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Children’s Complex Thinking

– By Tom O’Brien and Christine Wallach

Pop over to your neighborhood school and visit some classrooms. Is what’s happening cognitively nutritive? That is, does it satisfy present needs and provide nourishment for the future health and development of children’s thinking?

Or is it punitive, with little concern for present nourishment and future health and development?

The Genevan psychologist and researcher Hermina Sinclair said,

All of us concerned with education should view children as wearing signboards saying ‘Under Construction’. No, wait a moment. I didn’t say that strongly enough. All of us should look at people as wearing signboards saying, ‘Under Construction—Self Employed’. (See Reference 1.)

We are in the fifth year of research, work which sheds light on Sinclair’s claim, shows that present educational goals for children are often trivial, and which suggests that current methods of causing learning to take place should be re-thought.

The work shows that children at grades 1-5 are capable of stunningly complex thinking and that this goal can be achieved with no direct teaching, but rather by posing problems for the children to solve.

Our work involves casual logical games created by O’Brien. Reports on the research appear in Reference 2.

The games are available for Palm pdas through OS 5 at Handango.com under the title Treasure Hunt. See Reference 3.

The games involve a search for jewels on a 4 by 4 grid.

In all games, players ask for information and then assess the consequences of the information to locate the jewel(s) with logical necessity. The issue is inference: the deriving of new information (conclusions) from old information (data).

In all games, two levels are available: 1) search for 1 jewel and 2) search for 2 jewels.

In one game, Find the Emerald, an emerald is hidden at random and the player chooses a box (in this case, A-2.)The distance from A-2 to the mystery jewel is 2. The distance is left-right and up-down, not diagonal. So if a child asked about A-2 and if the feedback were 2, the Emerald would have to be in B-1, C-2, B-3, or A-4. Which box would you ask about next?

 

 

 

 

 

In a different game in the Treasure Hunt suite, Rubies, players choose a box and the computer looks in that box and all the boxes which touch that box and tells the players whether or not it sees a Ruby. (In the case of the two-Ruby game, the computer reports 0, 1 or 2 Rubies seen.)

In a third game, Diamonds, the player chooses a box. If the mystery jewel is in that box or if it is touching that box sideways, the feedback is Hot. If the mystery jewel is touching the child’s box cornerwise, the feedback is Warm. If the two boxes are not touching, the feedback is Cold. (In the two-Diamond game, the child’s box may be Hot to one jewel and Warm to another. The feedback is Hot, because Hot overrules Warm. Similarly, Hot overrules Cold. And Warm overrules Cold.)

During our research, no teaching took place aside from giving children an explanation of the rules of the game. Children worked together with the teacher as the data-giver. Sometimes a Palm device and a projection device were used and sometimes the teacher calculated the feedback and recorded the data on a chalkboard.

Although three-jewel games have not been programmed for the Palm, recent research has involved three-jewels (with the teacher hiding the jewels and calculating the feedback.)

One-jewel games are accessible to most children, even as early as grade 1. Two- and three-jewel games, however, are very complex. Readers are encouraged to play the games with friends with or without an electronic device.

Conclusions

The main findings were four:

1. In general, children’s thinking—from grade 1 to grade 5—was very complex and economical. Children very rarely asked a useless question and very rarely made a false inference.

2. Children worked together with enthusiasm and respect. They questioned each other’s thinking in ways that were considerate, and they supported each other’s learning by explaining how they arrived at their conclusions. This behavior would be a surprise to many teachers. How to explain what happened? Children were trusted to tackle very complex tasks rather than being spoon fed with the accompanying hidden message, “You are capable only of following the teacher’s instructions.”

3. Virtually all children were successfully engaged and it was often the case that children who had had little classroom success did very complex thinking. One implication is that the traditional method, direct teaching, often doesn’t encourage original and complex thinking Our research shows that they crave it.

One girl who was birth-deformed and who never spoke above a whisper, took over the class at one point, “Tell me, John, What box do you want to know about? A-3? A-3 is 3. What are the consequences? Now, Susan, tell me what you have to add to what John just said.” Another child, Boris, had had no success, academically or socially, from kindergarten to grade 5. He thrived on the search games. Unknown to the school staff, Boris was an Asperger’s logic machine, capable of incredibly complex thinking.

4. Throughout the years of research, evidence has been presented to support the view that learning involves provoked adaptation. People revise their original networks of ideas and construct new ones in the face of challenges, novelty and problem situations. This is far from what’s commonplace in today’s world of fundamentalist absolutist authoritarian policies and practices.

Comments

The notion that knowledge is constructed is not popular in these days. Indeed, a denial of this fundamental human act—perhaps the must fundamental cognitive act of all—has led American educational critics to impose an approach to education appropriate only for parrots. See Reference 3.

But in our research one sees children constructing important ideas concerning logical necessity.

