Section 6 Super Summary

Chapter 9 and Conclusion

In chapter nine the focus changes from the minds of our students to our own. Mr. Willingham reviews that thinking takes place in working memory. The information used in working memory comes from either the environment or from background knowledge, both facts and procedures. So, to apply this to improving our teaching, he says we must have long-term practice. Willingham sums this up by stating, “Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.” (p. 189).
He emphasized that experience is not synonymous with practice. I liked his example of being an experienced driver, but not well practiced. To really become a better teacher he suggests we must do three things during our practice: (1) consciously work on improving, (2) seek feedback from someone in the field, and (3) participate in activities for the sake of improvement, even when they don’t directly contribute to your job. (p. 195).
Willingham’s method for getting and giving feedback as a form of practice for teachers is rigorous. He states that you need to work with someone else and that “working on your teaching will be a threat to your ego.” (p. 195). It can be scary! He gives five main steps to achieve improvement. (1) Find another teacher to work with that you can trust and who is also committed to the project. (2) Tape yourself teaching and watch them alone. (3) With your partner, watch tapes of other teachers. Practice observing and commenting. (4) With your partner, watch and comment on each other’s tapes. He reminds us to “be supportive, be concrete, and focus on behaviors.” (p. 199). (5) Bring it back to the classroom and follow up. Make a plan to practice one specific thing in the classroom, and then do it.
The final section of chapter nine gives some smaller steps to improve teaching that take less time. He suggests keeping a daily teaching diary, starting a discussion group with other teachers, or observing children in other settings to notice how students of that age think and interact.
In his conclusion Mr. Willingham sums it up this way. “Thus, to ensure that your students follow you, you must keep them interested; to ensure their interest, you must anticipate their reactions; and to anticipate their reactions, you must know them. ‘Know your students’ is a fair summary of the content of this book.” (p. 209). He says that cognitive science elaborates on this basic premise. There is a very useful table on pages 210 and 211 that summarizes the nine principles of the mind he chose to define, along with the knowledge needed to deploy them, and the most important implication of each. Below are the principles from each chapter.
Chapter 1 People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally good thinkers.
Chapter 2 Factual knowledge precedes skill.
Chapter 3 Memory is the residue of thought.
Chapter 4 We understand new things in the context of things we already know.
Chapter 5 Proficiency requires practice.
Chapter 6 Cognition is fundamentally different early and late in training.
Chapter 7 Children are more alike than different in terms of learning.
Chapter 8 Intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work.
Chapter 9 Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.
There are more than these, but the author chose these because they are true all the time, they are based on many studies, and using the principles can make a big difference in student performance. His final thought sums up the purpose for his book. “Education makes better minds, and knowledge of the mind can make better education.” (p. 213).