Welcome Guest!
Teachers are welcome to read and post on Teachers.Net.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post pics, links & comments
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
Welcome Guest!
You must login to comment on posts.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post links & upload pics
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
Welcome Guest!
Your account must login to post.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post, comment, & upload pics
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
by rick lynn mayfieldga
Aug 7, 2004
/blockquote>
I everyone will see the value of my cognitive tools to
helping students and adults continually improve their
abilities and their lives. I hope these cognitive tools
will not only improve thinking, learning, and reflection
time, but also will help maintain much better
mental/emotional health and growth fo...See More/blockquote>
I everyone will see the value of my cognitive tools to
helping students and adults continually improve their
abilities and their lives. I hope these cognitive tools
will not only improve thinking, learning, and reflection
time, but also will help maintain much better
mental/emotional health and growth for everyone. I will
place my short version here. My long version is for all to
read from my home site at
[link removed]
Removing the deadly myth of fixed intelligence
There is an unseen, harmful teaching in our schools that is
creating many problems such as drug/alcohol abuse (teen sex
related), violence, depression, and suicide. This is the
deadly and false belief of permanence in ability or myth of
fixed intelligence that crept into our schools years ago
from the teachings of Galton and others. This belief has
now strangled out all the many variables and tools we could
be teaching students and adults to help them continually
improve their abilities and their lives. I hope you can see
the connection between the harmful teachings of permanence
or fixed intelligence in ability and its deadly effect on
the mental/emotional health of our students (and adults).
Many years ago, Charles Darwin came out with his theory of
evolution. According to that belief, people evolved over
time from the apes. Later, his cousin, Francis Galton came
out with his belief on "Social Darwinism" or that persons
succeeded by being naturally more intelligent and/or
working harder than others. According to that false belief,
if a person did not succeed, that person was either less
intelligent or simply did not work hard enough. For persons
in power, such beliefs in fixed abilities allowed certain
ones to falsely see others who were less fortunate as less
intelligent or simply not working hard enough to succeed.
According to his belief, environment played little or no
role in success; it was simply intelligence and hard work.
Using the false belief of fixed intelligences, persons who
had financial security and power over others could then
meet and greet others who were less fortunate with a much
cleaner conscience or without feeling for another’s needs.
Such ones would wield more power over others who were less
fortunate by reasoning that such was the natural order of
life. Such belief of dominance over others may have also
given those individuals with power an extra feeling of
pride and esteem.
Society and schools also accepted the false theory of fixed
intelligence. School systems could more easily remove
conscience or concern for students who were less fortunate.
Persons in charge could then reason that students who
succeeded in school were simply more intelligent and worked
harder than those students who didn’t succeed. This false
idea proved to be convenient for teachers and
administrators. They could simply pass out the information,
encourage hard work, and then grade out those who succeeded
and those who didn’t. The false belief in fixed
intelligence and hard work enabled them to more easily and
conveniently separate those who made the grade regardless
of all the various environmental variables that affected
children’s lives.
In truth, our individual environments do greatly affect our
ability to think and learn. While genetics does play a role
in hair and eye color, physical features, and size, our
minds are pretty much like any other organ in the body,
pretty much all the same. Although our minds can be damaged
in various ways, causing mental problems of intelligence,
for the vast majority of us, such is not the case, we are
all pretty much equal in it’s function. However, since our
minds are very complex, we are all greatly affected by many
things, which enter our minds and have a tendency to either
help or hurt our ability to think and learn. Remember that
ability is greatly determined by the amount of and quality
of all the mental, emotional, physical, and social -
support, knowledge, and skills we have received from
family, friends, and peers from infancy onward. You can see
how changes in the amount and quality of any of those
supports over time could greatly affect one’s ability when
compared with someone else who received more or less of
those various supports.
While I know we cannot provide everyone with a nice,
knowledge-rich, and secure environment, I do believe we can
all learn to approach our individual environments more
delicately and differently no matter what our environment
to continually improve our ability to think, learn, change,
and develop into newer and better persons each day. I now
give you my learning theory, which offers us two, very
large tools we can all use to continually improve our
lives. The first tool uses stress in a much more productive
way. The second tool involves the more correct and
productive use of pace and intensity when approaching
mental work, or learning how to approach newer things more
slowly.
