Remembering my sister

Peggy was always thinking about others and doing things for others. We are confident she would want us to be celebrating together and remembering her and each other. For Peggy, family always came first and she moved to LA to be close to her extended family ... the nine first cousins (on mother's side; Bobo, Priscilla, Danny, Dorothy, Mike, Peggy, Becky, Minnie, Cindy) grew very close over the years and spent summers and many holidays together ... of the nine first cousins, there are now only 5 left - Dorothy, Mike, Becky, Minnie, and Cindy. But there are now grandkids, nephews. nieces, many second and third and fourth  cousins, aunts, uncles, and many, many friends. Peggy leaves behind a little bit of her heart in all of us. 

For the People of Mississippi

Vote for values on Tuesday. What really matters to you? Is it the color of someone’s skin? The political affiliation of someone? Where someone lives? How someone worships? The words someone spins to get your vote?

What matters is who you are becoming. The kind of person you are becoming. The kind of person you want to become. The kind of person you want others to remember when you are gone.

Who are you and what matters most to you? Do your actions reflect your values? What values do you want to pass along to your children? Is the world you have known really a dangerous and nasty place? Or, have you witnessed many acts of kindness, understanding and tolerance that testify to the beauty of creation?

Have a listen:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE 

A Capitalist Manifesto

A Capitalist Manifesto

Those with money, buy things; those without money do not buy things. That is how a capitalist views the divide between haves and have-nots. Alternative views are possible. Those with money eat while those without money eat little. Those with money have medical care; those without get little medical care. Those with money get an education and jobs, while those without get little education and find minimal wage jobs and temporary employment.

But that is not the real story. It is not an arbitrary divide between haves and have-nots. The new capitalist manifesto is more nuanced. Those with money buy things. Those with lots of money buy expensive things. Those will little money buy essentials, while those without money buy nothing. The new capitalist manifesto is aimed at marketing. If you want to make big money, sell to those with lots of money and sell expensive things, such as expensive homes and cars, major real estate properties, and so on. Don’t try to sell to those with little or no money. The profit margins are not favorable. Buy low and sell high is being replaced by buy a lot and sell a lot higher to those who can afford to pay, regardless of where they live or where they are from.

T. S. Eliot had it right in “Chrouses From The Rock:”

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

…

All men are ready to invest their money
But most expect dividends.

…

The desert is not remote in southern tropics
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.

My brother, Dr. Daniel Earl Spector, died a week ago. He understood those words of T. S. Eliot. Danny was a scholar. A staunch defender of members of the armed forces even though he was a principled pacifist, opposed to most wars. He was a Middle East scholar who befriended Muslims and wanted to see peace in the Middle East while preserving the right of Israel to be a homeland for Jews in a still-troubled world of intolerance. He was a Jew who told me before my Bar Mitzvah that people around the world still persecuted Jews, and I should be aware of prejudice that persisted long after Hitler, Goebbels, and Eichmann were long gone. 

As a teenager he participated in the bus boycotts after the famous Rosa Parks event. He supported the civil rights of everyone. He was guided by values rather than by profits or money. He was a career civil servant and historian for the US Department of the Army. He did not accept the capitalist manifesto – not the new one nor the old one. He believed everyone was entitled to an education and basic medical care. He valued and loved family and friends and they valued and loved him in return.

What we need is a new humanist manifesto rather than a new capitalist manifesto.

I think that Danny was like Lawrence Ferlinghetti who said in “I am Waiting” that he was

,,, waiting for the American Eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right.

Danny was such an Eagle who showed us how to straighten up and fly right.

Thanksgiving 2018

Today is Thanksgiving, and I am home alone. I am thinking of my brother, Dr. Daniel Earl Spector, who passed away Friday night, less than a week ago. I was with my brother during his last days. The evening he died, his Rabbi, Lauren Cohen, came by the house for a visit and she and Danny’s wife, Esta, and I decided to say a kiddush with Danny. The Rabbi had selected several readings as well to read to him that evening, After saying the blessing over the wine, I managed to give my brother a small taste. He was semi-alert and most probably knew and understood what we were doing. A few hours later he was gone. His funeral was Tuesday.

What I have to say today, this Thanksgiving day, is thanks for my brother. What I learned during my visit these previous days was how much Danny affected so many people in so many different walks of life. He loved his wife, Esta, of more than 50 years. His son Warren, stayed close to home, especially after the tragic loss of Danny and Esta’s daughter, Susan, and their only grandchild, baby Connor, in a housefire some years ago. In spite of that tragic loss. Danny, Esta and Warren all managed to maintain a positive outlook on life and performed countless acts of kindness for others after that tragic loss.

