Daniel Wilingham on Paul Tough

He likes the book -- I may have to read!

Laura on executive function in 2nd grade

I'm finding myself in a position where I'm wondering if I can leverage the district's fear of being sued to try to get them to put together a more academically focused class for my son.

He's hitting the second grade wall (I spoke with a mom yesterday who pulled her kid out and is sending him to Eagle Hill in Greenwich, where he's now thriving, and she said second grade is when it really starts)--absurdly high demands for executive function are being pushed ever higher and higher (pick out your own book, monitor your own reading for 30-40 minutes, remember whatever little reading activity of the day you're supposed to apply to what you read), and focused academic instruction is plummeting ever lower.

They are talking about the possibility of putting my above average IQ kid in a segregated special education class.

I'm starting to wonder if the threat of being sued to pay for an out-of-district placement might motivate my school system to do something more creative.

Two years running, now, the principal of our K-3 school has told the school board that her goal is to 'create a safe environment where children can take risks.'

She's talking about 5 year olds.

Taking risks.

That's her goal.

Constructivism means transferring responsibility from the grown-ups to the children.

New Year

I've been mulling this year's resolutions. So far I'm thinking they may have to be mostly about 2 of the kids:

• daily PSAT prep for C. (which means daily math, mostly)

• daily GrammarTrainer for Andrew (we were going great guns until I fell off the wagon)
  

• teach Andrew to pedal a bike (so not looking forward to that one)
  

Still need a resolution for me. Possibly: make enough money to pay somebody else to do test prep. That would be good.

Actually, this is the one I'm gearing up for:

A year ago, the Lincoln, Neb., artist and writer was so disorganized that she spent much of her time looking for misplaced supplies in her office clutter. To find all the Web sites where she had posted her artwork, "I often had to Google my own name," she says. But she made a resolution last New Year's Day to get organized, and now, a year later, she is sticking to it. With the clutter gone and her deadlines and routines under control, she says, "my life is so much easier."

A Cheat Sheet for Making New Year's Resolutions
by Sue Shellenbarger

Speaking of office clutter, we bought Billy bookshelves at Ikea today. The corner combination. So, clearly, I need a resolution to go with.

And, speaking of resolve, I am now basically a strict vegetarian.^* Well, strict except for the Swedish meatballs. I've lost 7 pounds.

It took me three months to stop eating meat, chicken, fish, dairy, eggs, refined carbohydrates, salt, and olive oil,^** but after a quarter century of trying I still can't organize my office.

That is preposterous.


^* I refuse to use the word 'vegan' in public.
^** still eating some salt & vegetable oil

executive function is genetic

well, well, well

who would have predicted this:

Recent psychological and neuropsychological research suggests that executive functions—the cognitive control processes that regulate thought and action—are multifaceted and that different types of executive functions are correlated but separable. The present multivariate twin study of 3 executive functions (inhibiting dominant responses, updating working memory representations, and shifting between task sets), measured as latent variables, examined why people vary in these executive control abilities and why these abilities are correlated but separable from a behavioral genetic perspective. Results indicated that executive functions are correlated because they are influenced by a highly heritable (99%) common factor that goes beyond general intelligence or perceptual speed, and they are separable because of additional genetic influences unique to particular executive functions. This combination of general and specific genetic influences places executive functions among the most heritable psychological traits. These results highlight the potential of genetic approaches for uncovering the biological underpinnings of executive functions and suggest a need for examining multiple types of executive functions to distinguish different levels of genetic influences.

Individual Differences in Executive Functions Are Almost Entirely Genetic in Origin
Naomi P. Friedman, Akira Miyake, Susan E. Young, John C. DeFries, Robin P. Corley, and John K. Hewitt
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
2008, Vol. 137, No. 2, 201–225

Haven't read the article yet; when I have, and can (possibly) translate it into plain English, I'll post more.

Four thoughts for now:

Number one: so I guess tracking kids by executive function instead of ability to learn, as our middle school does, could be considered just the teensiest bit unfair.

