Teaching Matters
Welcome to Teaching Matters, a co-publication between UofT Bulletin and CTSI, and written by members of the Teaching Academy during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Previous articles:
Professional Programs: Promise, Peril or Paradox by Zubin Austin
Studying Abroad at the University of Toronto by Michael Lettieri
Improving the Student Experience Through Community-based Learning
Previous articles:
Professional Programs: Promise, Peril or Paradox by Zubin Austin
Studying Abroad at the University of Toronto by Michael Lettieri
Improving the Student Experience Through Community-based Learning
For more Teaching Matters articles published in the U of T Bulletin, please visit the In the News section.
TEACHING MATTERS: HABITS OF MIND
By Steve Joordens, Psychology, UTSC
“Once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget”. As a researcher of memory I know that there is a lot packed into this common phrase. Memory comes in many forms, and the form related to this phrase is called procedural memory. Colloquially others sometime refer to it as “muscle memory” because its primary role is to link thoughts and actions into highly efficient routines, typically motor routines. Once learned, these memories allow for fluent execution that occurs automatically and that defies forgetting even over long intervals. Watch a fantastic gymnast or any other highly trained athlete, and what you are really seeing is the accumulated result of effective practice.
Procedural memory makes the unnatural natural. Some alterations of behavior develop naturally as a result of maturation. One does not have to work hard to experience puberty for example. Puberty just happens, and it changes how we react to “stimuli” in the environment. But learning to ride a bike is not natural. First you have to want to do it, then you need some instruction in doing it, then you have to practice doing it. If all those fall into place then eventually riding a bike will “seem” natural, thanks to procedural memory.
Of course, merging all of the necessary routines is difficult at first, and requires a great deal of conscious thought. To ride a bike correctly you must balance, while peddling, while steering, while watching the road ahead of you, and as the road changes you must adjust all of these aspects appropriately to negotiate the changes. The necessary coordination is extremely difficult at first; again riding a bike is not a natural behavior, and thus effort must be put into learning it. However, with sufficient practice the coordination becomes effortless and, once solidly learned, the underlying memories are resilient … we often refer to this kind of resilient memory as habit.
Cognitive processes are no different from physical processes, they develop and become automatic with repeated practice. In fact, the bike-riding example actually reflects coordination between cognitive and physical processes. When learning to ride a bike one must also learn where to attend, and where not to attend, and one must integrate these attentional processes with the various behavioral processes. From a procedural memory perspective, there is little difference between cognitive and physical processes. Cognition can be also practiced, and with four years of regular practice our students could leave our institution with a set of resilient cognitive habits that guide and enhance their decisions “naturally and fluently” throughout their life.
What cognitive habits do I think we should develop? I, following many others, argue that the most relevant habits include; (a) the ability to think critically, (b) the ability to think creatively, (c) the meta-cognitive ability to know the quality of one’s own work and thoughts, (d) the ability to self-reflect in the face of feedback or consequences and enhance one’s future work on its basis, and (e) the ability to communicate the results of all this thinking in ways that are effective.
But surely these processes develop naturally, right? Aren’t they more like puberty than riding a bike? We all hold opinions on all sorts of issues; surely we have come to these decisions through a process of natural rational thought, right? How else would we have come to believe the things we believe?
As I have argued elsewhere (Joordens, Academic Matters, Oct 2011) these thought processes are not natural. Humans often come to positions on issues simply by accepting the opinions of others, or by being swayed by other influential people. That is, we come to opinions through indoctrination rather than deep rational thought. Engaging in rational thought is actually rare, and most of our students come into university as novices in terms of their proficiency of thought. However, just like riding a bike, if we gave students proper guidance and regular experience engaging the processes highlighted above these processes could become natural and, once learned, will benefit our students for decades to come. As I tell my students, I’m teaching you these skills so that you can win more arguments with your future children!