Danny was a scholar – a historian. He worked as a historian for the US Army’s Chemical School for a number of years. He was a deeply religious Jew – deep in the sense of understanding the traditions of our father, Rabbi Joseph Spector, and the forefathers and many Talmudic scholars. He knew a great deal about Middle Eastern history and formed a close friendship with the Imam of the local Muslim community. I noticed a copy of the Koran and the Book of Mormon in his extensive library.

The Rabbi who had visited Danny his last night performed the ceremony at Temple Beth El in Anniston, Alabama, along with the Imam who made remarks about his close friendship with Danny as did a Christian Chaplin friend. Danny was revered by leaders of major religious groups. 

He was a talented gardener, an active member of the book club in Jacksonville, Alabama, a frequent contributor to the Anniston Star, a history teacher at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Troy State University, a frequent invited speaker by many different groups, a scholar with expertise in many areas outside the Middle East (his PhD) and China (his Master’s degree), the civil war, and the history of war (with a record number of entries in the Sage Encyclopedia of War); even though he was a committed pacifist he maintained close friendships with many members of the Armed Forces and always held their service in high regard.

He maintained a personal library in his home with close to a thousand books. He loved animals. His many friends from so many different walks of life came by the house and came to the funeral in Anniston and the gravesite ceremony in Jacksonville. It was such a humbling experience to see how much he was loved and to be reminded how much he loved during his 75 short years.

I am so thankful for my brother.

Questions About Critical Thinking

What questions might one ask about critical thinking if one is about to embark on critical thinking research? Please add, subtract, divide or multiply and share your thoughts. Here are a few questions that came to me while I was sleeping:

1.     Is there a generally accepted definition of critical thinking?

a.     Does a definition differ depending on the discipline?

b.     For example, do psychologists, philosophers and educators have similar definitions of critical thinking?

2.     Is critical thinking one thing or a collection of things?

a.     If it is a collection of things, what are those things?

b.     What skills and abilities are associated with critical thinking?

3.     How have people measured critical thinking?

a.     Do the measures vary with subject area?

b.     With age?

4.     How is the phrase ‘critical thinker’ used?

a.     Does it indicate more than approval of a person’s ideas?

b.     Is being or becoming a critical thinker generally regarded as desirable?

5.     If one is regarded as a critical thinker in one domain, does that ability tend to transfer to another domain?

a.     Are some critical thinking skills domain neutral?

b.     If so, which ones?

6.     Can critical thinking be learned?

a.     Some argue that creativity cannot be learned although others argue that in some sense and to some degree everyone is creative.

b.     If critical thinking can be learned, how can it best be taught?

c.     Can critical thinking be learned in a single lesson or course?

7.     At what age can someone develop critical thinking skills?

a.     Is becoming a critical thinker a developmental process?

b.     When is an optimal time for that process to begin?

c.     How might the early stages of becoming a critical thinker be supported?

8.     The so-called 21^st century skills are sometimes referred to as the 4 Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. How are those four skill areas related?

a.     “Most people have the ability to communicate. Many people engage in collaborative endeavors from time to time. Some people manage to engage in critical thinking on occasion. A few people are regarded as creative.” Do those four claims sound reasonable?

b.     If one accepts the fundamental principle of a constructivist epistemology (i.e., people create internal representations to make sense of things they experience), then it follows that everyone is in some sense creative.

c.     Moreover, if one accepts the notion that people quite naturally engage in what Wittgenstein calls language games, then people not only create those internal representations, they communicate them to others. So communication, collaboration and creativity all seem to be abilities that each person have to some degree, and those abilities are a natural result of being a person living in a society. Does that line of thought make sense?

d.     On the other hand, Ludwig Wittgenstein wanted language to be clear and lead to coherent and meaningful thought (e.g., “we picture farts to ourselves”); Plato had a similar notion (see The Cratylus).  Oets Kolk Bouwsma noted that language often leads one astray (i.e., sometimes we picture things that are not factual to ourselves). Bouwsma argued that philosophers were among those who seemed particularly prone to being misled by language. Perhaps the sphere of those easily misled might be widened to include politicians and the general public. The question here is simply this: Is being a critical thinker as natural as the abilities to communicate, collaborate or create? How challenging is it to become a critical thinker?

9.     I am aware of becoming more pedantic than critical in this note, so I end it with a final question: What questions do others have with regard to critical thinking?

Helping teachers design effective instruction

How to help teachers design effective instruction?

