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Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

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Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#51

Post by tmaly »

omarhaneef wrote: post #7

Also if someone has a recommendation on how to teach adults to think, that would be useful too. Ages 21-90. (Jokes aside, is it that different? Isn't the larger question: what does it mean to "think", and what does it mean to "teach" someone to do it?)

OP here,

The Thinking Toolbox by Bluedorn is pretty good. The target age starts at 12-13.

For me, this is still too advanced for the age range 6-8 I am looking for. The biggest challenge is taking these abstract ideas and making them accessible and interesting to a child.

I taught a few lessons in Scratch programming last year to grades 1-5. Before I conceptualized the lessons, I had listened to the audio book Made to Stick. I found this was helpful in thinking about how I should communicate these abstract ideas about programming to younger kids.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#53

Post by tmaly »

Bandrsnatch wrote: post #33

The answer is to put them into situations where they have to think on their own. Also, lots of board games, word games, and role playing games. Always ask the child why something happened the way it did and then give them hints to think about. Read to them and ask them questions about what is happening in the book.

what are some of your favorite games?

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#54

Post by jMyles »

I have found the randomizer fan mods of classic SNES games to be wonderful teachers and logic and problem solving.

My kid got to Ganon in Link to the Past Randomizer a week before his fifth birthday.

I see him applying the same type of logical processing - and readiness to deal with randomness in the world - throughout his play and behavior.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#55

Post by tmaly »

Jun8 wrote: post #30

To exercise pure thinking skills and empathy (as opposed to STEM, etc.) a great approach is to discuss philosophical/moral problems with the, treating their opinion seriously. A good book to use is: The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten”, but any example from daily life or movies can be used.

This is the first I have heard of The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten

thank you for the recommendation. What did you like most about this book?

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#56

Post by pdonis »

MichaelAO wrote: post #8

Core knowledge. Create an environment that encourages a love of reading as soon as possible and help them develop core knowledge about the world around them. This includes both language and facts/concepts about everything from ancient history to the solar system. Domain-specific background knowledge is incredibly important. It turns out (for the most part) there are no general purpose cognitive skills... it's all dom…

> It turns out (for the most part) there are no general purpose cognitive skills

There has to be at least one, even on your own account: knowing how to learn the domain specific knowledge for a new domain.

I would also add another: knowing how to spot and make use of common features between domains. But it's true that this skill can't even be developed until you've learned the domain specific knowledge in quite a few domains.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#57

Post by hosh »

tmaly wrote: post #44
hosh wrote: post #25

The ideas I had been studying these days come from Carol Sandford. I am not sure how to summerize her work. In the case of developing a person’s (be they children, teens, or adult) capabilities, it comes in a couple ways: 1. First, linking intrinsic motivation with something meaningfully contributes to something outside of them. The catch? This is something the person chooses for themselves, based on what Sandford ca…

What books or resources from Carol Sandford have found most interesting?

She has a lot of resources that sprawl all over, including numerous podcast interviews and blog posts. She had been doing this for 40 years now. If you ever heard of things like “regenerative growth” from the business world, it came from her.

The biggest thing about what she teaches is a different way of viewing the world. How to identify the paradigm, epistemology, and frame, including your own patterns of thinking. The kind of problems she is addressing cannot be solved through the paradigm that generated those problems.

I would say start with _Regenerative Life_ unless you intend to try applying this in business first. I think she has community somewhere specifically for educators and homeschoolers, but it is radically different because it is developed from a regenerative paradigm.

If you are looking for a single resource that gives you a broad taste of many of the things she teaches, I’d say go with this podcast interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-regenerative-real-...

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#58

Post by seg_lol »

tmaly wrote: post #27
MichaelAO wrote: post #8

Core knowledge. Create an environment that encourages a love of reading as soon as possible and help them develop core knowledge about the world around them. This includes both language and facts/concepts about everything from ancient history to the solar system. Domain-specific background knowledge is incredibly important. It turns out (for the most part) there are no general purpose cognitive skills... it's all dom…

I have a 7 year old in school now. The homework is pretty generic. There is not much in the way of domain-specific knowledge. We do some activities at home. Chemistry, electronics, scratch programming. Stuff that is not taught in schools. I use to live in radio shack as a kid. Putting together circuits was thrilling.

I am in no way saying you are doing this, comment is for the thread as well as you.

As others have mentioned in this discussion, I think giving the child both a sense and actual control over what they work on is one of the keys.

Children want to please their parents, so they might work on things that they think you would like. They are extremely good at reading people even if other actions seem uncoordinated. It is best to listen, in all senses of the word, to child and find out what they really like. Once you have found that, you have to make enough space for it to bloom.

One example for me was in getting my very adventurous athletic child to ride a scooter and a bike. I thought she would be one of those badass three year olds skating around with the big kids. She didn't really take to it, I tried to push it a little bit and I found myself a little deflated when said she didn't like it.

I sat back and figured out that I wanted it, and it wasn't fair for me to put that on to her. A smile isn't always a smile and encouragement is always what it seems. i backed off, would ask about it once in awhile but didn't pressure her again.

About 6 months ago she asked to ride the bike again, that she really wanted to learn. I told her she is gonna crash, it might hurt, but that anyone can do it. In 5 days of two 20-30 minute sessions a day, she was starting, stopping and turning all on her own. She was so excited to have learned it, I could see the accomplishment on her whole being.

Humans are wonderful all purpose devices, the spark that guides us the leads to our differentiation is the interest reward function. Capabilities are one thing, but interest, genuine interest is where the magic lies. The most interesting people are to me are the ones that ask the best questions, or give the answer you weren't expecting.

Our job as parents, I believe is to be a social and metacognitive mirror so that everyone can get a different perspective to explore and understand the world.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#59

Post by NAR8789 »

rglover wrote: post #3

Check out the book The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori.

Seconded! Montessori in general is worth a look. Jives with a lot of the other "provide an environment conducive to exploration" comments here, but also gets down to very concrete practices, e.g. foster independence by providing a predictable and child-sized environment so that children can e.g. make their own breakfast.

This stands in contrast to modern practices of shuttling children from activity to activity, arranging their lives for them and depriving them of control.

Independence in daily activities dovetails into independence in intellectual educations. Children tend to develop those activities over which they have the most hands-on control and most freedom for self-exploration.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#60

Post by tmaly »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #24

A similar question came up on the Less Wrong forums recently (more specifically focused on rational/critical thinking and scientific experimentation): https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yF6FLgWnRdKMYpm9g/rationalit...

this is the first I have heard of this forum. Are there any other posts you recommend on there?
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