The first tool is designed to properly understand and lower
average stress. By changing and correcting the
current "faulty" definition of stress, we can all learn to
greatly improve our ability to think, learn, change, and
develop into newer and better persons. Currently, stress is
improperly thought of as any energy used when performing
any physical, mental, or emotional activity. It is also
thought of as occurring only during some immediate,
situation or problem. To make matters less helpful and more
confusing, many believe there is good stress and bad
stress. These views of stress are "not useful" for helping
us change and improve our lives. However, by changing from
these faulty definitions of stress to one is that more
accurate and useful, we can then use it as a powerful tool
to help students and adults change and improve their lives.
I see stress more accurately as "mental frictions" that
occur in our everyday life and impede our ability to think
and learn, not as simply energy expended. For example,
laughing, crying, running, and swimming are not good stress
but very low, if any stress. In such cases, we are using
energy, but we are "not creating mental frictions" from it.
So you see in this definition, "stress does not occur" when
energy is expended without mental frictions. Also by seeing
stress more accurately as mental frictions that occur not
just as conscious, immediate problems but also as other
many layers of subconscious (just below the surface)
problems, plans, and other unresolved mental frictions, we
can then see more clearly how our individual environments
work to greatly affect our ability to think and learn. In
my learning theory, I show how we can use this better
definition of stress to provide students and adults with
ways to continually improve their ability to think and
learn by learning how to more permanently reduce such
layers of mental frictions or residual stress in their life.
My First Tool is designed to more permanently reduce layers
of residual stress that hurt our ability to think and
learn. When you are performing mental work such as
academics, your mind is also working on other layers of
other things or problems in your life. Each layer or
problem your mind is working on even below the surface
(subconsciously) hurts your ability to think, learn,
change, and grow mentally. Try to picture an upright
rectangle representing your full ability to think and learn
(Fig. page 8). Then begin drawing in from the bottom,
narrowly spaced horizontal lines to represent layers of
many things your mind may be working on both consciously
and just below the surface or subconsciously. The space you
have left represents your leftover ability to think, learn,
and create new knowledge. The length of this space also
represents our length of reflection time or time a person
uses to consider the rewards or consequences for some
course of action. This shows us just how our individual
environments do greatly affect our ability to think and
learn. Persons with higher layers of residual stress will
have to work harder to receive the same mental reward for
mental work expended. This is why children appear to be
smarter: they have fewer layers of residual stress. We
cannot just relax or perform physical work to reduce those
layers of residual stress. When we attempt new mental work
after relaxing that energy is then re-applied back as
mental energy to those other layers of residual stress, so
nothing is accomplished. When our bodies recover from
performing physical work as a form of relaxation, the
energy used for those purposes is then re-applied back to
those other layers of mental work or residual stress.
My theory provides a tool to understand and more
permanently reduce layers of residual stress. Pretend your
backyard is your environment with sandspurs in different
places. Each day you take a little time to understand more
where the sandspurs are, you can then learn to walk more
carefully to avoid getting stuck. Very much so in real
life, a person can begin to understand a little more each
day, the elements of his or her individual circumstances,
responsibilities, problems, along with the weights or
values that person is attaching to those elements in his or
her life. Then that person can slowly begin to understand
about how those things in his or her life and the weights
they are placing on those things work to create layers of
mental frictions.
From this, persons can then learn to understand why a
certain mental friction or layer of residual stress is
occurring. They can then learn how to approach those areas
that are creating mental frictions in their life, more
delicately. Then with a small change in a value in a
certain area of his life, he can then resolve and more
permanently remove that layer of residual stress. This also
helps persons make changes in values and set up better
principles of approaching life which will help to resolve
other layers of mental conflicts and "prevent other mental
conflicts from occurring in the future". This enables us to
more permanently reduce layers of residual stress that hurt
our ability to think and learn. With each more permanently
removed layer of residual stress, students and adults will
be able to continually improve their ability to think,
learn, extend reflection time (or help persons think longer
and better before making a decision). This will also
improve motivation in mental areas. The easier it is to
learn, the greater the motivation to learn.
Also this upright rectangle also shows how layers of
residual stress combined with situational stress on top
creates even shorter reflection time that leads to
psychological suffering. This shorter reflection time and
psychological suffering can lead to many escapes such as
drug/alcohol abuse, depression, suicide, even a great
catharsis of violence. My theory offers a way to more
permanently reduce those layers of residual stress that
lead to such problems.