The research supports the idea that knowledge evolves in terms of coherence, stability, economy and generalizability. And when it achieves equilibrium it quests.(See Reference 4. It was routine—no, universal—that kids finished a game and said, “Can we do a harder one?”

Are these experiences nourishing? That is, will they have an effect twenty years from now? We don’t know. Come back in twenty years.

We think that the answer is yes. We base this hunch on the fact that we meet parents in the schoolyard or the grocery story who say, “What are these logic games Johnny is playing in class? He likes them very much and he has the whole family playing Emeralds and Rubies and Diamonds around the dinner table at night.”

Other kids pop back to class two or three years after their class has moved on. “Can I play Diamonds? I remember the game well.” And they play a game or two of Diamonds with all their tactics still fresh.

Indeed, it is the rare teacher who can cite such events. Rather, they say, “With the traditional curriculum it often seems as though that kids forget everything they’ve learned when summer vacation arrives. They come back in September having forgotten nearly everything. It seems like they had never been to school in the first place.”

— Thomas C. O’Brien is professor emeritus, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He is a former North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Senior Research Fellow in Science. He is a consultant, author, and software developer. His website is http://www.professortobbs.com/.

— Christine Wallach is a veteran teacher at New City School, St. Louis MO.

References

1. Extracts from a Seminar, “Intellectual Development, Research and Education,” by Hermina deZwart Sinclair (University of Geneva), Teachers’ Center Project, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 1977.

“The Child as Scientist,” an interview with Hermina deZwart Sinclair (University of Geneva), Teachers’ Center Project, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 1977.

2. Thomas C. O’Brien and Judy Barnett, “Fasten your seat belts,” Phi Delta Kappan, 85(3), 201-6, November 2003.

Thomas C. O’Brien and Judy Barnett, “Hold on to your hat,” Mathematics Teaching, 87, June 2004.

Thomas C. O’Brien and Chris Wallach, “Children Teach a Chicken,” Mathematics Teaching, 93, December 2005.

Thomas C. O’Brien, “A Lesson on Logical Necessity,” Teaching Children Mathematics, 13(1), August 2006.

Thomas C. O’Brien and Chris Wallach, “Children’s Construction of Logical Necessity,” Primary Mathematics, Autumn 2007.

3. The Treasure Hunt games are available for purchase at www.Handango.com. See Here.

Two other suites of O’Brien’s software, Find It and Mystery Three, show identical research results, These can be found at the Handango site.

According to Palm experts, all three software suites work with all models of Palm devices including handhelds and smart phones — i.e., M100 series, M500 series, Lifedrive, Tungstens, Zires, Treos and Centro.

4. Thomas C. O’Brien, “Parrot Math,” Phi Delta Kappan, 80(6), February 1999.

5. Thomas C. O’Brien, “What’s Basic—a Constructivist View” in Handbook of Basic Issues and Choices, National Institute of Education, USOE, March 1982.

Thomas C. O’Brien, “Some Thoughts on Treasure-Keeping,” Phi Delta Kappan, January 1989.

Thomas C. O’Brien, and Ann Moss, “What’s Basic in Mathematics?,” The Principal, November 2004

No doubt, a great source of mental stimulation for all of us. Charles House, Media X’s Executive Director, framed the dialogue as an effort to generate the right questions and then engage the best minds in answering them.

Some of (my) main take-aways

• “The world does not come to us as neat disciplinary problems, but as complex interdisciplinary challenges” (great quote by Dean John Hennessy)
• Personal Robotics is poised to explode soon-and software will be key (predicted by Paul Saffo)
• An inconvenient truth: Al Gore had to be convinced to bring his presentation into a movie, since he was very attached to each and every of his X hundred slides. We are happy it happened!
• Neuroscientists know what patterns in the brain indicate certain intentions-and are starting to use technologies to help immobilized patients communicate with external devices based merely on their thoughts
• We need to learn to embrace change- a lot of it is coming!

Now, some key points from several presentations (there were more than these, but I couldn’t attend all). I encourage you to visit the website of each presenter if you are interested in learning more about that topic.

a. Paul Saffo on Innovation

• It usually takes 20 years since basic science until applications reach inflection point and take the world by storm
• Next big thing: personal robotics. Indicators: DARPA sponsored first attempts in mid-80s, and now we have applications such as the Roomba vacuum-cleaner, and Stanford racing car team (see below). The key is the software managing the hardware.
• Pay attention to how you feel about change. Embrace change. Learn that change means opportunity

b. Scott Z. Burns, co-producer of An Inconvenient Truth

• Gore was reluctant, but he was convinced to accelerate learning given the increasing threat of global warming.
• The power of analogies: in order to find the right format for the movie, they were inspired by Scorcese’s The Last Waltz
• Goal of the movie: Al Gore saw an analogy between the movie and a bio-feedback device that her daughter used to treat her migraines. In biofeedback, one learns how to manage vital body variables (such as Heart Rate Variability) in order to reach a goal (preventing migraines, managing stress…). Similarly, Gore wanted each viewer to find his or her own “levers” or “muscles” and ways to act -not just be told what to do. This is why the movie focuses more on describing the situation than on proposing solutions.
• The only acting advice to Gore was “think of this presentation as your last presentation”.
• The movie’s budget was $1.5m. It was risky movie, in terms of the subject and the format, that has paid off very well.

