Care to share ideas about how to

This blog is part of a larger circle that is reviewing and discussing chapters total balance in Ambrose et al's (2010) How Learning Works . In the classroom, I'm like Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Inception. I realize that in order to identify and conquer student misconceptions about material (such as: "we use 10% of our brain!," "I'm left-brained!" or "hypnosis helps us recover repressed memories"), I need to get inside their heads and make them think that the life-altering, total balance mind-changing event happened in their own mind, of their own volition. Otherwise, it just won't work. We have plenty of research over here in Cog Psych indicating that when a person is presented with information that counters their beliefs, it doesn't ameliorate the misconception. It can be counterproductive, actually, in that it can "backfire" and make those misbelievers believe those beliefs even harder (Nyhan & Reifler, 2010) . THAT'S CRAZY. So how do we handle this in the classroom? We carefully, skillfully, artfully, and other -ullys, guide our students toward the correct conclusion (such as "I use my WHOLE BRAIN!"). But, in order to do that, they need to think it's their idea. We can't jump in and solve the problem for them, they have to come to the "right" conclusion themselves. Ideas are worthless until they are believed, and they can't be believed in a context that is too vague or that is antithetical to the current mental state.
Care to share ideas about how to "carefully, skillfully, artfully, and other -ullys, guide our students"? I tend to use methods I describe as Socratic. They allow me to create a dialogue/argument that leads to understanding a concept before we have a formal introduction to the underlying theory or calculations. Its a challenge to get students in finance courses to think its their idea. In part, perhaps, because some of the concepts have no obvious practical total balance value. Maybe because students have learned memorization usually total balance has an acceptable payoff. Reply Delete
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