ABSTRACTION
WHAT IS IT?
Abstraction describes the level at which a student USES concepts and ideas. "Abstract" means "perceived apart from any concrete realities, specific objects or actual instances." When we say that someone thinks abstractly, we mean that they move beyond the concrete examples or instances. In a learning situation, the concrete or specific experience or objects or examples provide the ground level the student starts from and build on. Once students have experienced something either really (going to the zoo) or vicariously (reading about going to the zoo), they can use that experience to describe what they experienced, or generalize from it, or interpret from it, or hypothesizes from it. Students can be one more level removed from the experience; they can think about the way they think about the experience. So we "know" concepts/ideas” at several levels of abstraction:
We think and talk or write about them
*we describe the concepts/ideas
*we generalize about them
*we interpret them
*we hypothesize about them
*we think or talk or write about the way we think or talk or write:
That is, we critically analyze our use of concepts/ideas
Related ideas in Education include:
*Cognitive taxonomies: Bloom, Gagne, Taba
*Higher level thinking (inductive and deductive thinking)
*Higher level questions
*Levels of reading: literal, interpretative, critical
*Stages in a science experiment
*Different levels of End of Chapter Qs or Assignments
*Grade level expectations
*Socratic Dialogue
*Critical thinking in history
*Deeper Learning
WHAT STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ABSTRACTION
A. Student need to know that there are levels of abstraction. They need to differentiate among experiences, thinking, and thinking about thinking critically. They need to know that some information will simply be given to them to experience directly, but that other information must be constructed from the information they were "given."
B. Students need to understand what the levels of abstraction are and how to move from one level to another. Often students need to be explicitly taught to describe, to generalize, to interpret, to hypothesize and to critically analyze. That's why there are so many thinking skills programs out there. Sometimes students are not even familiar with the "meta" verbs that represent levels of thinking.
C. Students need to know that the higher the level of thinking, the more difficult it is to validly and objectively evaluate the "knowledge." This requires risk taking and tolerance of ambiguity on the student's part…and the teacher's part. There often is no one right answer.
D. Students need to know that higher level (more abstract) thinking typically requires more time and effort.
TYPICAL DIFFICULTIES.
*Not differentiating between given and constructed knowledge and tasks
*Not recognizing the level of thinking required in a task
*Not knowing how to think abstractly
*Not knowing how to analyze and reflect on their own thinking
CORE QUESTIONS
- Does the student understand the difference between given and constructed information?
- Does the student recognize the level of task demand and respond appropriately?
- Does the learner generalize appropriately to new (similar/dissimilar) examples?
- Are interpretations valid?
- Are hypotheses/predictions well founded?
- Can learners critically analyze their own and others' thinking?
ELABORATING QUESTIONS
- Is the student comfortable in taking the risk of thinking abstractly?
- When given the opportunity to think abstractly, does the student stay engaged in the task?
- Does the student see the relationships among the levels of abstract thinking?
INSTRUCTION/INTERVENTION PRINCIPLES
- HELP STUDENTS DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN GIVEN AND CONSTRUCTED INFORMATION
- DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ROTE AND MEANINGFUL LEARNING
- BE EXPLICIT ABOUT THE LEVEL OF TASK DEMAND
- FOR SKILL LEARNING, PLAN FOR GENERALIZATION (TRANSFER) UP FRONT.
- FOR CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE, FOCUS ON HIGHER LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION.
TEACHING TECHNIQUES
*Use an existing Thinking Skills Program
*Explicitly teach kids the meaning of "meta" verbs and to recognize those verbs in tasks/assignments
*Work with data bases, with or without computers
*Use computer simulations
*Engage students in Socratic dialogue
*Use debating as a medium for learning
*Do experiments…not just in science
*Watch History Detective on PBS
*Use Think Alouds
*Teach Explicit Problem Solving Skills
*Map out and teach sequences of questions from lower to higher level
*Grade according to level of difficulty/level of abstraction (As in diving or skating)
*Offer choices in assignments that explicitly reflect different levels of thinking
*Use long term projects with multiple steps and levels
RESOURCES
Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/06_AdditionalResources/makingthinkingvisibleEL.pdf
What are Concrete and Abstract Thinking http://www.projectlearnet.org/tutorials/concrete_vs_abstract_thinking.html
Text Complexity by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher, 2013 https://www.slideshare.net/robinlstewart/rigorous-reading
Teaching Strategies that Enhance Higher-Order Thinking by Janelle Cox https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-enhance-higher-order-thinking
How People Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and School https://www.nap.edu/read/10067/chapter/7 Seel also 2019 edition
Complex Learning Cognitive Load Theory and Complex Learning: Recent Developments and Future Directions Jeroen J. G. van Merrienboer ¨
1, 3 and John Sweller 2006 https://www.ou.nl/Docs/Expertise/OTEC/Publicaties/jeroen%20van%20merrienboer/VanMerrienboerSweller.pdf
Thinking Verbs https://englishlearnerportal.blog/2018/12/29/10-ways-to-get-started-using-thinking-verbs/
CARE NOTES REPRESENTATION
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