Daniel Bibawy

I really liked several of the points that this chapter brought up, the first of which was the was the idea that to really understand what you’re learning you need to reflect and discuss it with others so that you remember it better and understand it better. They did a study with several children while they were watching Sesame Street.They interrupted the show in the middle several times (which I’m sure the kids didn’t appreciate and, if anything, you would think it would break their focus and make them absorb less information from the show) and asked them questions about what they had just watched and had a short discussion with them. They had another group of children who also watched the show uninterrupted and they found that the first group absorbed the information much better. This tactic of discussing what you’re attempting to learn is extremely helpful and important to the learning process. Often times I realize that studying with friends and discussing the material we’re studying helps me absorb the information much better than if I just try to study on my own.

I also liked the methods by which you communicate information discussed in this chapter. The first is perceptual talk, which is simply just pointing out what you see in front of you. The next is conceptual talk, which is wondering about what you see in front of you and discussing this. For example if you’re observing animals, you wonder about what the purpose of what they’re doing at any given moment is. The next is connecting talk, which is connecting what you see in front of you with what goes on in your own life and trying to relate to the science in front of you. Strategic talk is discussing with those learning with you the best way to go about interacting with a specific exhibit. The last is affective talk, which is discussing how the exhibit made you feel and what you took out of it. I think these methods go further than specifically science learning and they affect all kinds of learning, especially conceptual and connective talk. When you begin to wonder about why things that you’re trying to learn are the way they are and can relate to them in your life, you will have a memorable and emotional attachment to them and will retain the information better.