A PC Critique of “Liberatory Education: Integrating the Science of Learning and Culturally Responsive Practice”
By Zaretta Hammond
AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021
Zaretta Hammond, a former writing teacher, has been a national education consultant for more than two decades. She is the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students and a member of the Center for the Collaborative Classroom’s Board of Trustees. ILLUSTRATIONS BY GABY D’ALESSANDRO Previously, she worked with the National Equity Project.
[[The PC critiques are in double bracketed italics.]]
In August 2020, I welcomed 400 educators into my Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) by Design Online Professional Learning Community (PLC). This nine-month deep dive into redesigning instruction through a culturally responsive lens went beyond gimmicks and one-off activities. Then, in January 2021, we welcomed another 600 teachers, instructional coaches, and site leaders who wanted to participate. The CRE by Design virtual platform was a few years in the making, long before the pandemic.
I started playing with the idea in 2017, two years after I published Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. 1 I wanted to share how the principles of cultural responsiveness, when coupled with the science of learning, can be leveraged for liberatory education—which means positioning students to be the leaders of their own learning by helping them increase their ability to actively improve their cognition. [[This is the foundation of her work and this paper. The wording should be “positioning students to be the Producers of their own learning.” The notion of leaders and followers has too many CC connotations for young minds. When students see themselves as Producers they automatically recognize the cognitive learning processes that they control. This is embodied in the PC mental model (Inputs à Student/Producer’s MOP and GOP via Vectors à +/-FARTs relative to education) (and all Human Outputs of the student)]]
This is something I learned firsthand when teaching writing to high school students and college freshmen. All of my classroom teaching career was devoted to expository writing. In my credential program, I focused only on writing instruction and reading development. Literacy was (and still is) personal to me. Why? My maternal grandparents who fled the Deep South in 1940 to California were illiterate. Because of Jim Crow segregation, they never got the opportunity to learn to read. [[Reading and writing is key. We must should students how their Matrix contains word Vectors, a Grammar Vector, and Vectors containing the inputs for all elements of writing. They must have a clear sense of what’s going on in their brain-mind relative to learning (especially how MOP processes reading and writing).]]
In my early days as an educator, as passionate as I was about helping students become powerful writers, I struggled to help my lowest-performing students of color improve their writing. Many came into my class with skill and knowledge gaps that made critical reading and effective academic writing hard. There was no amount of red ink on their papers that easily changed that reality. [[The theme throughout this paper and many other theorists is that struggling students have skill and knowledge gaps. Gaps have to be filled. By implications one has to “consume” something to fill the gaps. This is CC language of banking education. It’s a matter of GOP and MOP not encountering inputs for the skill and knowledge Vectors.]]
So, I did two things. I stopped using my red pen to correct papers, and I began my own inquiry as teacher-researcher. I leaned into Lisa Delpit’s seminal essay, “The Silenced Dialogue,” which addressed equity and literacy issues for historically marginalized students.2 I wanted to understand how to use the funds of knowledge3 my underprepared students brought with them as an asset to accelerate their growth as writers. I read Linda Christensen, a teacher-scholar with the Oregon Writing Project who went on to author Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, to help me reimagine what a writing class could look like for students of color that centered their language experiences and ways of learning rooted in collectivist cultural principles. 4 Over time, with more responsive structures, processes, and routines in place, my writing students slowly became the leaders of their own learning. It was an outcome I went on to replicate over and over again as a writing teacher. When I left the classroom to support equity efforts, I shared this knowledge as a coach and curriculum designer. [[Stop using CC language. “Funds of Knowledge” and “collectivist cultural principles” are what the Matrix is all about. The “more responsive structures, processes, and routines” are how the student’s PC mental model is utilized to teach them to take charge of their learning. Instead of leaders of their own learning it’s Producers of their Matrix. Leaders and followers promote CC.]]
