Brief Notes on Ch.2, 3_How We Learn Readings_Aracelie

Posted by on February 7, 2010 
Filed under Uncategorized

Chapter 2 of How We Learn:  Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (1999) is entitled “How Experts Differ from Novices”.  It focuses on six key principles that differentiate experts and novices and when considered collectively, may have implications in education.  The principles are listed below:

1.  Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices.

2.  Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.

3. Experts’ knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is ”conditionalized” on a set of circumstances.

4.  Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort.

5.  Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they are able to teach others.

6.  Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach to new situations. (p 19)

Within the chapter the authors describe examples in chess, math, history, physics, and electronics that demonstrate each of the principles.

Within the chess discussion, there is a quote from DeGroot’s 1965 book, Thought and Choice in Chess. “We know that increasing experience and knowledge in a specific field (chess, for instance) has the effect that things (properties, etc.) which, at earlier stages, had to be abstracted, or even inferred are apt to be immediately perceived at later stages. To a rather large extent, abstraction is replaced by perception, but we do not know much about how this works, nor where the borderline lies. As an effect of this replacement, a so-called ‘given’ problem situation is not really given since it is seen differently by an expert than it is perceived by an inexperienced person….”  His last sentence states that even a “‘given’ problem situation” is seen differently by a novice.  This captures the spirit of the chapter.   As I read the pages, I knew that we would be experiencing this first hand (if we have class) because I, the novice, can read what the words on the page say and make sense of them.  However, my lack of prior knowledge in education will keep me from picking up the deeper implications that are contained within the chapters and therefore, keep my thoughts and reflections at a surface level.  The “experts” who would read the same chapters would have more to draw from and as a result, more refined ides to present to and discuss with others.

Chapter 3 is called “Learning and Transfer”.  Though I have read it, I have not spent as much time processing the information.  However, as I read I made a note regarding previous knowledge.  In the chapter, there is discussion on how “all learning involves transfer from previous experiences.”   How then does one leave behind previous knowledge or experience?  Is it wise to do try and do so?  The authors state “students may misinterpret new information because of previous knowledge they use to construct new understandings.”  As a student myself, I try to relate ideas to what I have already experienced or learned in my life.  True, that could be a help or a hindrance, but how would one address this issue?  Is simply being aware that it exists enough?

Comments



One Response to “Brief Notes on Ch.2, 3_How We Learn Readings_Aracelie”

  • Darren Cambridge on February 16th, 2010 1:55 pm    

    I don’t think that that authors mean to imply that the ubiquity of transfer precludes transformation. While it’s true that pre-existing ideas can sometimes interfere with the internalization of new knowledge, they also offer a starting place from which to make sense of new ideas and contexts. More often than not, what we transfer to a new situation may give us a head start. If no one in this class, for example, had had personal experience with formal education, as a teacher and/or learner, it would immeasurably more difficult to make progress. It’s true that we want to critically reflect on those past experiences and the beliefs they have engendered in light of new ideas from the course material, but having some on which to reflect is crucial.

Leave a Reply