When research knowledge gained is neither cumulative nor translated into practice.
Learning, memory, thinking, social cognition
This short article is a response to Renata Mannheimer’s request for practical ideas for developing more effective educati0nal environments. Part of the article was edited by LAK since it contained very personal comments that were not central to the issues the issues being addressed by the correspondent EMW, Director of the Richardson Institute of Applied Cognitive Science.
Dear Renata Mannheimer
I admire the efforts of your cognitive neuroscience workgroup. Your accomplishments are particularly impressive given your isolation and limited resources.
Your website manager LAK informed me that he could not post your notes to me since they included a plea for help with your domestic problems. I was appalled when I read how your husband, after almost 20 years of marriage left you and your kids and ran off (a few yards away) with a young New Bretten biologist. No doubt it is awful to have to have a day to day working and communal relationship with those who have been so hurtful and deceitful. I would think that you will get appropriate and meaningful support from your small community.
The title of my short report is also a summary of what I will talk about when I prepare a more complete response to your invitation to contribute to your website. I conclude that research knowledge in education is neither cumulative nor translated into practice because the educational research culture is dysfunctional. Educational research has been a failure because of the use of poor research designs, lack of adequate control groups, weak and unreliable measures, manipulations that are almost never model based and I can go and I will in a more detailed future report. A research culture is missing in part because schools of education are professional schools mandated to churn out certified teachers. They are not designed to support sound research.
When research is poor then findings are unreliable and therefore new knowledge cannot be built on previously acquired knowledge and that is why I say that knowledge is not cumulative. When this is the case we inevitably have to go to the beginning in trying to solve problems. It also means that policy decisions in education are built on unproven idiosyncratic beliefs and attitudes. What is needed is a research, evidence-based foundation for educational policy?
When a research culture is missing then it is also difficult to capitalize on knowledge gained from related fields such as cognitive neuroscience. Translation of what we have learned from mind-brain science has been virtually absent. Well known bodies of research could and should be useful in building strong educational environments. Let me cite just a few examples of facets of cognition that have been studied extensively and are well understood.
- The way in which false knowledge impedes learning. Much of the learning that takes place in science is unlearning false concepts and facts and reorganizing what a student should know about a topic.
- Learning to learn and the role of executive functions in cognition. Planning skills, self-monitoring skills, inhibition, predicting performance, accurate self-evaluation are skills that can be taught to even preschool children. I noted that you have included a review of the work of Adele Diamond and her use of Tools of the Mind on your website. This approach is just one of many that can be used to train executive functions to kids in school.
- The important research on the role of knowledge in the encoding of information while learning is a research area that had its peak 30 years ago but has not been incorporated in mainstream education. This is a research area that is particularly important in approaching early education in disadvantaged populations. Disadvantaged children by the age of 3 or 4 have less than half the vocabulary (and related funds of knowledge) compared to children from middle class homes. Fund of available knowledge has a direct effect on the depth to which new information is encoded and learned. When learning is shallow it is easily lost from memory and means that learning is built on a weak foundation.
I will get back to you soon with more detailed comments and we can then talk about the possibilities of collaborations between your community and some of the colleagues in my field.