Now, this body of knowledge is at the core of the CRE by Design Online PLC. Our primary goal has been to use collaborative inquiry to deepen the effective implementation and impact of culturally responsive practice directly on student learning. We asked the bold question: How do we support historically marginalized students—particularly Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander,
and Indigenous students—to be truly independent learners, not just compliant ones? Yet, try as we might, our conversations kept going back to remote learning issues, such as: Should students be able to have cameras off during instruction? [[Collaborative inquiry is about the complex human production chains operating among Matrices. Independent learners are the ones who first see themselves and others as Producers and are aware of their own PC mental model. Specifically, one’s MOP is able to mix and match Vectors in critical thinking modes. The participants’ dominant Vectors are related to controlling the students.]]
One day during a Zoom Q&A session, a teacher asked the question for the 100th time: “How do I get my students to turn on their cameras?”
“Why is that important to you?” I asked in the spirit of inquiry, trying to get to the real concern behind the question. “Because it is,” she said adamantly. “I want to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing—otherwise, they will fall behind.”
We then began to talk about how we can spark their intellectual curiosity instead of demanding cameras on. Curiosity, as I shared in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, stimulates neurotransmitters like dopamine that can entice students and pull them into learning rather than having us cajoling students to engage or making our interactions punitive. Still, there it was: the concern that students were falling behind, especially for students of color and students from under-resourced communities. This concern was coupled with the belief that doubling down on
compliance was going to prevent what’s been dubbed “learning loss” during remote learning. [[Intellectual curiosity, as with independent learners, is about students seeing themselves and one another as Producers and are aware of their own PC mental model. This is about MOP “kicking up” GOP to produce Blue FARs for learning subject matter. But, MOP’s work has to be understood by the students.]]
Fast forward to this moment, as we prepare for full-time in-person teaching and learning again. It feels like every day there has been a new national report about the damage done to student achievement as a result of “learning loss” during remote learning. 5 Many believe that the academic impact of distance learning will have far-reaching effects that will likely exacerbate long-standing opportunity gaps and resulting inequities in academic achievement. Many school districts are preparing post-COVID-19 plans that are aimed at helping students not lose
any more academic ground. [[The real damage is how CC has been weakened in the classroom; which isn’t a damage at all. The learning loss is a classroom banking crises. Again, gaps are CC ideas and when you lament such losses you perpetuate CC. This is a moment of opportunity for PC.]]
The Racialized Nature of the Learning Loss Conversation
Ironically, early in the pandemic, closing school buildings and sheltering in place (for all but essential workers) laid bare systemic racial inequities in education for children of color across grade levels. As a result of the racial justice reckoning happening alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, more educators were able to see the impact of gross inequities in education. The educational disparities went beyond the digital divide and access to technology: the more insidious gaps were in the ability of students to be independent learners during distance learning. [[Racism is a symptom of CC. Its effects are felt in the students’ mental models.]]
We had not prepared all students equally to be powerful self-directed learners. 6 In some cases, we had relied too heavily on over-scaffolding instruction in the name of equitable access for our neediest students, who are disproportionately children of color growing up in chronically and systemically under-resourced communities. 7 For the students most in need of enriching learning experiences, we all too often impose a pedagogy of compliance 8 that prizes orderliness and completing work over getting to understanding. This point was highlighted in a recent report,
The Opportunity Myth, that summarized a study in which almost 1,000 lessons in five school districts were observed. It found that although 71 percent of students were doing what was asked in their assignments (with more than half receiving As and Bs), they were meeting grade-level standards only 17 percent of the time—mainly because the assignments did not ask for grade-level work. 9 [[Powerful self-directed learners, independent learners, intellectual curiosity are CC in the sense that the desired outputs are to add new members to the CC world. And the notions of equity and equality are equally CC ideas; equality in what regard? We want to be equal to the CC mess that currently exists with the “advantaged” classes? Check out their households. Check out their mental models.]]
It is clear that prior to the pandemic, we failed to help the most marginalized, underperforming students strengthen their cognitive muscles through the process of productive struggle so they could carry more of the cognitive load, which left them unprepared for asynchronous learning situations (and for challenges beyond high school). A majority of these students are children of color* and from low-income families and neighborhoods. 10 [[Interesting how many writers use the words productive and production when referencing education yet don’t see the need to fully construct the entire educational systems around Producers. The cognitive muscles deal with MOP’s ability to independently move about the Matrix. CC has forced our MOPs into habitual thought production.]]