My Second Tool looks at the dynamics of how our pace and
intensity can be used more correctly when approaching
mental work, situations, problems, academics, etc. As our
pace and intensity in approaching mental work exceeds our
immediate knowledge and experience or try too hard, we
create exponentially greater (much more) mental friction,
thus forcing us to work much harder to learn. This also
raises our layers of residual stress and hurts much more,
our ability to think, learn, and also shortens more so our
length of reflection time (again, ability to think better
or more intelligently). We can learn how to more correctly
approach new mental work, situations, problems, and
academics to continually improve thinking, learning, and
improve motivation to think and learn academics (make it
easier to learn).
We can visualize what is proper pace and intensity by
imagining a small circle, representing our present
knowledge in an area, "with only a few, little notches" on
the outside to add more mental information. If we rushed or
tried too hard, we would create much more mental friction
by trying to place too many bits of new mental knowledge
onto those few notches before we had sufficient learning
and understanding to properly use that information. This is
how we create much more mental friction by trying too hard
at first. However, by going more slowly at first and
allowing those notches to be filled properly, then that
circle of knowledge will increase more naturally and with
less mental friction. As that circle of knowledge or skill
increases, we will then have more numerous mental notches
to add more information that can then be taken in more
easily and more quickly. As this circle of knowledge in an
area increases, our pace and intensity of learning and
adding to that knowledge will increase naturally. As a
person develops skills in different areas, new skills can
be learned more easily; basic skills can be inserted into
more complex skills, thus pace and intensity will then
increase naturally and will factor over time with equal
enjoyment. This is the key to long-term motivation.
The equation for "motivation in mental areas and intrinsic
reward" is equaled to "mental reward received for mental
work expended". Both of these tools will enable us to
remove the myth of permanence in ability for students and
adults and provide them with tools they can use to
continually improve their ability to think, learn, and
extend their reflection time. My complete theory with many
applications for many social and academic problems is on my
home site.
By showing students how our individual environments "do
greatly affect" their ability to think and learn, students
and adults will have far more respect and esteem for
themselves and for others. By providing students with tools
to approach their individual environments more delicately
and differently to continually improve their ability to
think and learn, students will have more long-term hope of
changing and developing in time, many of the qualities they
admire in others. This will release students from the
harmful myth of permanence in ability currently being
taught and improve life for all of us by reducing many
escapes and other problems such as dropouts, drug/alcohol
abuse, and suicide. This is my short version. My complete
theory with many applications is on my home site. Feel free
to read, copy and use.
My other site in application to this theory explains the
growing Gap in Achievement between African Americans and
Caucasians - Black and White. It offers many environmental
variables we can use as tools to help all students and
adults improve their ability to think, learn, and change
their lives. [link removed]
by 3rdgradeteacher-MO
Aug 9, 2004
/blockquote>
I love to have "Energizer" activities for my 3rd graders
when they become restless. Any fun ideas out there??? It
can be a short game, group activity, exercise, etc.
Thanks in advance!
by Lynn Atchison
Aug 10, 2004
/blockquote>
What do you all think of Kagan? I am attending a great
conference on Multiple Intellegence with Spencer Kagan's
books. His wife is the presenter and this is great with
the research behind it.
Lynn
/blockquote>
Does anyone know of a site or activities that would help
right-side thinkers use more of the left side of their
brain and same for left side thinkers?
Thanks in advance! Sue
by rick lynn mayfieldga
Aug 21, 2004
/blockquote>
I hope this will connect with some as something really
good for students and adults.
Okay, currently we are teaching students (and adults) they
are naturally and more permanently good at this and bad at
that with no variables other than try harder to improve
ability and change. I feel this is hurt...See More/blockquote>
I hope this will connect with some as something really
good for students and adults.
Okay, currently we are teaching students (and adults) they
are naturally and more permanently good at this and bad at
that with no variables other than try harder to improve
ability and change. I feel this is hurting many students
and adults.
Given; from living in West Palm Beach in a very stable,
knowledge rich environment, I know how such an environment
is conducive to thinking, learning, and achieving.
Given also; I also know how from living in a housing
project for years how the lack of essentials, stability,
knowledge, and the anxiety it produces in many families
greatly inhibits ability to think, learn, and achieve.