First, what counts as effective instruction? Instruction that more often than not helps students attain intended goals. So there should be both before and after measures pertaining to those goals if one intends to claim that instruction has been effective.

Second, there are general strategies that seem to work for many students at the lesson level. For example, there are Bob Gagné’s (1985) nine events of instruction:

1.     Gain and maintain attention

2.     Inform learners of goals and objectives

3.     Stimulate recall of prior learning

4.     Present the content

5.     Provide learning guidance and ongoing support

6.     Elicit performance and provide opportunities for practice

7.     Provide timely and informative feedback

8.     Assess performance along the way

9.     Enhance retention and transfer to other problems and situations

There are also Dave Merrill’s (2002; 2013) first principles of instruction:

• Learning is promoted when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems.
• Learning is promoted when existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge.
• Learning is promoted when new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner.
• Learning is promoted when new knowledge is applied by the learner.
• Learning is promoted when new knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.

Merrill’s principles easily map onto Gagné’s events and might be stated in terms of telling, asking, showing and doing. Merrill argues that too little emphasis occurs on showing and doing in many cases, which amounts to under-emphasizing events 5 through 9.

Gagné also characterized instruction as having three main phases – a set-up phase (events 1-3), a primary presentation phase (event 4), and a resolution phase (events 5-9). All too often instructional designers focus on event 4 and conduct a breakdown of the content into discrete things to be learned. Gagné and Merrill (1990) collaborated on exactly one paper in which they argue that what people do is to engage in enterprises which involve many different kinds of things (e.g., concepts, principles, problems, objects, etc.) – that is to say that what needs to be learned is an enterprise (as in the effective application of knowledge to solve problems and perform tasks). Given that perspective, the set-up phase is important, especially with regard to motivation and establishing a meaningful context, and the resolution phase is especially important so as to ensure that what is learned can be effectively applied later.

Tools to help? The mind is an important tool – especially the learner’s mind. Activate a mind, help a mind visualize a problem, get the mind engaged, and good things are likely to happen. That is my simple-minded instructional design advice.

The teacher’s job is not to tell students what to think. The teacher’s job is to help students learn HOW to think. Getting students to have questions, to visualize problems, to devote time and energy to refine visualizations and find possible answers, to question assumptions, to consider alternatives, and to reflect on the process is the teacher’s job. Is it not?

Some remarks on cognitive load

Suppose you are planning a long hike and overnight stay, say to a destination that is about 15 kilometers away. A friend has advised you not to take more than you need in your backpack and to try to keep the weight under 20 kilograms, as that is probably a manageable load. You pack what you think you will need and weigh the backpack. This is tricky because your only scale is designed to weigh a person standing on it, but the backpack keeps falling off and resting partly on the floor. How will you weigh the backpack and determine if the load exceeds 20 kilograms? [This question is designed for any third graders who happen to be reading these notes.]

Okay, you determine that the load is just about 20 kilograms. Good packing, you tell yourself. You then lift the backpack and put it on your back. It feels quite heavy. You wonder if you can walk 15 kilometers carrying such a load. You tell yourself that your friend is younger and stronger than you – such a load may be manageable for her but not for you. Perhaps 10 kilos is a better target.

I started with this story about the load in a backpack to point out a few things about cognitive load. First, John Sweller is an outstanding scholar and has made many important contributions to educational psychology and instructional design, including his analysis of cognitive load in terms of intrinsic load (that which is inherent in a problem or situation), extraneous  load (that which may be eliminated from the problem or situation and can distract some learners), and germane load (that which is likely to help a learner focus and be successful in solving a problem or resolving a situation). At least that is my rough and ready interpretation of components of cognitive load theory.

Now, I want to compare cognitive load with the load of the backpack in the initial example. First, the backpack could be weighed so there was an independent and relatively non-subjective measure of the load. Are there independent and non-subjective measures of cognitive load? Could there be such measures? In any case, in spite of the actual weight of the backpack, the perceived weight or perceived load can vary. For my friend who is younger and physically fit, the perceived weight of 20 kilos is moderate and manageable. For me – an older person in not such good physical condition, the 20 kilo backpack seemed quite heavy and not manageable. Perceived load is not the same as actual load when it comes to backpacks.

Then, when I think about someone trying to solve a complex problem or resolve a challenging situation, the perceived load can also vary significantly. A highly experienced person in solving similar problems may find the problem easily manageable whereas someone with much less experience may fine the same problem quite challenging. Moreover, what might be distracting in terms of extraneous load for an inexperienced person may not be distracting for an experienced person. Likewise, what may be germane to successful problem solving for an experienced person may be too sketchy or too incomplete to help a much less experienced person. So, It seems that cognitive load and the constituent parts of cognitive load vary or can vary from one person to another; what matters is perceived cognitive load.

