally meaningful goals in one's life, given one's cultural context. (A successfully intelligent person accomplishes these goals by figuring out his or her strengths and weaknesses, and then by capitalizing on the strengths and correcting or compensating for the weaknesses. (-- Strengths and weaknesses are in terms of four kinds of skills: creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-based.) How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life, that appreciating the differences between knowledge useful in school and knowledge applicable to everyday life should inform the way educators and laymen alike judge the potential of the young. Those people who succeed, he says, have managed to develop a wide range of intellectual skills beyond those taught and valued in academic life. ( i.e. include practical and creative intelligence ).

example of differences that matter

- our ability to abstract underlying principles from new experiences and to convert new knowledge into mental structures.

Structure building

- the act, as we encounter new material, of extracting the salient ideas and constructing a coherent mental framework out of them. - it is a form of conscious and subconscious discipline: stuff fits or it doesn't ; it adds nuance , capacity and meaning or it obscures and over freights. (the idea that: that people who single out salient concepts from the less important information they encounter in new material and who link these key ideas into a mental structure are more successful learners than those who cannot separate wheat from chaff and understand how the wheat is made into flour.)

Dyslexia

-Impairment of the ability to read - Unusual difficulty with reading; thought to be the result of some neurological underdevelopment

The 8 different types of intelligence put forward by Howard garner

-Logical-mathematical intelligence -spatial intelligence - linguistic intelligence - kinesthetic intelligence - musical intelligence -interpersonal intelligence - interpersonal intelligence - Naturalistic intelligence

VARK

-an approach advocated by Neil Fleming. - differentiates people according to whether they prefer to learn through experiences that are primarily visual, auditory, reading, kinesthetic.

what does IQ tests measure?

-individuals logical and verbal potential - denotes the ration of metal age to physical age, times 100.

The underlying premise of the idea that individuals have distinct learning styles is that .....

-people receive and process new information differently. . e.g.. some learn better from visual materials and others learn better from written text or auditory materials.

The theory of the idea that individuals have distinct learning styles holds that....

-people who receive instruction in a manner that is not matched to their learning style are at a disadvantage for learning.

A group of cognitive psychologists in 2008 found that....

-very few studies designed to be capable of testing the validity of learning styles theory in education , and of those, they found that virtually none validate it and several flatly contradict it ( P145) - it is more important that the mode of instruction match the nature of the subject being taught: visual instruction for geometry and geography, verbal instruction for poetry, and so on ( P146).

3 examples that contribute to shaping your routes to success

-your tolerance for risk-talking. - your willingness to persevere in the face of difficulty. - your ability to convert new knowledge into building blocks for further learning

3 steps of dynamic testing

1. a test of some kind : show me where I come up short in knowledge or a skill 2. I dedicate myself to becoming more competent (, using reflexion, practice, spacing, and the other techniques of effective learning) 3. I test myself again, paying attention to what works better now but also to where I still need more work.

4 takeaway from the " get beyond learning styles" chapter.

Be the one in charge, embrace the notion of successful intelligence, adopt active learning strategies, distill the underlying principles(; build the structure )

2 kind of intelligence accepted by psychologists

Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

Children who are doing the math required in order to run successful business, cannot do the same math when the problems are represented in an abstract, paper -and-pencil format. True/False. ( P150 ).

True

There no evidence to validate learning styles theory. True/False

True ( P147).

Be in charge: mastery, especially of complex ideas, skills, and processes, is a quest. it not a grade on a test, something bestowed by a coach , or a quality that simply seeps into your bing with old age and gray hair. True/False.

True.

Both high and low structure builders as well as rule vs example learners are still very preliminary . True/false.

True.

Both the learning styles and multiple intelligences theory lack an underpinning of empirical validation. True/false.

True.

