This chapter is interesting and has quite a bit of information that is complicated to me. The jest is that setting is important and there are dimensions of settings. Some are overt and easy to identify and clues are embedded and we scan right past them. The author tells gives the following explanation to help us understand:
"Jeff is a passionate marathon cross-country skier. He knows that he must put his weight squarely on each ski to get the best glide. He has a mnemonic that acts as a conceptual tool to help him do so: "knees, nose, toes." The mnemonic reminds him how his head, knees and toes should line up, which in turn ensures that he has the proper bend in his ankle and knee to place his weight where it should go. If he can actually line up his body in this way, he has a procedural tool that he can put to use. And if he does so, his skis become physical tools that allow him to ski really fast! (Faster than he otherwise should have, anyway.) Obviously, these tools can only be developed and are only useful in a particular context: that of skiing on a cross-country ski trail."
The reason for the above explanation is to help us understand that students need the same tools that can be used for conceptual tools that assist in noticing and thinking and procedural tools that support interpretation and consequential actions. If students only learn definitions than they only have immobile pieces of information, they do not have tools that can be flexible and transferrable. How do we do give our students tools? By developing and teaching meaningful work that has purpose.
The author states we want to teach "toolish" not "schoolish"!
What a great strategy. I think it is so important to note that different students learn different ways. Some students are great at memorizing definitions, some students like tangible information, and others prefer contextual knowledge. I think it is so important in try a multitude of learning strategies in the classroom so we can be sure to reach all learners.
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