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Nora Krieger's avatar

My granddaughter was assigned a book that is a classic, Call of the Wild. She hated it, thought the dogs were being abused. She missed the whole point of the book because she had not been exposed to the background knowledge that would have made this book understandable. Once I sat down with her and explained the time period of the book and the gold rush, she was able to comprehend what she was reading, although she still did not like the book.

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Chris Ragg's avatar

That finding that 55x instructional minutes has zero effect is BONKERS.

Whenever I think about the learning of abstract topics, I try to analogize (dangerous, I know) to something that feels more concrete, like disassembling and working on the engine of a car. Yes, we can teach skills like how to use a socket wrench or check the oil, but I'd imagine that the best mechanical training involves lots of hands-on experience with actual cars in an organized, thoughtful way, that builds in complexity and in content knowledge. And - surprise - throughout that process they will need some of those more specific micro-skills like socket-wrenching and oil-checking. And then they're using them in a valuable context that will help with retention. Then the true test of expertise wouldn't be taking an engine apart, but putting one all the way back together from scratch - an analogy for writing.

A stretch, perhaps, but it helps me wrap my mind around all this stuff.

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