Chapter 7: The Development of Knowledge

by April

Having just read several articles about ADHD, one of the first things in this chapter that really stood out to me was the importance of attention in learning. This chapter states that being able to pay attention is the first step to being able to learn. This really brings out the challenges faced by children with ADHD. There is a video circulating on the internet that tells you to watch the number of times a ball changes hands (I think that was it anyway). So you are watching this video and counting how many times the ball exchanges hands. At the end the video asks if you noticed the giant bear walking around among the people who are passing the ball. I did not. But when I went back and watched again, there was the giant bear, seemingly impossible to miss. Knowing that attention has to do with being able to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring others, I wonder if a child with ADHD would notice the bear during the first viewing. I had to laugh at the example of the college professor jumping on their desk to make a point. I can't imagine myself doing that but I do think we need to be aware of how important it is that our students are paying attention and we need to be creative in helping them to do that.

When the author talked about priming I automatically thought of another silly thing. My step-dad used to tell a rhyme where he'd have you repeat words after him that rhymed with milk. He'd make some up to. Then after a while he'd ask, "What do cows drink?" Well, obviously, cows drink water. But after saying all the words that sounded like milk, most people automatically answer, "milk." The author didn't go into very much detail in regards to priming but I think I've heard of including new information in subtle ways before trying to teach it to students so that they have a background in that information without even realizing it. We actually use this technique at church in regards to teaching new music. If we know there is a song we want to teach we will put it in the "pre-service mix" so that as people are waiting for church to start they will hear the music playing on a CD. Then when we play it in church for the first time they will think, "Hey, I've heard this before," and will be more open to learning it.

I think that goes along with the idea of elaboration as well. Students will have a deeper understanding and a better ability to remember new things they are learning if they already have some experience with it. This is probably why we try to make sense of these new things we are learning by connecting them with our past experiences. So perhaps giving children experiences with certain concepts before actually trying to teach them would be helpful. Other ideas listed in the chapter that I thought were good included asking students to put things into their own words, come up with examples, explain it to a peer and more.

Lastly, although we talk about this later in chapter 9 as well, I wanted to comment on the concept of making learning meaningful because it certainly relates to memory. If learning happens in the context of authentic experiences, it will be more likely to be generalized and remembered. This is why project-based learning carries more weight than having kids do simple worksheets.