Number two: if your kids are going to be attending a public school that tracks by executive function instead of ability to learn, redshirting your sons is a very good idea. Redshirting your daughters may be a good idea, too. Or just bagging the whole thing and teaching them at home: an excellent idea!

Number three: yet another piece of evidence that all those broader, bolder plans, many of which amount to nothing more than the intention to teach executive function (aka non-cognitive skills) to the children of the poor, are doomed to failure.^*

Number four: constructivism must die.

The only folks on the planet who want to construct their own knowledge, and who can construct their own knowledge, are people with executive function to spare.

Ditto for projects.



wrong again

To tell the truth, I wouldn't have predicted this finding. No way would I have said EF would be 99% heritable. I think the highest heritability estimate for IQ I've seen is 80%, and I believe the "official" estimate is still 70%.

So....I would have put executive function at 70 to 80%.

My guess is this finding won't hold up. Last I heard (this was a while back, so the consensus could have changed), there were almost no aspects of life with 99% heritability. As I understand it, genes are always expressed inside an environment, whether that environment is social or biological ("biological" includes the presence or absence of other genes), and environments vary.

If readers who've studied genetics happen to stop by, I'd appreciate hearing whether this notion is evolving in some way I've missed.


Differential Development of Executive Functions in Adolescence - poster comparing boys & girls (pdf file)


^* pls take this with a grain of salt: the bigger, bolder plan is doomed to failure, but not (necessarily) because executive function can't be taught

Andromeda on organization & the middle school kid

Organizing notebooks:

1) I teach middle school, and it's just scary how much of success at this level is linked to organizational abilities and work habits, not intelligence. I've got crazy-smart kids who do terribly because they do the homework and can't find it, or (more likely) never did the homework because they don't have some consistent way of writing it down, or couldn't do it correctly because they didn't have the notes, or, or, or...All organization. I don't believe in notebook grades, but that does put me in a bit of a bind...

2) Joan Sedita's book on study skills is the bible. I don't remember if it touches directly on organization, but it does a great job identifying and breaking down study skills things that students may be having trouble with, and its general approach is illuminating.

3) As a basic template for organizing notebooks, you can seldom go wrong with this:
Get a three-ring binder with as much looseleaf paper as will fit. (Notebooks where you tear out paper are the devil; paper, once torn out, cannot be put back in any helpful way.) If at all possible, get one which doesn't have folders in the front or back, because then all the paper will end up *in* the folders, getting dogeared and disorganized.

Make four sections: notes; homework; tests and quizzes; handouts. Or maybe five: blank paper.

Everything in those sections is to be chronological. It doesn't matter if the most recent is first or last, as long as it's consistent. This gives you an easy organizing principle: whatever you are working on should be placed directly after the last page with writing on it (or as the very first page of the section, depending on whether you prefer chronological or reverse). Actually, having all the blank paper segregated in a blank paper section will probably benefit the very disorganized (who tend to have random quantities of blank paper interrupting stuff).

Also:

HAVE A HOLE PUNCH which lives in the binder. (You can get little thin three-ring punches which have holes so they can live in three-ring binders.) If the teacher gives you anything unpunched (which I think is unacceptable but no one made me god), hole-punch it immediately so you can put it in the appropriate section.

The virtue of the notes/homework/tests and quizzes/handout layout is that pretty much every paper you will ever get in class goes in one of those, and it's generally obvious which. There are a couple of odd cases like syllabi, but they are rare.

As long as we're on the topic of notebooks, rereading your notes within a day of taking them is also a great habit to be in -- it's spooky how much that aids retention (and especially the retention gained/time spent ratio).


THANK YOU, Andromeda!!!!!!!

(And tell us more!!)

How To Study, from A Pro

From the British Psychological Society's blog, BPS Research Digest:

Some advice from Nate Kornell:

Although as students we have all spent countless hours studying, we receive little guidance in how to study effectively. There are no shortcuts to effective studying, but in general, being actively involved in learning makes studying effective. Some specific points are obvious: pay attention in class, do the reading, don’t procrastinate, while others should be obvious but aren’t: study in a quiet place without distractions, don’t send text messages during class, ask questions if you are confused.

