None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

[Glenn Black]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

I believe it was "Code Complete" in 1993 that mentioned IBM's study of programmers where the ding at their terminal when a new email arrives, phone calls, and other interruptions would destroy their concentration, delaying the code writing, or placing a latent bug into the code that would take many man-hrs to debug later on. They learned to have individual cubicles where coders could lock themselves in, free from ALL distractions except for the fire alarm evacuation; resulting is far better code quality and productivity. Software Quality Assurance is everything. Studies have shown that about 75% of the gross revenue for software companies is spent in customer support & fixing bugs in the code.

Yes - I work with scientists and engineers in very collaborative projects (cross disciplinary, etct). It is the deep thinkers, though, who carry the largest burden and do the best work.

I have no idea how to best develop this sort of thinking in school....I guess the best way is to make sure we are recognizing it for its value and not shunning it. I think my kids (at least 2 of them) fall into the "quiet, deep thinker" mode (no surprise, both my wife and I are also engineers) and we have had our struggles with the schools that are looking for strengths on the verbal side. Oh well. The world does need more BS artists!

But getting back to the original post - I came across a terrific article in Forbes at the end of last year that identified several metrics for management - the one that really caught my eye was work flow.

I discussed the article with a bunch of my staff and it was the one metric that also really rang true them. You can find the article with this link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupb...-need-to-know/

[shiny!]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

Yes - I work with scientists and engineers in very collaborative projects (cross disciplinary, etct). It is the deep thinkers, though, who carry the largest burden and do the best work.

I have no idea how to best develop this sort of thinking in school....I guess the best way is to make sure we are recognizing it for its value and not shunning it. I think my kids (at least 2 of them) fall into the "quiet, deep thinker" mode (no surprise, both my wife and I are also engineers) and we have had our struggles with the schools that are looking for strengths on the verbal side. Oh well. The world does need more BS artists!

There is a method of education that fosters higher-order critical thinking skills- it's called Bloom's Taxonomy. Ask your children's teachers if they use Bloom's Taxonomy... you definitely want them to! Bloom's has been around for a long time. It used to be common, but with No Child Left Behind, the overuse of standardized testing and classroom time being almost entirely devoted to "teaching for the tests", Bloom's is not used as much nowadays. I'm not certain if it's even a standard part of an education curriculum in college anymore. Northern Illinois University still teaches it (that's where my husband learned it in the early 70's).

Bloom's examples at Northern Illinois Univ. (look at the Question Stems to get a good idea of how it works)

Many teachers know Bloom's Taxonomy and want to use it, but politicians and bureaucrats set the curriculum now. My husband would sneak it in at every opportunity, even when the curriculum he was ordered to use didn't include it. He hated the modern trend of teaching for the tests. Standardized tests don't measure higher-order thinking skills. A lot of his Spec. Ed. students were learning disordered and failed miserably on the standardized tests, but using Bloom's he was able to teach high-level thinking skills to most of them.

More information on Bloom's Taxonomy


Another tool your children's teachers should use (but probably don't) is to evaluate each child's learning style and tailor the lessons to their learning styles. Does your child learn best by listening to a lecture (auditory), by reading or looking at a picture (visual), or by "hands on" experience (kinesthetic)? Teaching to each child's learning style is something my husband did in Spec. Ed., but in regular ed. classes the instruction method is usually "one size fits all".

Special Ed. isn't just for slow learners. Gifted children are also entitled to special services by way of enriched courses. Perhaps your children could do well in advanced classes with more serious students. Charter schools with smaller classrooms might also be a possibility.

If your children aren't getting what they need, share your concerns with their teachers. If that doesn't get you anywhere, consider changing classes or going to another school, if possible. But make sure Bloom's is part of their educational experience.

[flintlock]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

Schools today are always trying to re-invent the wheel. The math my kids bring home is unrecognizable to me and I made straight A's in Math all through HS and College. Perhaps the group thing is another way of keeping things "fresh".

My 14 year old daughter was recently assigned a group project. They had to meet after school to work on the project. One member constantly had a last minute excuse why she could not make it, yet insisted on having control over the project. The other member did manage to make one meeting, but in the end, my daughter had to do most of the work. Both members of her group offered no excuse or even remorse for not putting in the effort. I told her that was good experience for the real world.

[flintlock]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

There is less and less demand for deep problem solving skill and more and more demand for people who can come up with quick band-aids. "Just Reboot". I think the pendulum has swung too far toward group think.

I've noticed this also. People expect a quick, snappy answer to everything. I guess that's what happens in an age when you have a Phone that can talk to you.

[DSpencer]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

My 14 year old daughter was recently assigned a group project. They had to meet after school to work on the project. One member constantly had a last minute excuse why she could not make it, yet insisted on having control over the project. The other member did manage to make one meeting, but in the end, my daughter had to do most of the work. Both members of her group offered no excuse or even remorse for not putting in the effort. I told her that was good experience for the real world.

Exactly. That's pretty much the definition of a group project: another 80/20 rule situation where the few students with a combination of the most intelligence and motivation do the majority of the work and the rest of the group is along for the ride. Definitely a good representation of the rest of life.

Even in the rare group with all members contributing there wasn't much value to the experience. In my experience the basic approach was always to simply divide up the pieces and work individually. Then usually one person tried to mash it all together at the end.

True collaboration, where the end product is greater than the sum of its parts, is extremely rare in my experience. This isn't surprising to me as everyone's mind works individually.

[davidstvz]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

I remembered the author of that article I mentioned above. It was this guy named Paul Graham. He's got a huge list of articles here, including stuff on computer programming, venture capital and start-ups.

Here's a list of his essays, though I can't remember which one he wrote on this subject.

http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html

EDIT:

This might be the article that covered it: http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

[oddlots]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

There's always the Isolator:

ISOLATOR.jpg

[wayiwalk]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

Oddlots - that is a riot. I will share that photo with my team.

[tombat1913]

Re: None of us is as dumb as all of us...here's the proof

Yeah Steve, the public schools are doing just fine.