Chapter 1: The Brain and the Mind
The brain is what you inherited and the mind was developed by your environment.
Learning is physiological. That’s why it takes so long to “unlearn” something that has been learned incorrectly.
We use abstract representational systems, which illustrate common understandings, in order to communicate.
Mediation: Point out the stimulus (what), give it meaning (why), provide a strategy (how)
Chapter 2: Learning (Mediation): How, Why, What
The mediation of the mind happens when an individual is taught the what, the why, and the how.
Mediation is particularly required when an individual is a new learner to a skill, process, content ... whatever.
Research on new learners indicates that there is a process that an individual goes through. Levels of learner (novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert).
The more complex the process an individual is involved in, the more parts of that process need to be at the level of automaticity.
Two different kinds of memory functions in the brain. One is used by beginning learners (taxon), while the other is used by individuals who have more experience with it (locale).
A beginning learner must be mediated in order to learn, He/she must be given the what, they why, and the how.
Chapter 3: Abstract Representational Systems
No matter which language in the world one speaks, there are five registers (Frozen, Formal, Consultative, Casual, Intimate).
An individual who has only casual register does not have many abstract words. The abstract words are in the formal register.
Language or words are the tools of ideas. Abstract words represent those ideas, concepts, processes, etc., that doe not have sensory-based representations.
To survive in the world of work, school, one must be able to use abstract representational systems. The are learned.
Chapter 4: Abstract Processes (the How)
All learning is conncected to the task and context of the learning. The process and the content are interwoven. To teach one without the other is to have incomplete learning.
Input is defined as "quantity and quality of the data gathered."
Elaboration is defined as "use of the data".
Output is defined as "communication of the data".
How does the teacher embed these processes and develop minds? One way is to tech these processes with all content to all students. Use four simple processes - sorting, question making, planning to control impulsivity, and planning and labeling tasks.
Chapter 5: Mental Models - Blueprints of the Subject Matter (the Why)
- Mental models are how the mind holds abstract information, i.e., information that has no sensory representation.
- All subject areas or disciplines have their own blueprints or mental models.
- Mental models tell us what is an is not important in the discipline. The help the mind sort.
- Mental models often explain "the why" of things working the way they do.
- Mental models tell the structure, purpose, or pattern.
- Mental models are held in the mind as stories, analogies, or two-dimensional drawings.
- Mental models "collapse" the amount of time it takes to teach something.
- Mental models of a discipline are contained within the structure of the curriculum.
- There are generic mental models.
- Sketching is a technique that can be used in the classroom to identify each student's mental models.
Chapter 6: Content (the What)
The content - or "the what" of learning - is the part of instruction that is usually focused. When the process (the how) and the blueprints of the subject matter (the why) are direct-taught, the content tends to fall into place.
Content is organized by the constructs of the disciplines.
The structure of the discipline becomes significant because it identifies what is and is not important.
If adequate time is not spent on what is important - on what counts - the learner will not have learned enough to sort what is and isn't important in that subject area.
Chapter 7: Motivation for Learning
At the heart of all learning are relationships
In relationships of mutual respect, three things are present: Support, insistence, and high expectations.
Support becomes the direct-teaching of process and mental models; insistence is the motivation and persistence that comes from the relationships; and high expectations constitute the approach of "I know you can do it, and you will."
All learning is in essence emotional, and virtually all learning starts with significant relationships.
The primary motivator for the development of each stage is a significant relationship.
Six developmental stages in the learning process occur when relationships are supportive and nurturing.
- Ability to attend
- Ability to engage
- Ability to be intentional
- Ability to form complex interactive patterns
- Ability to create images, symbols, and ideas
- Ability to connect images, symbols, and ideas
Emotion organizes experience and behavior.
How does a student know that a teacher has respect for him/ her? Covey states that relationships are like bank accounts. You make emotional deposits to those relationships, and you make emotional withdrawals form the relationships. When the withdrawals are substantially greater than the deposits, the relationship is soon broken. The TESA research describes 15 behaviors that teachers use with students when there is mutual respect between teachers and student.
Chapter 8: Difficult Students, Difficult Classrooms
What do I do when more than 40% of the students are difficult? What do I do with a student who habitually breaks relationships with adults? What do I do with the student who has biochemical issues? Has neurological damage?
Some suggestions:
- Always direct-teach the mental models of the content you are teaching.
- Direct-teach the processes and procedures you want to occur in your classroom.
- Build relationships of mutual respect with the "troublemakers".
- Tightly structure tasks by time and procedure.
- Use a choice/ consequence approach to discipline.
- Have students do a simple planning/ goal-setting task each day around their work.
- Use a contract system to address individual needs, as well as address different time of finishing work.
- Separate students who must be separated.
Payne, R. K. (2002). Understanding learning: The how, the why, the what. Highlands, TX: Aha! Process.