While we cannot provide everyone with a stable environment,
I feel there are tools we can provide all students and
adults in both environments to approach their lives more
delicately and differently to continually
improve ability to think, learn, and change. Try to see
those in the more stable knowledge and skill-rich
environment as a collective group, consciously and
subconsciously mentally working on various mental frictions
or layers of things going on in their lives. Now try to see
those in the less stable environment with far less
knowledge, skills, and more anxieties as a collective
group, mentally working on more layers of such mental
frictions that impede ability to think and learn. This
would show just how our individual environments work to
either aid or impede our ability to think and learn. Those
students with fewer layers of mental frictions will find it
more easy to think and learn, while those students
with higher layers of mental frictions will have to work
harder to receive mental reward for mental work expended -
less learning and less motivation to learn. Over time, this
can add up to years behind academically for some students.
Note this applies to all students for they all fall on a
continuum of less or more layers of mental frictions that
affect thinking, learning, and reflection. Now, try to see
these mental frictions in layers that take up space in our
mind and take up mental energy we would normally use to
think, learn, reflect, and develop other areas of our
lives. Those persons with fewer layers of mental frictions
would then be able to think, learn, and reflect much more
effectively. I feel there is a way to more permanently
reduce such layers of mental frictions in our life.
I know we cannot simply relax or perform physical exercise
to remove those layers of mental frictions. When we relax
and turn off all mental energy, we turn off everything, but
do not actually remove the mental frictions. When we begin
another mental work, our minds will simply feed mental
energy right back into those layers of mental frictions.
When we perform physical work, we temporarily remove energy
that would normally be used to work on those mental
frictions. This provides temporary relief from those mental
frictions. However, after your body recovers from that
physical exertion, that energy is then re-applied back to
those layers of mental frictions.
I feel there are two large tools we can create from this
all students and adults can use to continually improve
ability to think, learn, and change. The first tool: We can
begin more closely examining our lives each day to see
where mental frictions are occurring in our life. Remember,
anything good, bad, fun, challenging, Etc. that creates
mental frictions all go into this. Then we can begin to see
how in the way we conduct our lives each day, where mental
frictions are occurring and stored or added to those
layers. This may involve certain faulty weights or values
you are applying to things in your life that are creating
needless mental frictions. There may be set ways persons
have of doing things that create needless mental frictions
that add to those layers. There may be beliefs handed down
that you act this way or that way, Etc. that may also
accumulate needless mental frictions. Whatever, you can see
you can change and resolve those mental frictions will help
more permanently reduce those layers of mental frictions.
Also by changing certain weights or values of things you
find are not worth it and by setting up principles or rules
to live by along with those changed weights and values, you
can remove any like mental frictions from occurring in the
future. By deciding more accurately how to weigh things in
our lives, we can more permanently reduce many mental
frictions that occur between various things we experience.
Each more permanently reduced, mental friction will improve
that much our ability to think, learn, reflect, and change
more so.
A second tool we can use: Our incorrect pace and intensity
in approaching everything we do may in itself create
needless mental friction to thinking, learning, reflection,
and changing. As our pace and intensity in approaching any
mental work: situation, problem, academic, especially new
mental work or academic, exceeds our immediate knowledge
and experience, we create much more(exponentially greater)
mental friction to thinking, learning, and reflection. Some
students and even adults think that hard work means
something like gritting their teeth and bearing down with
their knuckles to get the job down even for mental work.
However, when approaching mental work, we should keep in
mind that trying too hard creates much more mental friction
to thinking, learning, reflection, and motivation (mental
reward received for mental work expended). Students and
adults who approach mental work at an incorrect pace and
intensity will not learn as well, not be as motivated (less
mental reward received for mental work expended), and will
tend to fall behind. We need to begin approaching any new
mental work, problem, academic, especially any new mental
work or academic more
slowly at first even to the point of simply reflecting on
the material before and then going slowly at first,
allowing pace and intensity to pick up naturally. Try to
picture a small circle with a "few notches" representing
some knowledge we have regarding some area. If we
immediately tried too hard to put lots of new information
onto that circle, we may fill those notches but more likely
be needlessly, mentally wrestling with other knowledge we
do not have understanding for at that time. This is what
happens when we mentally try to hard. The cure and
something we need to teach also to our students is to begin
a new mental work, situation, problem, "academic" very
slowly at first. As we slowly fill those few notches for
new information, that circle of knowledge will slowly
expands it expands, the number of notches will "multiply".
