Baby Steps Going Out of Style

Research shows tackling the hardest problems first could better teach children new skills

By Rachel Durfee Posted 12.02.2008 at 12:41 pm 5 Comments

Problem Solving Kid iStockPhoto

Common wisdom dictates that in order to learn a complicated skill, it is best to break the skill down into parts, conquer simpler steps first, and then incrementally move forward, eventually getting to the hard stuff. For example, you don't just tackle a multivariable equation, you start with easier examples. First, you learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Then, you learn how to solve 2x=8, then x + y = 7, and so on and so forth until you are aptly equipped to solve 2(5x + z) = 30x + 3y + 10. For those who made it all the way from fourth grade mathematics to senior year calculus, that's an eight-year journey, and, until now, a necessary one. But what if that's not the best or only way to learn something? New research suggests that diving straight into the tough problems first could actually be a better method for teaching children new skills.

The key to the new study, conducted by University of California, Santa Barbara psychologists Brain J. Spiering and F. Gregory Ashby, was realizing that complicated problems usually involve abstract thinking. A group of volunteers was tasked with learning a set of problems by one of three different methods: starting with easy problems, starting with harder problems and then moving on to easier problems, or being shown easy and hard examples in random order. Firstly, the results proved that the best method heavily depends on what is being taught. For simple categories (i.e. was the line horizontal or vertical?), all three methods worked equally well. For complicated categories, however, the volunteers that began with harder problems and then moved on to easier problems produced the best results.

The reasoning behind the results? Simple rules that apply to easier problems do not always translate to higher level problems. When faced with complex problems, the simplistic method is so ingrained that students will continue to apply it, even though it is no longer valid. Conversely, if students are initially presented with complex problems, they will think outside-the-box from the beginning and have more success throughout the problem-solving process.

Teachers and educators, listen up! These results could be helpful in determining teaching methods for various skill sets. Depending on what is being taught, the materials should be presented in a different and specific order. Before we know it, fourth-graders could be solving binomials, which leaves us to wonder if twelfth grade will be all about adding two plus two, leaving plenty of time for students to study a very complex variable: senioritis.

Via: PhysOrg.com

Previous Article: Not Quite Superman, But Maybe Superdrugs

Next Article: An Earlier Information Age

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

5 Comments

link to this comment

imongi

12/02/08 at 5:14 pm

Why am I not surpirsed that teaching complicated stuff to children would click faster than when they're older? "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." How long has this saying been around? ...and we're just figuring this out?

link to this comment

ford2go

12/03/08 at 2:12 am

I hate to be cynical, but here's another study saying that a basic tenet of education, that's been used for centuries, is wrong.

It's possible,but it will take a lot more than one study to convince me. I also wish that the reports had a bit more info than 'results were published in blah blah blah'

A thousand years ago, when I was in school, set theory was going to retrain our brains. Fortunately the concept died out in time for me to get a fair grasp on math.

I would also ask "what do the Japanese ( and some other nations) do?" . The Japanese ( and others ) have been waxing our butts at math for a long time. The last I heard, they
seemed to favor the concepts of 'tough courses ' and 'lots of practice'.

Certainly improved teaching methods are possible, but I think that they should face a long and arduous road to implemenation. Let's make really certain that they are 'improvments'

link to this comment

bdhoro87

from coral gables, fl

12/04/08 at 12:08 pm

Ford, there's links to the article they got this info from if you really wanna know the facts, and you do sound very cynical, I mean, the heliocentric model of the universe was around for a long time, but it was made pretty clear upon early observations that it was wrong.

Our education system regarding math is out of whack, throughout our entire high school careers we learn only the basic principles of mathematics, and even the most advanced students barely touch on any realistically useful math such as advanced calculus in this country.

And what the Japanese do is no secret, their school day is almost twice as long as ours with school on weekends and during the summers. This is an extension of the work ethic that has developed in the are based on the work necessary to make really good rice patties (thats not joke)

Its pretty clear that our methods for teaching math that have been in place are terrible and need to be changed as soon a better approach is thought of, because almost anything is an improvement from this point.

link to this comment

Met069

12/04/08 at 12:39 pm

In general, East Asian countries outperform the US in math, and no, it's not because we go to school for 16 hours a day. I don't know who told you that school days were like that, but that's an outright lie. We do have class on Saturdays though, but that's barely for 4 hours. The issue of 'length of study' is not important.

The solution is not to force kids to practice hour after hour. That puts way too much stress on a child, and first hand experience tells me that I would NEVER allow someone else to go through that kind of schooling (we do have the highest suicide rates for students in the world for a reason).

It's got nothing to do with the culture of a country either, it's got everything to do with the schools themselves. To the above poster, you are right, the US education system is out of tune. Friends who got straight C's in my school went on and got 5.0 GPAs in American schools. Why? It's too easy over there. This is not a problem of quantity of work, it's quality. The only thing that will save American schools is reform from the very top - better teachers, better facilities, more books, and whatever else a good school needs. A new teaching style isn't going to cover for the inadequacies of the very foundations of the educational system.

link to this comment

dizzie

from RICHMOND, VA

12/05/08 at 2:47 pm

Met just drop kicked you all.