Why Won't Students Think?
Why is this so attractive?
Daniel Willingham's newest edition of Why Don't Students Like School provides insights that might help us understand our students' resistance.
Our minds are designed to avoid thinking.
Thinking requires you to retrieve information from long-term memory and the environment and then use your working memory to combine that information in new ways. As a result, thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain.
"Most of the time what we do is what we do most of the time" (6).
So instead of thinking, we often rely on memory. This is because our memories do not require much attention and work very quickly. This is true of every one of us, not just our students. But here's the catch. We are naturally curious, so we will think under the right conditions.
Those conditions are shaped by our perceptions.
When solving a problem or searching for new ideas, we quickly evaluate how much mental work it will take. If it's too much work or too little effort, we stop thinking about the problem or ideas. Feeling overwhelmed or bored does not make us feel good, so we avoid it.
How can teachers encourage students to think?
Cognitive Load
Since thinking requires our working memory, teachers need to apply cognitive load theory to lesson design. Working memory is easy to overload. As a result, teachers should ensure that students have adequate background knowledge and use memory aids to reduce the amount of information that students need to hold in their working memories. For more strategies, see my post on Cognitive Load.
Ensure Moderate Challenge
Remember Hattie's Goldilocks principle: "Not too Hard, Not too Boring, Just Right." A task's level of difficulty should be just above the learner's current achievement level. Make sure that students understand the purpose of the task, and the effort is considered worthwhile. Successful learning encourages students to keep thinking.
Use Questions to Attain the Goldilocks Principle
Research has shown that teachers ask 300-400 questions per day, and 60% of them are low-level, recall questions (Hattie, 2009). Higher cognitive questioning, or open, inquiry questions, piques interest because these questions require students to relate ideas, create connections with prior knowledge, and apply content to novel situations.
The best questions get at students "current level of thinking plus one" (Hattie, 2018, 77). In other words, teachers begin with surface questions and then incorporate higher-order questions to deepen students' thinking. If students are already answering higher cognitive questions, ask them to transfer or extend their thinking.
How does Hattie's "+1 rule" work using the Domains Of Knowledge?
I am teaching Of Mice and Men. My initial questions should be from level 1 plus a question from level 2. For example:
Level 1~ Describe the direct and indirect characterization of Lennie.
+
Level 2~ Infer Lennie's motivation from his characterization
Once students are more comfortable with Lennie's character, I would ask level 2 questions and add level 3 thinking skills.
Level 2~ Infer Lennie's motivation from his characterization.
+
Level 3~ Cite evidence from the reading to support your inference.
By the end of the unit, I would ask students a level 4 question~
Critique Steinbeck's description of Lennie as a terrier given his characterization and motivation.
Hattie, J. (2018). Ten mindframes for visible learning: Teaching for success. Routledge.
Willingham, D. (2021). Why don't students like school: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom (2nd ed). Jossey-Bass.
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