This reality became painfully obvious during the pandemic, when high numbers of African American, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous students learning online from home (or wherever they could find an internet connection) found themselves in their zone of frustration rather than in their ideal zone of proximal development. Many simply disengaged from remote learning by turning their cameras off. Others, especially middle and high schoolers, stopped logging in altogether. [[GOP and MOP producing Red FARTs for online learning systems. Frustration tends to evolve out of not knowing how one’s mental model operates.]]
Now, COVID-19 learning loss is being compared with summer learning loss,11 in which some students appear to lose about 25 to 30 percent of their content knowledge and skill between June and September12 (despite some recent analyses questioning the widely accepted concept of summer slide 13 ). My fear is that because of the way we talk about the problem, we will respond as we have in the past (particularly under No Child Left Behind) to disparities in academic achievement: double blocks of literacy and added time for mathematics, while dramatically reducing arts, science, social studies, and, in extreme cases, recess—all in the name of increasing literacy and math scores. 14 [[Indeed, we talk about the problems using CC language; the consciousness that created the problems in the first place.]]
*As explained in “Suppressed History: The Intentional Segregation of America’s Cities”
in the Spring 2021 issue of American Educator, Black families were prevented from
buying homes and building wealth; see aft.org/ae/spring2021/rothstein.
6 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021
How do we avoid post-COVID-19 instructional planning becoming a pedagogy of compliance in an effort to get students “caught up”? [[Drop CC! Incorporate PC at all levels of education!]]
Our dominant narratives around learning loss reveal that we are still oriented around a banking model of learning for Black and brown children; we see their minds as empty accounts into which we must deposit knowledge. 15 We have framed these students as “behind,” while blaming their teachers and families for not making enough standards-based content deposits. This narrative of learning loss takes a deficit view of home-based and community-based learning. It disregards what students have learned in other contexts and what they have learned in class that does not show up on standardized tests. It disregards their existing funds of knowledge and thus fails to recognize the strong foundations on which we could be building. [[Indeed, the dominant narratives of MOP through VITH and VIM is CC and its commodification and transactional banking system. It disregards each student’s PC mental model.]]
We Need a Counter-Narrative to the Idea of Learning Loss
From cognitive science, we know that this banking model is not how learning works.16 Learning is the brain’s prime function—and all of us are wired for high intellectual performance and expansive, self-directed learning, if given the right conditions. Even when we are not aware of it, we are learning all the time—including outside of school. In addition to taking in new information and experiences, we integrate those new bits and pieces of information into our existing background knowledge and mental models (or what cognitive scientists call schema). Realizing that learning happens everywhere, maybe we should be asking different questions: As students devoted less time to traditional classroom-based learning, what did they gain from their home- and community-based learning? What they learned no doubt differs, but have students actually lost anything? [[GOP and MOP are designed to process inputs of the world into human outputs. Human outputs of meaning and flourishing is our focus. Our mental model is for the purpose of creating the best educational systems possible. We are Producers turning inputs into human outputs all the time. Indeed, mental models are what scientists recognize. Unfortunately, we too are operating in CC. Education under PC automatically involves the student’s Vectors and how the inputs in these Vectors were processed by GOP and MOP.]]
Our counter-narrative to learning loss begins with reframing this period as a time of family- and community-based learning. Children learned something. We need to welcome this new “off topic” knowledge back into the classroom as an asset. If we don’t, we send a dangerous message to students that “real” learning only happens in school. That message robs diverse students of the chance to recognize their own agency as learners. In contrast, our counter-narrative embraces the notion of redesigning teaching and learning for liberatory education. [[We’re not recognizing the child’s mental model. The classroom provides a lot of Vectors and inputs for those Vectors but there are far more Vectors and inputs in the child’s world outside the classroom. We must show the child how its MOP rides in the Matrix, how Vectors are interrelated, how inputs are associated, and how FARTs are produces. This builds the child’s agency as a Producer (not a learner).]]
