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Disposition for Creativity
There are certain dispositional attributes that those who have exhibited higher-order creativity bring with them to the table. Miller tells us that from Picasso to Einstein, there are similar traits that can be observed in those who create have abstract cognitive enablers. One of the similarities is a great in-depth knowledge of…
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What is Creativity
I wrote earlier about creativity as being the polar opposite of conformity. Now I am going to be publishing a series of articles about creativity as an abstract cognitive enabler. Much of what I am going to be writing on here relies on the work of Carl Newman and his work in…
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Science of Learning: Thinking & Understanding
In addition to teaching content, the primary, avowed purpose of higher education is to teach people how to think, and take information and turn it into knowledge. The difference between information and knowledge is understanding. Knowing that 2X2=4 is nothing more than information if you really don’t understand that 2X2 means two…
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Science of Learning: Metacognition in Education
Not only is it difficult to measure and develop metacognitive skills, but the current state of education systematically stifles metacognitive development. One of the hallmarks of metacognitive development is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking requires an individual to think of different ways that a solution can be reached. It requires cognitive flexibility, as…
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Science of Learning: Metacognition in Life
As with most of the higher order thinking skills, metacognition plays a wider role in life than just academic work. However, metacognition has, by far, the widest reaching effects in people’s lives as the following list demonstrates. This is likely the reason why educators have focussed and tried to develop metacognition in…
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Marking Experts
Scholars spend their lifetimes studying a topic become experts, however, do those same scholars becoming experts at marking students’ work? There is good psychological research on gaining expertise, and if we have a look at some of it, becoming an expert entails more than being assigned the 11:00 a.m. slot on Tuesday mornings for the…
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The Value of Learning
Learning is natural. We begin to learn before we are born. The wonderment of childhood in largely because of the excitement that comes with learning. What happens to the excitement and what value do we put on learning? In a world where we are facing problems of epic proportions (climate change, aging populations, dysfunctional democracy, uncertain energy…
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Academic Skills: Why should We have to Teach Them?
In the late 90’s when the skills agenda was all the rage in the UK, I was tasked to develop a skills program. At the time they were key skills, and they were slowly transformed into employability skills. I don’t think anyone cared what they were called, they were all the same thing.…
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Information Scarcity & Information Abundance
I have written on this topic a number of times in the past. From a world (and an educational philosophy) built on information scarcity, we now find ourselves in a world of information abundance. I don’t know that we (as a community) have done very well in embracing this fundamental shift in…
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Virtuous Cycle of Higher Grades
I mentioned in my last post that Bjork presents ways to make knowledge transference an integrated part of learning. He also alludes to conditioning as one of the things that can get in the way of learning. In psychology, one of the basic principles of learning is shaping. Using shaping, you can get a bear to ride…