As those notches multiply and grow, our pace and intensity
of adding new information and knowledge will increase
naturally and will factor over time. This represents the
valuable tool or dynamics of approaching mental work more
correctly. Both of these tools represent not only hope and
tools for
increased thinking, learning, and reflection time but also
represent a whole new way to view persons in term of
ability. Think how such variables presented have gone into
the development of students and adults over time in terms
of various amounts or lack of various knowledge, skills,
abilities, Etc. This means much more respect for persons
based on environmental influences rather than simply saying
they were not able or did not work hard enough.
There are many mental/emotional/social applications for
this information that could greatly reduce much
psychological suffering and thus reduce many escapes such
as drug/alcohol abuse, depression, and suicide. Note that
as those layers of mental frictions accumulate, they can
not only create much more mental friction to thinking,
learning, and reflection, they also create much
psychological suffering that can lead to depression and
suicide. Now we have a way to help more permanently reduce
the layers of mental frictions that lead to such problems.
My complete theory with many applications are on my site
for all to read, copy, and reprint.
[link removed]
from rick - Regarding mental frictions - This would be
anything your mind is working on both consciously and
subconsciously. It could be any "already
existing - or not new" loose string or non-completed idea,
thought, problem, situation, worry; even good things like
vacation plans, hobby loose strings, chess problem. They
also include mental frictions that may be temporary or more
permanent such as caring for invalid or sibling, doing
something for someone in need. Whether these create mental
frictions are determined by the weights or values you are
applying to those areas. If you see any such as necessary
and proper then such may not represent much if any mental
friction. The amount of mental friction in an area would be
determined by the values you are applying. I think Maslow
was pretty good. I just think if he had also added amount
of space taken up as being more or less determined by the
value one was applying, it would have been more accurate. I
am not certain whether he was grouping all layers of mental
frictions under various subheadings or what. I see layers
of mental frictions we are working on as very very
numerous, some very small and some large. I see the reason
children learn more effectively because of fewer
accumulated layers of mental frictions, whereas adults with
more
sensitivity/awareness to various things, problems and
accumulated layers over the years, are somewhat more
impeded. Adults have more knowledge and skills, just lack
as much mental energy due to accumulated higher layers of
mental frictions in their life.
Try to picture an upright rectangle representing our full
capacity or energy for thinking, learning, and reflection.
Now begin at the bottom, drawing in narrowly spaced,
horizontal lines to represent figuratively very numerous
layers of mental frictions our mind may be working on both
consciously and subconsciously. What space we have left at
the top represents our leftover ability to think, learn,
reflect, and learn new information.
Note that any situational stress such as accident, new
situation, problem: anything that creates multiple new
mental frictions and/or rush of pace and intensity would go
on top of those already experienced layers of mental
frictions. I consider this as situational stress or mental
frictions on top
of any already existing layers of mental frictions. Note
that the length of that leftover space represents our
length of reflection time. So the higher our layers mental
frictions, the shorter our length of reflection time or
time taken to consider the rewards or consequences for
course of action. This can be deadly for many persons who
are both undergoing sufficiently higher layers of mental
frictions creating much psychological suffering and also
shorter reflection time as a result. This can lead to
various short-term escapes: drug/alcohol abuse, depression,
and suicide.
This would also explain how one person with fewer layers of
mental frictions might experience a problem or situation
with some difficulty but would be rational and not be
overwhelmed, whereas someone else with higher layers of
mental frictions might be then overcome with such higher
layers of immediate, mental friction, they might become
more irrational and not able
to function normally until the amount of or layers of
mental frictions has been reduced sufficiently. Hence for
the prevention of violence and suicide alone or other
irrational behavior, it would pay great dividends for us to
help all students and adults to maintain fewer layers of
mental frictions in their life. Please look for my drawn
Figure marked "Residual Layers Fig" at top of site for my
view of the upright rectangle. This file is at the top of
my site at [link removed]
by San Diego Tutor
Aug 27, 2004
/blockquote>
Visit our website or give us a call at 858-229-8107 for
tutoring in English, Spanish, Calculus, French, Chemistry,
Physics, SAT 1, SAT 2, Math and many other subjects in San
Diego.
[link removed]>
by San Diego Tutor
Aug 27, 2004
/blockquote>
Visit our website or give us a call at 858-229-8107 for
tutoring in English, Spanish, Calculus, French, Chemistry,
Physics, SAT 1, SAT 2, Math and many other subjects in San
Diego.
next page »
« prev page
Teacher Chatboards