A Path Forward
What are the implications of liberatory education? How do we reimagine what teaching and learning can be as a result of the new bodies of knowledge students will bring with them? How do we avoid overcompensating with compliance-based practices just because our students’ funds of knowledge do not clearly meet a standards-based learning target? A recent white paper from the Aspen Institute proposes five principles* to guide post-pandemic school planning.17 Here, I elaborate on three that are particularly relevant for us to keep in mind as we create instructional plans to revitalize learning and provide the enrichment all students need to reach their potential:
• View student success over multiple years.
• Use the science of learning to guide us.
• Set an agenda for innovation and continuous improvement.
[[Liberatory education is PC. Don’t call it new bodies of knowledge. Call it Vectors the students bring with them from their Matrices. The trick for any classroom is to connect the subject matter Vectors with the many Vectors in the child’s Matrix. The key way to make the connections is talk the language of PC. No matter the inputs the mental model processing is the same. This is the connection. The agenda for innovation and continuous improvement starts with PC’s common language and ideas.]]
View Student Success over Multiple Years
Let’s start with viewing student success over multiple years instead of grade by grade. We must prioritize helping students continue to grow as learners before focusing on covering particular grade-level content. Helping diverse students who are historically marginalized become more powerful learners is the endgame of equity. And, that is not going to happen if we are not making room in our curriculum and pacing guides for students to engage in the type of learning behaviors, like productive struggle and academic conversation, that grow the brain’s neural pathways.18 Over time, the brain’s complex network of neural pathways—what we have come to know as “background knowledge”—helps struggling learners do more rigorous and complex work. In short, the more you know, the easier it is to learn. 19 [[KEY. We must help students understand how their Matrix works and how to use their PC mental model. The problem with equity lies in the lie of CC. What do we want equal? Certainly not to be regarded and respected in the CC world. The brain’s pathways are in the Matrix. Students have a wealth of accumulated inputs in Vectors to which their GOP and MOP have assessed and produced FARTs. The PC mental model must be understood as the background knowledge of students.]]
Our long view of student success has to be twofold: helping students learn grade-level content while simultaneously coaching them to master essential “learn-how-to-learn” moves that allow them to accelerate their own knowledge and skill mastery over time. We cannot simply give these learn-how-to-learn moves to students. They are cultivated by the students over several years with the coaching support of the teacher and in the context of grasping challenging academic content (i.e., content that is worthy of students’ efforts). [[The learn how to learn is what PC is all about. Teachers must coach in PC to get the students to become independent Producers (learners)]]
Use the Science of Learning to Guide Us
To succeed in this acceleration, we will have to be guided by the science of learning. Based on my experience, it seems that many elementary school educators are familiar with the science of reading,† but fewer have heard about the science of learning and development (though American Educator’s readers have long had the benefit of Daniel T. Willingham’s column, ‡ “Ask the cognitive Scientist”). It might seem like the new kid on the block in education circles, but its research foundation stretches back several decades. This body of knowledge we are calling the science of learning is summarized from cross-disciplinary studies highlighting the social and cognitive science behind how young people learn, develop, and row their brain power to master complex skills. [[I can show how each of the “science of learning” is covered by PC’s mental model.]]
*The five principles are: “ensure equity and engagement,” “take a
holistic view to set a coherent strategy,” “ground the work in the sci-
ence of learning,” “take a long-term view of student success,” and
“embed an innovation and learning agenda.” The white paper is
available for free at aspeninstitute.org/publications/recovery-and-
renewal-principles-for-advancing-public-education-post-crisis.
†To ensure your knowledge of the science of reading is up to
date, see Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science, 2020, by Louisa
C. Moats: aft.org/sites/default/files/Moats.pdf.
‡For the latest installment, see page 34. For the free online
archive, see aft.org/ae/subject-index.
AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021 7
One particularly compelling synthesis of emerging and established findings is offered by the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance. 20 This growing partnership of education leaders, researchers, cognitive scientists, and their organizations is united in the belief that these findings present powerful lessons to transform our education systems (and other child-serving systems) to help young people reach their fullest social, emotional, and academic potential. To elevate the essential understandings from this rich body of research, the SoLD Alliance has articulated eight core findings (see “Core Findings for Transforming Education” on page 9). 21 Four of these core findings—malleability, context, meaning-making, and integration—have immediate implications in our post-COVID-19 school design planning, so I draw on them in the discussion that follows, as we build a vision of liberatory education. [[SoLD, nice CC acronym. To help young people (Producers) reach their fullest can only happen under PC.]]
