Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Modelling Instruction Workshop, ASU, July 21st 2003
Cognitive AccelerationGetting at Students’ General Intelligence
Philip Adey, King’s College, London University
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Thinking Science activity: Treatments and Effects
CarrotsWith Grocaro
CarrotsWithout Grocaro
Does Grocaro make carrots grow bigger?
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Your Task:
• What animal or plant do you have?• What is the treatment given to them?• What effect is it supposed to have?• Do you think the treatment has the supposed
effect?• How did you work it out?
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Notions of intelligence:
• Working memory capacity– The number of bits of information one can operate on at
one time.
• Inhelder and Piaget’s idea of ‘Formal operations’– Includes abstract modelling and comparing the possible
with the real.
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
A simple model of the mind
Long-term memory
Information is stored by association - ‘neural networks’
Sense OrgansConvert external stimuli to neural signals
Information from outside and from L.T. memory is processed
Working memory
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Schemata of formal operations
• Control of variables
• Proportionality
• Classification systems
• Equilibrium
• Probability
• Formal models
In the pendulum,You need to keepMass, length, and Width of swing in mind at once
3
54
?Scaling up, you need all 3 numbers in mind at once
Can you use the kinetic theory to Predict behaviour?
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
What influences cognitive development?
• Genetic make-up– … but environment plays a role from very early after
conception, and anyway there is nothing we can do about it
• Maturation of the central nervous system– The brain matures in line with the rest of the body
• Cognitive stimulation
– This is what we have some control over …
What does ‘Cognitive Stimulation’ look like…?
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Stimulation requires ‘Cognitive Conflict’ …
a Somewhat Surprising event
Dialogue withteacher or moreexperienced peer
Assimilation, but also ...
Accommodation of the processing mechanism to the higher level demand
… and ‘Social Construction’
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
“… learning which is oriented toward developmental levels that have already been reached is ineffective from the viewpoint of a child’s overall development. It does not aim for a new stage of the developmental process, but rather lags behind this process. The only good learning is that which is in advance of development”
Mind in Society, 1930 / 1978, p. 82
Lev Vygotskii says:
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Pillars of Cognitive Acceleration
Social Construction
Dialogue with others is essential
Cognitive Conflict
The mind develops in response to stimulation
MetacognitionReflecting on how
we tackled the problem
Schema ofFormal ops.
Control of variablesProportionality
ProbabilityClassification
etc.
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Theory into Practice … since 1984“Original Flavour” CASE:• is aimed at Grades 6 and 7;• consists of 30 x 60 minute lessons, taught once every two weeks
instead of regular science (the 3rd Edition of “Thinking Science” was published by Nelson Thornes in 2001);
• has a two-year Professional Development programme.
� CAME - secondary Mathematics & CATE - secondary Technology
� Let’s Think! for Kindergarten - being extended to Grade 1
� Let’s Think through Science! is for Grade 2 - and soon G3
… there is also:
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
Long term effects: ‘Added value’
1 Find levels of cognitive development of all at school entry (grade 6)
2 Find relationship between non-CASE schools’ entry level and national test grades end of Grade 10
3 See by how much CASE schools’ grades exceed these expectations 20 30 40 50 60 70
Mean Grade 6 School Intake (Percentile)
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5MeanGCSE GradeYear 11
F
E
D
C
B
A
Control Schools
National average
CASE Schools
St. Albans
Chatham Girls
Sharnbrook
George Abbott
DownendDownham Market
St. EdmundsSion Manning
Clapton
South CamdenRokeby
1999 GCSE science
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
… and the transfer effect
2.5
E
3.5
D
4.5
C
5.5
B
6.5
A
7.5
30 50 70
Mean Grade 6 School Intake (Percentile)
Control Schools
CASE Schools
National Average
604020
St. Albans
Chatham Girls
George Abbott
Sharnbrook
Downend
Downham Market
St. Edmunds
Clapton
Sion Manning
South CamdenRokeby
GCSE Maths 1999
2.5
E
3.5
D
4.5
C
5.5
B
6.5
A
7.5
20 30 40 50 60 70
Mean Grade 6 School Intake (percentile)
St. Albans
Chatham Girls
George Abbott
Sharnbrook
Downend
St. Edmunds
Clapton
Sion Manning
South CamdenRokeby
Downham Market
MeanGrade
MeanGrade
GCSE English 1999
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
The Professional Development Issue
• Teaching for cognitive acceleration may need a radical re-think of one’s view of the nature of learning and teaching …
• … and so a radical shift in pedagogy
• … thus, it generally requires a long term and supportive programme of Professional Development.
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
SummaryWe have good evidence that an intervention based on Piagetian ideas of cognitive conflict and Vygotskyan ideas of social construction leads to long-term gains in academic achievement far beyond the (science) context of the intervention itself. BUT …
• It is a slow process• It is dependent on the quality of teaching• There remain questions about the mechanism
The Hedgehog has one big idea…..
Centre for the Advancement of Thinking KING'SCollegeLONDONFounded 1829
ContactProfessor Philip AdeyCentre for the Advancement of ThinkingKing’s College London UniversityFranklin Wilkins BuildingStamford Street, London SE1 9NN [email protected]
Thinking Scienceis published by Nelson Thorneswww.nelsonthornes.com