c. Prof. Laura L. Carstensen, on the Stanford Center on Longevity

• Technology & Science has been improving Biology for the last 150 years, and now we need to focus on how to help people remain physically fit and mentally sharp as we age
• We need to redefine “aging”. Nowadays, there are many role models in their 70s and 80s that show how age is not an obstacle for being active contributors in society

d. Prof. Krishna Shenoy on Brain Computer Interfaces

• Problem: many people can’t move/ communicate
• Solution: translate brain signals into control signals, by implanting electrodes in brain that measure signals (action potentials) and help predict behaviors based on response pattern recognition
• There are already applications today that help monkeys and humans move cursors based on their thoughts

e. Dr. LeRoy Heinrichs on Virtual Simulations for medical education

• Simulations work very well to train surgeons and other medical professionals learn how to perform their jobs.
• Virtual simulations (in a simulated virtual environment) can work as well as physical ones (which typically are more expensive and less scalable)

f. Prof. Robert Sutton on running Organizations (see his blog)

• Treat your organization as an unfinished prototype: as a leader, you need to act on your best knowledge right now, while doubting what you know
• Data-based decision-making is key: Yahoo Strategic Data Services conducts over 20 controlled experiments per day
• Yet, even if you are learning all the time, you need to act with total conviction, or people won’t follow.

g. Prof. Gilbert M. Masters on Green Building and Green Cars

• He recommends reading “It’s the Architecture, Stupid!” to understand how buildings account for 35-45% carbon emissions in the US, more than transportation and industry (each)
• Ranking of main sources of pollution in the “building” category: residential space heating, commercial lighting, residential water heating
• Interesting initiatives: Stanford Green Dorm Project and Tesla Motors

h. Prof. Kenneth Salisbury on Personal Robotics

• There are robots today with great motor dexterity-i.e., they can unload a dishwasher
• The sector needs to create and build on an open-source platform, to avoid multiple fragmentary efforts that prevent faster progress for the field as a whole

i. Prof. Sebastian Thrun, on the DARPA Urban Challenge

• The Stanford Racing Team won the 2005 DARPA Challenge and is getting ready for The Urban Challenge (November 3rd, 2007), where their fully autonomous car will need to drive in a fully urban environment
• This requires more sophisticated software, moving from perception to Understanding (object detection, prediction, interaction)
• Predicted timeline for fully autonomous driving: military vehicles in 2015, civil cars by 2030

j. Prof. B.J. Fogg on how email “cheapens our lives”

• Maintaining close relationships is critical for happiness
• Email is a very bad tool to manage close relationships
• Tips: draw a map of your key relationships; share emotions often; know other people’s details; just hang out; give gifts with shared meaning; remember to use ALL media, not just emails
• YackPack: “walkie-talkie” widget for websites to help people communicate via voice

k. Prof. Roy D. Pea on Innovations in Learning

• There is an increasing need for DIY videos in protocol sharing among scientists, so they can better replicate experiments
• Lab is creating new ways to enable people create conversations ABOUT video to enhance diversity of views and connections

l. Stuart Gannes on the Digital Vision Fellowship Program

• Brij Kothari: large initiative in India to foster literacy by introducing same language subtitles in TV programs.
• Adam Tolnay: designing games in cell phone to improve teenage financial literacy, to help prevent mistakes with credit cards that may cost as much as 200 points in credit scoring.

m. Prof. Brigid Barron on successful group dynamics

• The key factor seems to be how to manage Attention
• Both successful and unsuccessul groups generate a similar amount and quality of proposals
• But only successful ones respond positively to good proposals and maintain continuous shared attention until the problem is solved
• (Which means maybe brainstorming is overrated by now?)

n. Prof. Dan Schwartz on new methods for learning outside the classroom

• Games help merge formal & informal learning
• Teachable agents are computer programs created by students to make their knowledge explicit, and can be used as part of games to motivate students do their homework

o. Prof. Jeremy Bailenson on Virtual Worlds

• Our digital identities (avatars, profiles…) don’t just reflect us: they shape us. Our choices have consequences

p. Prof. Paul Brown on 3D Scientific Imaging

• There are new imaging and software packages that allow doctors navigate virtually into the bodies of patients, in a non-invasive way
• The images are simply spectacular.
• They used these technologies to see in detail the interiors of an Egyptian mummy

Which of these topics are more interesting to you? Just let us know and we will do a follow-up article. Enjoy!