Set an Agenda for Innovation and Continuous Improvement
The first of SoLD’s core findings—malleability—is critical for acting on the Aspen Institute’s principle of continuous improvement and innovation as we plan for liberatory education. Malleability reminds us that the brain is highly adaptable and resilient. One’s ability to learn does not stop, and adversity in life is not predictive of one’s cognitive capacity. Our plans for moving past the effects of the pandemic should be inspired and energized by this understanding. While we will need to be sensitive to rebuilding community, repairing relationships with students and families, and helping some families and even whole neighborhoods process the trauma brought on by all the disruption, students are still able to embrace learning when it is purposeful, is joyful, and sparks curiosity. [[Continuous improvement. Again, implicit in all of this language is become a better consumer. The brain-mind is highly adaptable in that we have a huge number of Vectors at access. In producing thoughts, MOP gets locked (because of CC) in following specific pathways of Vectors and inputs in Vectors. One’s Matrix can contain many “bad” Vectors and yet can operate (produce FARTs) utilizing different and new Vectors. This is what students should understand. No matter the Vectors in the Matrix, the MOP can still do a ride in the Matrix to any Vector. Plus, MOP and GOP can be instructed in not assessing all inputs as a threat to survival; there are the other three assessment possibilities. Assessing inputs as contributions to flourishing is the purposeful, joyful, and curious aspects of malleability.]]
Liberatory Education = Science of Learning + Culturally Responsive Practice
Although this social-emotional regrounding is essential for healing, it is not sufficient for achieving liberatory education, in which students lead their own learning. We also have to plan for more opportunities for accelerated learning. When I speak of accelerated learning, I am referring to the process of coaching students to expand their ability to process information more effectively and do more complex academic work in order to get more than a year’s academic growth in a year’s time. The ability of a student to learn new content at faster rates with deeper understanding is the hallmark of liberatory education. [[For students to lead their own Production (not learning) they have to be coached in understanding their PC mental model.]]
It is only through powerful teaching that we can apprentice students to be active agents in their own learning. This process is going to require them to build and braid together multiple neural, relational, and experiential processes to produce their own unique learning acceleration process.22 I like to think of it as “watering up” instructional practices with the science of learning instead of watering them down with the compliance-oriented deficit views. [[Powerful teaching in CC has great hegemonic benefits. Building Vectors and braiding Vectors together by way of Planes can help MOP be unique in accelerating learning (production). The latter is what results.]]
That is why any effort to accelerate learning to achieve greater equity and help all students reach their potential has to couple the science of learning with culturally responsive practice. These two together create a synergetic effect that promotes more equitable outcomes; their combination helps humanize and empower marginalized learners so that they have the social-emotional capacity to level up their learning. The SoLD Alliance’s core finding of integration reminds us that learning depends on far more than the brain. The brain is nested within the body, and both are nested in a young person’s physical, cultural, cognitive, and emotional environment. Feeling a sense of belonging and intellectual safety free of racial microaggressions is essential. [[Promoting more equitable outcomes and leveling up learning are CC thoughts. The end run is increased consumerism. Social-emotional capacity is what the PC mental model is all about. Learning depends on far more than how GOP and MOP work. GOP and MOP’s work depends upon the inputs of the world (the young person’s physical, cultural, cognitive, and emotional environment). Red FARTs for inputs (e.g., microaggressions) fills Vectors with inputs that distract GOP and MOP from filling subject matter Vectors with inputs with Blue FARTs.]]
Connecting Culture and Cognition
Beyond just relationships, we will have to make the culturecognition connection explicit. 23 Too many teachers (as well as professional development providers, professors of education, administrators, etc.) think of culture erroneously in terms of superficial multiculturalism; their intent is well-meaning, but their actions are often limited to promoting racial and social harmony in the classroom by offering a feel-good “It’s a Small World” environment. Others see the limits of multicultural education and focus on social justice education. They add literature or topics to diversify the content in hopes of increasing diverse students’ motivation, engagement, or self-esteem. As summarized in the “Distinctions of Equity” table on page 10, both of these views dramatically underestimate the influence of culture and the instructional changes needed to engage in liberatory education. [[This is a clear example of CC and how teachers commodify students and turn education into a transaction. The social justice warriors unknowingly promote CC. The idea of diversity and self-esteem have as their end run being accepted so as to benefit from the CC world. The influence of culture is all about GOP and MOP assessing inputs and producing FARTs. We are Producers has to be the framework for multiculturalism, social justice, and all other forms of equity. Liberatory education is grounded in the child’s Matrix and the PC mental model.]]