Given the usual way of eliciting perceived cognitive load on a likert scale, it seems useful to collect other indicators, such as the time a person spends on a particular task or which part of the task is the focus of attention or what kind of assistance a person seeks or the level or neuronal activity or a galvanic skin measure and so on. Having multiple measures that converge can help one develop confidence in a reported level of perceived cognitive load. Perhaps.

Then, because I am so prone to distraction, I wonder if there are non-cognitive indicators that might also be relevant to cognitive load such as moods, attitudes, and so on. Just as it is a person carrying the backpack that matters, it is a person trying to solve a problem or resolve a situation that matters – a person, not a disembodied mind. That reminds me … it is almost time for lunch. Taking a break …

One Party Country

It seems to me that the USA has become the DSA - the Divided States of America. Worse still is that the movement is in the direction of a one party country, like those in China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia and elsewhere. That movement is not unique to the DSA as it seems to be happening in Turkey and other countries as well.

Indicators that are worrisome include attacks on the press, restricting access to information to the party in power or the person in power, denying facts well established by scientists (i.e., climate change) and other researchers and investigators, and using ad hominem arguments and tactics of distraction and denial to denigrate those who ask questions or who want clarification. 

Basic values are being lost. No more love thy neighbor as thyself but send your neighbor away without his or her children. No more bring me your tired and huddled masses but bring on the privileged few. No more a chicken in every pot but a can of chicken soup for all, before taxes of course. No more facts and logic ... just spin and vitriol. Whatever became of those 21st century skills that included critical thinking, collaboration and creativity? When did the age of reason disappear?

When Logic and Reason Fail

Thinking is not merely having thoughts. Thinking involves reasoning about those thoughts and adjusting them so that the thoughts are coherent and form a logical nexus. Thinking involves logic and reasoning.

There are some obvious limits to meaningful thought and meaningful statements and collections of statements. Logicians might say that the extreme boundaries of sense are formed by contradictions (statements that cannot ever be true, as in “I just ate the last cannibal”) and tautologies (statements that are always and can only be true, as in “Never before have things resembled the present as they do now”). The problem is that sometimes contradictions and tautologies arrive in disguise. For example, “there is a person on this planet who loves all and only those persons on this planet who do not love themselves.” Surely such a person exists! Surely not. Either that person loves him/herself or not, assuming one accepts the Law of the Excluded Middle (LEM). I understand a new LEM is circulating around the capital of these divided states called the Law of the Exclusive Muddle (as in “there were some good people on both sides, including the ones carrying torches and wearing swastikas” and “I did not collude with the Russians during the election and even if I did it was not illegal”). Long live the new LEM.

I just learned that the new LEM is in competition with yet another one emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – namely, the Law of the Excluded Middleclass. The new tax laws will eventually put the middle class in the category of the forgotten class along with those already there. Long live the newer LEM.

Oh yes. Back to logic. It is so hard to concentrate these days. As I was saying, or tying to say, contradictions and tautologies often come in a disguised format, making them harder to identify. An example of a disguised tautology is this one: “We - the president’s legal team and the special prosecutor’s legal team - are in agreement about questions to be asked in an interview IF the special prosecutor’s legal team agrees with us”). This one is harder to identify as a tautology empty of meaningful content as it almost sounds reasonable. However, closer scrutiny reveals the following logic – we are in agreement if you agree with me … or, more blatantly, if you agree with me, then we agree .. as in, if we agree, then we agree. Language can provide meaning and build understanding but it can surely lead us astray.

Those without trained ears are easily led astray. To minimize attempts to lead us astray, we need to be teaching logic and reasoning to our children. When I read De-voh-reem (Deuteronomy) 6.7, I interpret “thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” to be about teaching inquiry and critical thinking and not just the love of G-d. I guess that reflects a personal bias, but it seems consistent with much of what follows in that 5^th book and what I was taught by my father, an orthodox rabbi, about doing what is right and what is good.

Teach kids to think for themselves. What harm can come from that?

