Super Summary, Chapter 8

How can I help slow learners?

Willingham spent a lot of time debating whether intelligence is genetic or environmental in this chapter. He explained "Americans, like other Westerners, view intelligence as a fixed attribute... In China, Japan, and other Eastern countries, intelligence is more often viewed as malleable." (pg. 169) He asks which is correct? Both has some truth, he explained how our genetics do play a small role in our intelligence but our environment does as well.

The cognitive principle that guides this chapter:
Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work. (pg. 170)

"Where does intelligence come from?... "all nature (that is, genetics) or all nurture (that is experience). Whenever the question Is it nature or is it nurture? is asked, the answer is almost always both." (pg. 173) Willingham goes on to describe how the thinking that one has more of a role in this than the other has made a shift to "thinking it's 'both, but probably mostly environmental'." (pg. 174) The Flynn Effect (described on pages 176-177) showed that IQ score went up dramatically over a 50 year period. "If intelligence is largely genetic, we would not expect IQ scores for a whole country to go up or down much over time, because the overall gene pool changes very slowly. But that's not what happened. There have been huge increases in IQ scores- increases that are much too large to have been caused by changes in genes." (pg. 177) He goes on to offer a couple other causes for an increase, but credits most of it to environment.

Implications for the Classroom
"The point of this chapter is to emphasize that slow learners are not dumb." (pg. 182) Here are some ways we can help slow learners catch up, "we must first be sure they believe they can improve and next we must try to persuade them that it will be worth it." (pg. 182-3)

- Praise Effort, Not Ability- we want our students to believe their intelligence is under their control, and that through hard work- it can be developed. He explained how dishonest praise can make you lose your credibility.

-Tell Them That Hard Work Pays Off- "tell your students how hard famous scientists, inventors, authors, and other 'geniuses' must work in order to be so smart, but even more important, make that lesson apply to the work your students do. If some students in your school brag about not studying, explode that myth; tell them that most students who do well in school work quite hard." (pg. 183) He gave an example of a football player that considered himself "a dumb jock". His conversation showed the student that school work is much like football practice.

-Treat Failure as a Natural Part of Learning- Our goal should be to create a classroom environment that the students can find that failure is not embarrassing or totally negative. The students should know that failure is not exactly desirable though. We should "model this attitude for your students. When you fail- and who doesn't- let them see you take a positive, learning attitude." (pg. 185) He gave two examples of people in places of power have this attitude, Michael Jordan and a member of Congress.

- Don't Take Study Skills for Granted- Willingham asks if "Do your slower students really know how to study?.... Students that are already behind will have that much more trouble doing work on their own at home, and they may be slower to learn these skills." (pg. 185) Maybe we need to take the time to teach our slower students the skills of self-discipline, time management, and what to do when they are having problems.

-Catching Up Is the Long-Term Goal- "To catch up, the slower students must work harder than the brighter students... When thinking about helping slower students catch up, it may be smart to set interim goals that are achievable and concrete. These goals might include such strategies as devoting a fixed time every day to homework, reading a weekly news magazine, or watching one educational DVD on science each week. Needless to say, enlisting parents in such efforts, if possible, will be an enormous help." (pg. 186)

-Show Students That You Have Confidence in Them- "Ask ten people you know, 'Who was the most important teacher in your life?'... People say things like 'She made me believe in myself' or 'She taught me to love knowledge.' In addition, people always tell me that their important teacher set high standards and believed that the student could meet those standards." (pg 186)

There was this note at the end of this chapter (pg. 187) "This is not to say that students don't have learning disabilities. Some do. My conclusions in this chapter do not apply to these students."