Here are three unintuitive but very effective ways of studying based on findings from psychological research:

Also check out Professor Kornell's webpage for more provocative information.

concerned teacher on how to teach organization

concerned teacher left this comment re: teaching organization:

And while we are teaching students how to organize any kind of notebook, it is important to "check", often at first, to see that students are following the proper organizational procedures.

Don't expect a disorganized student to learn it quickly or to even know if he is not doing it properly.

It will come easier for some, who are just "natural organizers", but we must not fail to help those for whom it is not easy.

I read that it takes doing something 30-35 times for it to become a habit. And it must be done properly every time for that habit to be formed.

Teaching students how to organize is like laying down tracks to guide them through the year. But tracks are no good if the student doesn't stay on them. And for some students, if they get off, they won't know where or how they got off or how to get back on.

from The Learning Gap:

The Asian teacher faces a very different set of demands from those faced in the American classroom. Dealing with thirty-eight to fifty children, with no tracking or separation according to their level of ability, imposes a strong need on the teacher to create order and structure. This is accomplished in several ways.

First, teachers make an explicit effort during the early months of elementary school to teach children techniques and skills that will allow them to function effectively in a group. Children learn how to move from one activity to another, how to arrange the contents of their desks so that they can find things easily, how to pay attention, how to follow directions, and how to speak loudly and clearly so that they can be understood. By equipping children with these skills, Asian teachers are able to handle large classes in a smooth and unflustered manner. Children's easy transitions from one activity to another and their readiness to carry out classroom routines occur not because Asian children are docile or passive, but because they have been taught efficient and useful ways of handling themselves in the classroom. Asian teachers are willing to take the time to teach these skills because, among other reasons, they know they will reap the benefits for more than a single year. The same group of children will remain with the teacher for two year, or sometimes even three or more.
p. 62

C. has had a number of teachers throughout middle school who directly instructed the kids on how to organize and manage their materials. This year's Spanish teacher is so precise she will tell the, "Put this paper here; put that paper there; throw that paper out." He's doing fantastically well in Spanish for the first time in 3 years, and I don't think that's an accident.

Thinking about it now, I bet if I went back through C's middle school years I would find that he's tended to do best in classes in which teachers directly taught and monitored organization.

His social studies teacher this year, who is in charge of teaching and overseeing the research paper all the 8th graders write, has it down to a science. He gives the kids a daily assignment to complete for the paper, and he checks at close intervals to find out whether the assignments have been done.

C. has been coming home every night saying cheerfully, "I have to do my social studies research" and then hustling off to the basement to work.

I think this is an invaluable lesson in the critical skill of getting long projects done day by day instead of, for example, waiting until the deadline is 8 weeks away and then pulling 2 months of all nighters.

Not that I know anyone who would do such a thing.

rational utility maximisers of the world unite!

a comment left by Tracy:

I regularly participate in a website devoted to the discussion of Jane Austen books, and it is surprising how often someone posts saying they don't understand why one of her characters made some decision that was not rational. A surprising number of people apparently expect everyone to act like the economists' stereotype of a rational utility maximiser and are confused when they don't.

And of course, if you think everyone is a perfectly rational utility maximiser, when you encounter someone doing something bad, the likely explanation is that they fully intended it, and therefore are bad people.

It's a hard process to raise some awareness in a person that they themselves are probably flawed as well.

This is a chronic source of amazement around here.

I mean, here I sit, not doing what I'm supposed to be doing (writing Wildlife Chapter), not managing my time well (or at all), not maximizing these my Peak Years of Productivity.....and, meanwhile, over in the parallel universe that is a public middle school, kids are receiving grades of F on their notebooks for poor organization.

I don't get it!

There are so many disorganized adults abroad in the land that "Professional Organizer" is a job.

Does it seem reasonable to anyone outside a public middle school that a sixth grade child:

a) can competently organize his math notebook
b) will promptly learn to organize his math notebook just as soon as he receives a grade of F for not organizing his math notebook?

answer: No.

It does not.