When Students Seem Stalled. - 4 0 16; 5 Betty K. Garner (by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,2008)
ABSTRACT : As an art teacher in a K-8 school, Garner frequently encountered creative, intelligent students who were unable to progress in their academic classes and were an enigma to their teachers. She conducted in-depth case studies of hundreds of such students, interviewing them about how they processed information. Analyzing these case studies, Garner identified key cognitive structures, psychological systems for gathering and processing information. She groups cognitive structures into three categories: comparative thinking, symbolic representation, and logical reasoning. Students who lack these cognitive tools, especially the foundational comparative thinking structures, struggle to comprehend and process information in any subject area, and often give up on themselves as learners. Yet it is never too late to develop cognitive structures; with awareness, teachers can strengthen these structures through almost any lesson. Garner details the components of comparative structures and provides examples of how teachers can identify lacks and initiate repairs.
Endnote 1 My ongoing research on cognitive structures is based on the work of Feuerstein (1980); Piaget (1950, 1954); and Vygotsky (2006/1934). It is also influenced by Csikszentmihalyi (1991); Gardner (2006); Jensen (2005); Restak (2006); Sternberg (2004); and others.
Keywords: 2 -- 0; 6; At-risk student;Diferentiated instruction -- Communication Skills;Instruction -- Constructivism.;Student motivation; 20; 2