November 25, 2008 · 1 Comment
I am glad to see studies about the matching of types of thinking and types of problems. I saw this one yesterday:
“A new study in the journal Mind, Brain, and Education reveals that certain types of thinking are best suited to solving certain types of problems. Specifically, geometry problems are best solved by a combination of verbal and spatial strategies, but not shape-based imagery strategies.” [1]
To me, articles like these point towards a possible growing awareness that we have many thought processes available to us [2].This may remind us that we have a tremendous task in front of us – to learn how to best match each of these to the types of problems we face in life.
Of course geometry problems are a lot simpler than the interrelated, mixed-disciplinary problems we face in daily life – but we have to start somewhere.
Addendum: I initially wrote this last paragraph and edited out at the last minute. But now, I don’t think this posting is complete without it. I want to get in the habit of acknowledging risk factors along with ideas. One reason for that is to make sure that I have at least taken the time to consider the idea from another perspective. There are several risks that come along with studies like the one mentioned above. One of them is the risk of popularization of the idea that one problem solving method is always the best method. Another risk is the idea that as modalities and cognitive styles are mapped in a society, children (and individuals at large) may feel “strange” if they are not using the prevailing cognitive style to solve problems. An extreme case of this last situation may result in the emergence of yet another branch of “cognitive outcasts”.
Notes
[1] Karen L. Anderson et al. Performance on Middle School Geometry Problems With Geometry Clues Matched to Three Different Cognitive Styles. Mind, Brain, and Education, Volume 2 Issue 4, Pages 188 – 197 Published Online: 4 Nov 2008.
[2] We currently have listed around 200 thought processes in Wikipedia.
Related in this blog:
Types of thinking
Categories: Creativity · Critical Thinking · Education · Metacognition · Philosophy of Thought · Problem-solving · Thinking · Visualization
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. – Alvin Toffler
I have been thinking about how education should look like in our 21st century. Here is a list of the types of learning I think are important.
Notice that traditional, disciplinary topics emerge slowly, but not before the introduction of the underlying building blocks of knowledge, (time, truth, causality, problem-literacy, thinking, problem-solving etc).
I am including a few links for each of the topics.
- Surveys of time, truth, causality, and meaning, (the root concepts of logic, knowledge and thinking)
- History and theories of the self, mind and consciousness (roots of knowledge pt.2)
- Introduction to thinking processes
- Introduction to types of problems (problem-literacy)
- Problem-solving methods
- General introduction to knowledge
- General ethics
- History of culture (local culture)
- World cultures (see general anthropology)
- General sciences
- General humanities
- Advanced problem-solving (another source)
- Focused disciplinary concentration (this depends on the discipline)
- Multidisciplinary studies
Related in this blog:
Multidisciplinary education
Peter Drucker’s requirements for education systems
Related elsewhere on the web
A huge list of blogs about education in the 21st century (mostly written by teachers themselves)
21st Century Literacy Specialist
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-Daniel Montano
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Categories: Cultural studies · Educacion Multidisciplinaria · Education · Integral intelligence · Interdisciplinary education · Multidisciplinary education · Multispectives · Social ecology · Sustainable societies · Thinking · Transdisciplinary Education
Tagged: Philosophy of education
September 19, 2008 · 2 Comments
Miss Dee documented the way she digests difficult passages in literature. Here is her flow step-by-step:
“Step 1: Identify the genre and topic of the passage.
Step 2: Look for Topic Sentences and supporting evidence and explanations.
Step 3: Draw links -> look out for connectors
Step 4: Use one-line summary for each paragraph to remind yourself what you have read.
Step 5: Ask yourself questions if you find something interesting. You might find the answer as you read further.”
Visit her blog to view the original posting it contains screenshots of papers and her own annotations: Thinking About Thinking – Disecting “Difficult” Passages
There are other interesting postings on education on her blog. I recommend paying her a visit.
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-Daniel Montano
Categories: Cognitive Science · Critical Thinking · Educacion Multidisciplinaria · Education · Intelligence · Interdisciplinary education · Multidisciplinary education · Self-awareness · Thinking · Thoughts · Transdisciplinary Education
The Public School is a project that allows anyone to propose an educational course. People sign-up and the course takes place.
This is learning for those who want to learn and teaching for those that have knowledge to share.
Knowledge is social energy. Who knows where our societies would be if we were to share it.
I guess, in a way this is a twist on the different products that Wikimedia offers (Wikibooks, Wikiversity, etc), and an extension of Joseph Beuys‘ concept of a Free International University.
Visit the official website for The Public School.
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Educacion Multidisciplinaria · Education
Over the holiday break I read A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink. In this book Pink talks about how the the new dynamics of globalization has pointed towards a demand for a shift in the way we think.
He points towards the three A’s as the three factors that have created an increased demand for right-brain thinking skills:
- Automation
- Asia
- Abundance
Among the right-brain thinking skills Pink lists holistic, gestalt, and systems thinking skills.
Reference:
Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind why right-brainers will rule the future. [United States]: Better Life Media.
Related Elsewhere:
TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design conference video) – Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Education · Systems thinking · Thinking
Abstract concepts can also be understood as emergent concepts. These emergent concepts may the results of the interplays from our own personal lenses we use to interpret the world.
Lenses like our own physical bodies and conceptual lenses such as belief systems help to shape the way we interpret things.
This diagram may also help to illustrate that our interpretation of the world is always limited to the number of lenses we use. As a result we are are still mostly “blind” to the way our world is and to how it works .
The Blind Ages
Imagine if you will that each lens we use for interpreting the world only provides one color. Our ability to understand the world as it is then, would require us to use all the lenses. If we could do this we would be moving towards a more holistic way of understanding the world.
Currently our educational systems are not geared to do that. Our media channels are not doing much of this either. So…
What to do next?
- Academia already knows they have to shift towards multidisciplinary correlation. While sporadic change may be taking place most of these institutions are not only sluggish but they tend to get trapped behind internal politics. Their contribution to change is too slow compared to what organized people can do if they have the tools to do it.
- I would like to request that publishers consider publishing books and magazines that attempt to correlate knowledge across fields.
- I would also like to encourage educational tools and websites to take advantage of the web as a tool to connect concepts not only across disciplines but also outside of formal academic disciplines altogether — an outreach towards bottom-up knowledge.
- Businesses may want to consider this an opportunity for a new market that will require textbooks, software, web-applications, websites, training institutions etc.
- Non-profit organizations may also want to consider this a new type of societal requirement for the development of people in the 21st century.
- Organizations like Wikimedia are in a great position to connect multidisciplinary knowledge. Their current Wikipedia project is multidisciplinary but it’s not correlated on a multidisciplinary way. Currently its editing rules limit connections of topics to those closely related, (read, same disciplinary branch) connections. If Wikimedia were to formally announce an effort towards connecting multi-disciplinary knowledge, then I think contributors will take care of the rest.
So, what does Jimmy Wales say about this?
Categories: Cultural studies · Diagrams · Education · Interdisciplinary education · Multidisciplinary education · New Markets · Sustainable societies · Thinking · Transdisciplinary Education
This blog hosts a nice collection of resources on systems thinking, and complex systems.
Source:
Perspectives in Human Ecology:
http://human-macroecology.blogspot.com/ 
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Complexity · Diagrams · Eco literacy · Education · Emergence · Information visualization · Interdisciplinary education · Multidisciplinary education · Self-organization
Categories: Education · Health
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