NATO and European Experiences

I had the pleasure of helping to organize two meetings funded by NATO in  the 1990s: a one-week Advanced Research Workshop held in Sitges, Spain, and a two-week Advanced Study Institute held in Grimstad, Norway. the latter had 84 participants from many countries. Both meetings were quite successful and eventually led me to take a position at the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway.The first PhD student I supervised was at UiB and is now a full professor in Sweden. I had visited UiB previously as a Fulbright research scholar and had been provided a tour of the European Commission, which was also quite impressive. I worked in Europe for about 4 years and found myself in the midst of outstanding scholars and very tolerant people everywhere I went. I was invited to the University of Freiburg as a visiting scholar several times and found students there to be quite advanced and eager to learn. I have been an external evaluator on two large European Commission funded networks of excellence -  one on technology enhanced learning (STELLAR) and one on game-based learning (GaLA). I found both efforts to be quite good with many universities involved. Scholarship in Europe is quite strong. Our friends in Europe must be wondering what is happening in the USA and why the current administration seems intent on abandoning long-standing and very productive relationships. I too wonder.

The Purpose of Education

I have been thinking about the suggestion to focus on individualized instruction and adaptive learning. I am concerned about how education is being conceptualized by those in power and those with money – it seems that those with either nearly always want more. Anyway, higher education in this country began with the British wanting those in the colonies to be able to perform basic accounting and bookkeeping functions – implies teaching arithmetic, writing and reading. Given my poor historical sense of things, I think of education being aimed at something beyond making those with money and power richer and more powerful.

While my understanding of history is very limited, I have read some things by or about Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Spinoza and others. I find their thoughts more in line with my own thinking that education is about realizing the uniqueness of being human – being  a self-conscious deliberator struggling with understanding who we are, the world around us, and why we are here. I know … three strikes and I am out. I am not sure who I am (teacher occasionally, writer off and on, father … always on) … I understand very little of the world in which I am living (especially given the unreality show now playing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) … and why or how what I regard as a series of accidental choices and arbitrary decisions have led me to where I am now.

I recall Tolstoy’s Confession – especially Chapter IV (involving an Eastern fable; see http://www.classicallibrary.org/tolstoy/confession/4.htm) … and the last sentence in Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus (“one must imagine Sisyphus happy" – I still do not get it) and Nietzsche’s critique of Socrates (see http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Thought/twilight-of-the-idols-friedrich-neitzsche.pdf - the value of life cannot be estimated by the living as they are an interested party and not by the dead for a different reason).

What to do? Perhaps as my father and others have suggested – do what you can to bring out the best in others – what they regard as their best … not what is best for you but what is best for them by their own estimation.

The purpose of education is not to serve the economic engine of a society. Robots will do that much better that we are able to do anyway. The purpose of education is to become better at being human … becoming more than we have been … not gaining more wealth or power or helping others do that … but gaining more understanding of the changes that make being human an interesting occupation.

Higher education fails when lower minds take control. I thought the 1960s and early 1970s were bad … at least we had the GI bill back then helping to keep the ship of reason afloat.

A Country Divided

A Country Divided

Inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 speech at the Illinois State Capital

A country divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently, a few rich and many poor. I do not want the Union to be dissolved nor I do want either political party to disappear. I would like to see more Cooperation, Patience and Respect – CPR for our government is what is needed. More openness, more tolerance, less arrogance, no all or nothing positions, fewer my way or the highway stances, more evidence, quieter deliberation, more thoughtful consideration of alternative perspectives, more virtue, less vitriol … those are things we need in order to preserve this fragile union. The Union seems more fragile, more fragmented, more divided, and more at risk than at any time I can remember, But I am only a young 72.

Mike Spector

Branding America

Branding America

Huddled masses breathing free

Credulous citizenry on bended knee

Truth and tolerance, spin and venom

Home of the brave, house of cards

One person, one vote

One fortune, sour notes

Free schools, broken rules

Voting rights, civil wrongs

Loving kids, buying guns

Too rich to care, too dumb to dare

Companies with brands, countries too

From sea to shining sea

In pursuit of life and liberty

Still yearning to be free

Mike Spector

Feb 25, 2018

Thought for a day: Ask an expert

I am thinking about a new aphorism to guide my thoughts and actions. It pertains to seeking ideas and advice from others. 

It goes like this: Ask a novice and you are likely to get one answer that looks like one of these: “I don’t know,” I’m not sure,” or “Maybe X” [I omitted the “I know not what” part for those not familiar with John Locke’s notion of substance].

Ask an expert and you are likely to get at least two answers that look something like these: “It could be X or it could be Y,” and “Research shows different results in different situations” and “In this case Z might be best – give it your best shot.”

Ask a world-class scholar (assuming you can find a living one) and you are likely to get at least three answers which resemble something like the following: “Well, that is an interesting question which deserves some scrutiny; I am familiar with a case somewhat like this in which X was tried with somewhat mixed results; in a different situation Y seemed to work but it may not be appropriate in this case; on the other hand, you might consider Z; what do you think?”