In reality, culture—how one makes meaning of the world based on shared beliefs, norms, cosmology, and so forth—is the software to the brain’s hardware. Cultural mental models, understandings, and experiences create cognitive “hooks” or reference points that help to organize our schema into a knowledge network that facilitates our understanding of how things work. Our cultural frames of reference reflect the ways our beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors are patterned on a neurological level. 24 The work of being a culturally responsive educator isn’t simply about diverse books or social justice curriculum topics. It’s about gaining insight into your students as learners and being able to craft cognitive hooks between their funds of knowledge and the standards-based content in authentic and meaningful ways that make learning sticky. [[The software of the brain is consciousness. CC is the dominant cultural mental model that needs to be replaced by our natural PC mental model. Cultural frames of reference means how GOP and MOP “Ride Down” Vectors to assess inputs of the world. CC has infected this process and MOP only does “Ride Down” Vectors for CC and utilizes CC word Vectors. It’s about gaining insight into your students Matrix. It’s about utilizing PC to connect their Vectors with any educational Vector.]]
Master Moves for Liberatory Instruction
Our ultimate goal is to design learning so students become self-aware and self-directed as learners. Then they can grow their smarts and expand their intellectual capacity. In Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, I offer instructional “master moves” that have a strong connection to the science of learning keys of context and meaning-making as training ground for accelerated learning. Of these master moves, the following three are critical for students to be knowledgeable, not just information filled:
• Expand background knowledge in context.
• Cultivate information processing skills with cognitive “studio” habits.
• Enrich word wealth through contextualized word study.
[[They need a framework for self-awareness. Right now all they have is CC and this is opposite of the goal. The background knowledge is all of the Vectors in the student’s Matrix before learning any subject matter. PC’s mental model captures information processing and all other systems theory processes. Enrich word Vectors by associating new words with relevant Vectors in the Matrix.]]
Expand Background Knowledge in Context
One way that so-called learning loss shows up is in shallow background knowledge. We have to resist thinking that the solution is just about feeding students more random, decontextualized facts and figures. For instruction to be truly liberatory and for learning to be sticky, it has to help students expand what they know, make deep connections across disciplines, and integrate new content into their existing funds of knowledge. This idea of expanding background knowledge is tied to the culturally responsive principle that says: All new information must be coupled with existing funds of knowledge in order to be learned. This is why we have to honor the things students have learned informally during the pandemic. New learning won’t stick if we don’t help students integrate it with their current understandings. [[Can’t just feed student’s Matrix subject matter Vectors. What student’s know is their Vectors. What they need to understand is the inputs in the Vectors and how GOP and MOP work to produce FARTs for the inputs.]]
But, helping them make connections isn’t enough. We also need to focus on helping students build and expand their existing background knowledge consistently. Why? The science of learning tells us that background knowledge plays a significant and fundamental role in learning—including in critical thinking and reading comprehension. 25 When building a tall skyscraper, the taller the building, the deeper the hole for the foundation must be. The same holds true in education. The more rigorous and complex the learning, the deeper general background knowledge needs to be. Background knowledge is essentially about meaning-making. [[Helping students build and expand their existing background knowledge means to help them understand their PC mental model. When they understand what’s in their Vectors and why it’s in Vectors this builds their Matrix for the purpose of allowing new Vectors (skyscrapers) to come in.]]
The National Research Council’s findings in the seminal report How People Learn26 shows that having background knowledge is not the same as having a collection of disconnected facts. Background knowledge is connected and organized around important concepts (reinforcing this key distinction is why I often use the terms funds of knowledge and schema). [[Again, background knowledge is the student’s Matrix. The key is for them to understand this.]]