How can we provide such practice? Those who know me know of my association with peerScholar, an internet-based technology I co-created with my Ph.D. student Dwayne Pare. It supports assignments that institute peer and self-assessment in a formative context. Formative assignments are those in which students submit an initial draft, but are then given the opportunity to improve their work in the context of feedback. In peerScholar, the feedback comes from peers. That is, students are asked to provide feedback to a subset of their peers, which means they must analyze the work of others, come to an assessment of its quality, find ways it could be improved and ultimately communicate that assessment in ways that are clear and informative. Immediately thereafter the students receive feedback on their work from a subset of their peers and must judge how useful given comments are, and then must revise their work in a way that makes the most of the useful comments while ignoring the less useful comments. Again, this requires analysis and critical thought, all performed in the context of improving one’s own work (self-reflection, meta-cognition) and the work of others. Throughout all of this students are getting a palpable sense of the relative quality of their own work. It’s one thing to receive a C and some comments from an “expert” weeks after handing in some assignment; it’s quite another to submit an assignment and then immediately see peer draft submissions that are clearly better, and/or worse, than your own.
Thus peerScholar was specifically designed as a tool for guiding and providing practice with all of the cognitive processes I have been describing with the goal of helping them to become strong “habits of mind”. It handles all the logistics of sharing, distributing and recompiling assignments, and it provides clear interfaces for the creation and evaluation of assignments. It is extremely easy to use, it is designed and based on research findings and it is now freely available for use at the University of Toronto.
I have been using versions of peerScholar in my large Introductory Psychology class for many years. I can give students this sort of practice in one class, but that’s like giving a child one chance to ride a bike. Yes their ability will improve slightly, much as my dancing ability improved slightly when I took a few weeks of dance classes. But I can assure you that my dancing is far from fluent or natural, that only comes with repeated experience across multiple contexts. If you’d like to consider using peerScholar in your class, send us an e-mail (uoft@peerScholar.ca). Going beyond peerScholar, the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation has recently created an online resource that provides a range of video and document examples that provide additional elaboration to the ideas presented in this essay (see, in particular, the Assessment section).
With widespread use of peerScholar, or any other assignments that support the sorts of cognitive processes I mentioned, our students could obtain a fluency of thought and communication, the sort of fluency that defines leaders and innovators. I see that as our primary goal, and with the help of my colleagues I hope to make the University of Toronto a gymnasium of the mind.
TEACHING MATTERS: HABITS OF MIND
By Steve Joordens, Psychology, UTSC
“Once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget”. As a researcher of memory I know that there is a lot packed into this common phrase. Memory comes in many forms, and the form related to this phrase is called procedural memory. Colloquially others sometime refer to it as “muscle memory” because its primary role is to link thoughts and actions into highly efficient routines, typically motor routines. Once learned, these memories allow for fluent execution that occurs automatically and that defies forgetting even over long intervals. Watch a fantastic gymnast or any other highly trained athlete, and what you are really seeing is the accumulated result of effective practice.
Procedural memory makes the unnatural natural. Some alterations of behavior develop naturally as a result of maturation. One does not have to work hard to experience puberty for example. Puberty just happens, and it changes how we react to “stimuli” in the environment. But learning to ride a bike is not natural. First you have to want to do it, then you need some instruction in doing it, then you have to practice doing it. If all those fall into place then eventually riding a bike will “seem” natural, thanks to procedural memory.
Of course, merging all of the necessary routines is difficult at first, and requires a great deal of conscious thought. To ride a bike correctly you must balance, while peddling, while steering, while watching the road ahead of you, and as the road changes you must adjust all of these aspects appropriately to negotiate the changes. The necessary coordination is extremely difficult at first; again riding a bike is not a natural behavior, and thus effort must be put into learning it. However, with sufficient practice the coordination becomes effortless and, once solidly learned, the underlying memories are resilient … we often refer to this kind of resilient memory as habit.
Cognitive processes are no different from physical processes, they develop and become automatic with repeated practice. In fact, the bike-riding example actually reflects coordination between cognitive and physical processes. When learning to ride a bike one must also learn where to attend, and where not to attend, and one must integrate these attentional processes with the various behavioral processes. From a procedural memory perspective, there is little difference between cognitive and physical processes. Cognition can be also practiced, and with four years of regular practice our students could leave our institution with a set of resilient cognitive habits that guide and enhance their decisions “naturally and fluently” throughout their life.
