Weekly Assignment #1

The topic that interested me most this week was the difference between experts and novices. This distinction might be more important than ever in the age of the internet. Students have access to a nearly infinite breadth of knowledge on most subjects. With his easily-available pool of knowledge, teaching students to "segment the perceptual field" is essential.

I was a bit confused about conditionalization vs. contextualization. In chapter two, we learn that experts have highly conditionalized knowledge, which means that they have catalogued the contexts in which certain knowledge can be used. At first, when chapter three told me that having over-contextualized knowledge can prohibit transfer, I saw this as a contradiction. I understand the distinction now, but I think more discussion of these two concepts would be useful.

The "Fish is Fish" segment of chapter one reminded me of my time teaching English in Japan. I can think of no better example of pre-existing knowledge acting as a barrier to learning. This problem presented itself in the actual teaching of the English language, in obvious ways like my students' inability to pronounce the letter "l." It also presented itself endlessly in cultural situations where my students' learned cultural standards (more often my own!) prevented them from understanding the stories I was trying to tell them.