In essence, we ought to acknowledge that learning is a complex arena that should not be limited to learning styles. For instance, how can we explain the stories that psychologist Robert Sternberg tells us on how Brazilian orphans who cannot do math on paper but are whizzes at the calculations needed to run street businesses, and of expert handicappers at horse tracks who devise highly complex mathematical models for betting on horses but who measure only average on standard IQ tests? What about the stories of people who were diagnosed with Impairment of the ability to read (dyslexia) but who went on to become high achievers in the corporate business world? True/False.

True.

In the school of life experience, setbacks show us where we need to do better. We can steer clear of similar challenges in the future or we can redouble our efforts to master them, broadening our capacities and expertise. True/ false.

True.

In this chapter, the authors acknowledge that everyone has learning preferences but is not persuaded that you learn better when the manner of instruction fits those preferences ( P132 paragraph 2 ). True/False

True.

Knowledge is not knowhow until you understand the underlying principles at work and can fit them together into a structure larger than the sum of its parts. True/false.

True.

Low structure builders struggle in figuring out and sticking with an overarching structure and knowing what information needs to fit and what ought to be discarded. True.

True.

Most of us can learn to perform nearer to our full potential in most areas by discovering our weaknesses and working to bring them up. True/False.

True.

Much of what's required to succeed in a particular situation is not measured by standard IQ or aptitude tests, which can miss critical competencies. True/false.

True.

Sternberg's model is supported by empirical research. True/false

True.

The study found that IQ is unrelated to handicapping ability, and " whatever it is that an IQ test measures, it is not the ability to engage in cognitively complex forms of multivariate reasoning." True/false. ( P150 )

True.

Traditional measures of intelligence failed to account for environmental differences; there is no reason suspect that kids who excelled at informal, indigenous knowledge can't catch up to or even surpass their peers in academic learning when given the appropriate opportunities. True/false.

True.

Unlike learning styles , which can have the perverse effect of causing individuals to perceive their learning abilities as limited, multiple intelligences theory elevates the sheer variety of tools in our native toolkit. True/false

True.

adopt active learning strategies like retrieval practice, spacing, and interleaving. Like those with dyslexia who have become high achievers, develop workarounds or compensating skills for impediments or holes in your aptitudes. True/false.

True.

crystallized ability (cumulative knowledge). True/False.

True.

fluid ability (the ability to think flexibly and in novel ways). True/False.

True.

in Dynamic testing , a test may assess a weakness, but rather than assuming that the weakness indicates a fixed inability, you interpret it as a lack of skill or knowledge that can be remedied. True/False.

True.

stern berg's concept also holds that standardized tests can't accurately rate our potential because what they reveal is limited to a static report of where we are on the learning continuum at the time the test is given. True/False.

True.

when questions are embedded in texts to help focus readers on the main ideas, the learning experience of low structure builders improves to a level commensurate with high structure-builders. True/False.

True. - because the embedded questions promote a more coherent representation of the text than low-structure readers can build on their own, thus bringing them up toward the level achieved by the high structure-builders.

Difference between aptitude test and much of learning styles theory

aptitude test and much of learning styles theory tend to emphasize our strengths and encourage us to focus on them while dynamic testing helps us to discover our weaknesses and correct them.

why do High structure builders learn new material better?

because low structure builders have difficulties setting aside irrelevant or competing information , and as a result they tend to hang on too many concepts to be condensed into a workable model ( or overall structure ) that can serve as a foundation for further learning.

How to go for more than knowledge to knowhow

by abstracting the underlying rules and piercing them into a structure.

Dynamic testing ( by Sternberg and Grigorenko )

determining the state of one's expertise; refocusing learning on areas of low performance ; follow up testing to measure the improvement and to refocus learning so as to keep raising expertise.

example of differences that actually don't matter ( P141 paragraph 2 ).

having a verbal or visual learning style

2 types of structure builders

high and low structure builders.

mental frameworks are also called

mental models or mental maps.

crystallized intelligence

one's accumulated knowledge of the world and the procedures or mental models one has developed from past learning and experience.