What cognitive habits do I think we should develop? I, following many others, argue that the most relevant habits include; (a) the ability to think critically, (b) the ability to think creatively, (c) the meta-cognitive ability to know the quality of one’s own work and thoughts, (d) the ability to self-reflect in the face of feedback or consequences and enhance one’s future work on its basis, and (e) the ability to communicate the results of all this thinking in ways that are effective.
But surely these processes develop naturally, right? Aren’t they more like puberty than riding a bike? We all hold opinions on all sorts of issues; surely we have come to these decisions through a process of natural rational thought, right? How else would we have come to believe the things we believe?
As I have argued elsewhere (Joordens, Academic Matters, Oct 2011) these thought processes are not natural. Humans often come to positions on issues simply by accepting the opinions of others, or by being swayed by other influential people. That is, we come to opinions through indoctrination rather than deep rational thought. Engaging in rational thought is actually rare, and most of our students come into university as novices in terms of their proficiency of thought. However, just like riding a bike, if we gave students proper guidance and regular experience engaging the processes highlighted above these processes could become natural and, once learned, will benefit our students for decades to come. As I tell my students, I’m teaching you these skills so that you can win more arguments with your future children!
How can we provide such practice? Those who know me know of my association with peerScholar, an internet-based technology I co-created with my Ph.D. student Dwayne Pare. It supports assignments that institute peer and self-assessment in a formative context. Formative assignments are those in which students submit an initial draft, but are then given the opportunity to improve their work in the context of feedback. In peerScholar, the feedback comes from peers. That is, students are asked to provide feedback to a subset of their peers, which means they must analyze the work of others, come to an assessment of its quality, find ways it could be improved and ultimately communicate that assessment in ways that are clear and informative. Immediately thereafter the students receive feedback on their work from a subset of their peers and must judge how useful given comments are, and then must revise their work in a way that makes the most of the useful comments while ignoring the less useful comments. Again, this requires analysis and critical thought, all performed in the context of improving one’s own work (self-reflection, meta-cognition) and the work of others. Throughout all of this students are getting a palpable sense of the relative quality of their own work. It’s one thing to receive a C and some comments from an “expert” weeks after handing in some assignment; it’s quite another to submit an assignment and then immediately see peer draft submissions that are clearly better, and/or worse, than your own.
Thus peerScholar was specifically designed as a tool for guiding and providing practice with all of the cognitive processes I have been describing with the goal of helping them to become strong “habits of mind”. It handles all the logistics of sharing, distributing and recompiling assignments, and it provides clear interfaces for the creation and evaluation of assignments. It is extremely easy to use, it is designed and based on research findings and it is now freely available for use at the University of Toronto.
I have been using versions of peerScholar in my large Introductory Psychology class for many years. I can give students this sort of practice in one class, but that’s like giving a child one chance to ride a bike. Yes their ability will improve slightly, much as my dancing ability improved slightly when I took a few weeks of dance classes. But I can assure you that my dancing is far from fluent or natural, that only comes with repeated experience across multiple contexts. If you’d like to consider using peerScholar in your class, send us an e-mail (uoft@peerScholar.ca). Going beyond peerScholar, the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation has recently created an online resource that provides a range of video and document examples that provide additional elaboration to the ideas presented in this essay (see, in particular, the Assessment section).
With widespread use of peerScholar, or any other assignments that support the sorts of cognitive processes I mentioned, our students could obtain a fluency of thought and communication, the sort of fluency that defines leaders and innovators. I see that as our primary goal, and with the help of my colleagues I hope to make the University of Toronto a gymnasium of the mind.
Teaching Matters: Articles are co-published by UofT Bulletin and CTSI. These articles, written by members of the Teaching Academy, highlight and discuss various teaching and pedagogical issues with the broader community.
The Teaching Academy was founded in 2006 and consists of members who have received the President’s Teaching Award, the highest honour for teaching at the University of Toronto. While individual members of the academy serve as teaching ambassadors, the collective advances teaching as a valued pillar at the University of Toronto.
The Teaching Academy was founded in 2006 and consists of members who have received the President’s Teaching Award, the highest honour for teaching at the University of Toronto. While individual members of the academy serve as teaching ambassadors, the collective advances teaching as a valued pillar at the University of Toronto.