Daniel Wilingham on Paul Tough

He likes the book -- I may have to read!

How to study

Look what I just found!

Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology by John Dunlosky1, Katherine A. Rawson1, Elizabeth J. Marsh2, Mitchell J. Nathan3, and Daniel T. Willingham4

Now I need to drop everything & spend the next two days a) reading "Improving Students' Learning" and b) employing "Effective Learning Techniques" so I can remember how to Improve Students' Learning....which is sounding a bit circular as I write.

I'll get to that as soon as I finish annotating Tony Wagner's 2008 "Rigor Redefined," which our new $400K superintendent distributed to the board of ed last week.

The board is now deciding the future direction of the district, so naturally it's time to roll out a vintage piece of warmed-over, pre-crash Tony Wagner:

Daniel Pink, the author of A Whole New Mind, observes that with increasing abundance, people want unique products and services: “For businesses it's no longer enough to create a product that's reasonably priced and adequately functional. It must also be beautiful, unique, and meaningful.”1

Remember those days? The days when "increasing abundance" could simply be assumed?

That was then.

E.D. Hirsch explains cause of decline in SAT scores is content-light instruction

Average SAT scores fell this year, with critical reading results declining to the lowest on record.  E.D. Hirsch writes that the main cause is a move away from content-rich instruction in the elementary grades.

The decline has led some commentators to embrace demographic determinism — the idea that the verbal scores of disadvantaged students will not significantly rise until we overcome poverty. But that explanation does not account for the huge drop in verbal scores across socioeconomic groups in the 1970s.

The most credible analyses have shown that the chief causes were not demographics or TV watching, but vast curricular changes, especially in the critical early grades. In the decades before the Great Verbal Decline, a content-rich elementary school experience evolved into a content-light, skills-based, test-centered approach.

Daniel Willingham on this subject:

More: How Knowledge Helps - It Speeds and Strengthens Reading Comprehension, Learning—and Thinking (Cross-posted at Cost of College)

Practice Makes Perfect (But only Briefly)

Sustained practice makes the kind of perfect I'm looking for.

More inspiration from Daniel Willingham:

When we refer to "practice," it is important to be clear that it differs from play (which is done purely for one's own pleasure), performance (which is done for the pleasure of others), and work (which is done for compensation). Practice is done for the sake of improvement. Practice, therefore, requires concentration and requires feedback about whether or not progress is being made. Plainly put, practice is not easy. It requires a student's time and effort, and it is, therefore, worth considering when it is appropriate.

(cross-posted on Perfect Score Project)

SAT Critical Reading -- What's the Most Effective Way to Improve?

I've just started to look deeply into the SAT Critical Reading section. I often find SAT reading passages to be arduous (putting it generously).

My informal poll left me with the impression that it's not easy to move a Critical Reading score.

Daniel Willingham says Critical Reading strategies can help, but are more of a trick than a skill.

That said, I had a game changing meeting with Erica Meltzer the other day and will be following this up with a post about the strategies she taught me, which I passed on to my son who was very appreciative and said it made that section much better.

In the meantime, you can read her post about How to Study for SAT Critical Reading.

(Cross Posted on Perfect Score Project)

The Pleasure of Problem Solving

Willingham's article, Why Don't Students Like School, describes perfectly why I love working on SAT problems:

There is a sense of satisfaction, of fulfillment, in successful thinking......It's notable too that the pleasure is in the solving of the problem. Working on a problem with no sense that you are making progress is not pleasurable. In fact, it's frustrating. And there's not great pleasure in simply knowing the answer either.

And why I find them so challenging:

There's a final necessity for thinking: sufficient space in working memory. Thinking becomes increasingly difficult as memory gets crowded.

(Cross-posted on Perfect Score Project)

Dyscalculia vs Lack of Math Facts

The other day someone emailed me about a new word he'd learned:

Dyscalculia

(He clarified that he didn't think I had it, he just wanted me to know that it existed.)

I have been starting to wonder why it is so difficult for me to improve my math SAT score though.....

.....Which lead me to Daniel Willingham's article about whether or not it's true that some people are "bad at math." After reading it, I believe I fall squarely in the "lack of automaticity" category, rather than "dyscalculic."

Headed to Kumon this summer with my son to brush up on math facts so that I can free up some working memory for the fall SAT. Surprisingly (miraculously?), my son is psyched; daughter is another story.

(Cross Posted on Perfect Score Project.)

Today's Mantra: Learn to Mastery, Then Add 20% More Study Time

Willingham's advice has been incredibly useful as my son heads into finals this season.

Interestingly, my son seems as intrigued by the study advice as I am, and wants to read the articles and book for himself when school ends.

(cross-posted on Perfect Score Project)

And speaking of books, I am currently obsessed with brain/how we learn books. In the past month I have read:

Moonwalking with Einstein (about memory -- but includes brain research)

What Can I do to Help my Child With Math When I don't Know Any Myself (GREAT study advice)

The Shallows (I'm about 3/4 done. Well worth the read. I'm identifying strongly.)

About to read:

Why Students Don't like School

Welcome to Your Brain

The Benign Cousin to Rote Knowledge

I'm savoring these Willingham articles. Just one more to go, then I will read his book.

It's not only helping me with my own learning process, but I feel armed to help my kids study with specifics about what works best.

(cross-posted on Perfect Score Project)

Familiarity Fools the Mind

I *feel* like I'm getting better at SAT math.

Turns out that feelings aren't facts. Practice test scores not improving (yet), despite being able to solve formerly elusive slope and function problems.

I told my son this morning, Daniel Willingham says, when you think you know the material cold, study 20% more.

(cross-posted at Perfect Score Project)

Music While You Study?

My kids are always trying to convince me that they can study just as well while IMing and BBMing and video chatting and listening to music. In fact, they may have even said they study better while multitasking.

Turns out my gut was right.

They can't.

(Cross-posted at Perfect Score Project)