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#DearJournalists: I have deep respect for your essential role in society. You’ve worked hard to develop expertise in areas you cover. Yet, sometimes journalists who aren’t experts in education or learning write about these topics. Here are some basics you may find helpful 1/x
(I'll try to @ authors where I can. Apologies if I didn't know you were on Twitter.) 2/x
#DearJournalists: Background knowledge is essential to good cognitive performance. “Googling it” is not and will never be a substitute. For more on the basics of cognition and how they relate to learning, see @DTWillingham 's great book: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3zfe2tn 3/x
#DearJournalists: Expert thinking, critical thinking, and other terms of “higher order cognition” are largely domain-specific. Being a good thinker in one area does not necessarily make someone a good thinker in another area. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10648-014-9283-1.pdf 4/x
#DearJournalists: Lifelong learning skills and dispositions can be taught and learned; they aren’t rocket science, but they aren’t intuitive, either.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823 5/x
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823 5/x
#DearJournalists: Learning styles don’t exist. They just don’t. But there are other good ways to differentiate instruction to help people learn.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.050
6/x
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.050
6/x
#DearJournalists: Intrinsic motivation is great, but people can’t be intrinsically motivated about everything. Extrinsic motivation can be adaptive when needed and conditions are right. @richardmryan3 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477878509104318 7/x
#DearJournalists: Teaching motivated students is one thing, motivating students to learn is quite another. Educators know many students need motivation support. We have learned a lot about fostering positive motivation and emotions.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732216644450 8/x
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732216644450 8/x
People don't just spontaneously develop interest in something. But there are ways to promote exposure and positive interest. @numbat17 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732216655542 9/x
#DearJournalists: Education and learning require both the head and the heart. They aren’t opposed, opposites, or in conflict. It’s the exact opposite.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732216656869 10/x
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732216656869 10/x
#DearJournalists: Education and learning require teachers who know how to promote students' social, emotional, and cognitive learning. Don't underestimate just how much work it takes to be good at this.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732219864375 11/x
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2372732219864375 11/x
#DearJournalists: These "basics" are just a sample. We know a lot about good learning and instruction, and what it implies for curriculum, teaching, and assessment. It isn't obvious or easy and it does matter.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2372732215601866 12/x
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2372732215601866 12/x
#DearJournalists: And I haven't even scratched the surface of sociocultural, structural, policy, and critical race research, all of which have enormous implications for education and learning. See, for example @DrDeLeonGray Elan Hope & @ChristyMByrd's work (next tweet): 13/x
#DearJournalists: I'm sure others on Twitter have even better contributions and suggestions than I do. This is just a quick list. But in the future, I hope anecdotal stories about successful/speculative business models for education can be informed by people who study this. 15/x
#DearJournalists: There are plenty of experts on Twitter and elsewhere who can help you vet education and learning ideas, separating wheat from the chaff. Don't forget about them the next time some "expert" outside of education claims to know where education should go next. 16/16
(I didn't list all the wonderful experts here on Twitter for fear of missing someone; gosh there are so many of them...)