One of the fastest ways to accelerate learning is to authentically build students’ background knowledge. 27 Here’s the rub: all new learning must be coupled with and integrated into existing knowledge by the learner, because only the student can build background knowledge. [[Ditto above critiques.]]
To cultivate that expansion of background knowledge, teachers can create a variety of opportunities for students to learn new things that might interest them that can be related to the grade-level content they will be covering in future units. And to help broaden students’ interests, teachers can provide space in the curriculum for them to follow their curiosity, with a little scaffolding:
• Create a Netflix-like resource list of developmentally appropriate documentaries, nonfiction books, nature shows, and the like that are linked to the content standards. Ask students to offer titles of movies, graphic novels, and documentaries that they’ve devoured.
• Let students choose content from the resource list once or twice a month.
• Gamify the process to encourage intellectual curiosity that will keep students motivated. For example, use a 30-day challenge format or turn it into a scavenger hunt. Keep it nongraded (learning for the joy of learning).
• Create fun ways for them to process the new information. Ask them to relate it to what they already know using a thinking routine like “I Used to Think, but Now I Think.”
[[Teachers use CC language to explain and describe pedagogy. Simply put, inform students about their PC mental model and present any “scaffolding” under the PC mental model.]]
Cultivate Information Processing Skills with Cognitive “Studio” Habits
Although the expansion of background knowledge sounds simple enough, experienced teachers know that this process of integrating new and existing information and understandings is quite challenging. As the thinking routine described above hints at, sometimes prior knowledge is not accurate, which can hinder comprehension and integration of new knowledge. And, even when prior knowledge does not need to be corrected, often new knowledge is only partially understood, which also may hinder assimilation. To help the process of integrating new content with students’ funds of knowledge, teachers need to coach students to develop internal cognitive routines for processing new content that are grounded in the craft and techniques of deep learning. [[It’s challenging because of the CC language and ideas that they operate under. The accuracy of prior knowledge is important but more important is the utilization of the student’s Vectors. Contextualizing everything that happens in the classroom under PC has far greater benefits than whether the inputs in a student’s Vectors are accurate. New knowledge is misunderstood because of the Vectors in a student’s Matrix. Again, by instructing new information (inputs) relative to the inputs in Vectors, the student still has a sense of connectedness (i.e., being part of a complex educational production chain). The “internal cognitive routines” is what PC’s mental model is all about; which captures the notion of being grounded in the craft and techniques of deep learning.]]
Building background knowledge and understanding new content requires turning inert facts and figures into usable knowledge. This calls for what I call “cognitive chewing” on the part of the student. In cognitive science, it’s called information processing,28 and it is at the heart of liberatory education. Students need a set of learning-how-to-learn “studio” habits that help them with the business of learning, just like artists develop a set of studio habits to sharpen their craft and technique around their chosen art forms—writing, sculpting, painting, etc. [[The inputs from a subject matter that goes into the student’s subject matter Vectors can be integrated, by way of Planes, with the student’s current Vectors. This is what is to be taught (i.e., “cognitive chewing”). PC’s mental model is the learning-how-to-learn “studio” habit needed to help them with the PRODUCTION (business) of learning.]
Too often, when we deem students behind academically, we increase compliance measures and actually decelerate learning. We over-scaffold rather than coach students to engage in productive struggle to process the content. In contrast, liberatory practices grounded in the science of learning focus on building student independence through developing their own repertoire of studio habits.
One of the fastest ways to
accelerate learning is to
authentically build students’
background knowledge.
AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021 9
Core Findings for Transforming Education
BY THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (SOLD) ALLIANCE [[This was an insert in the paper.]]
All children can learn and thrive. Many people who work with children believe this to be true. But the science of learning and development shows that this idea is more than just a belief. It’s a scientific truth—and, more importantly, it’s a foundation upon which we can design and build learning
environments and educational systems so that every young person can achieve their full potential. [[All Producer’s GOP and MOP can assess any input as a threat or contribution to survival and flourishing and produce FARTs for the inputs. All Producers have a PC mental model. But we will never do this as long as CC is the framework.]]
In recent years, the science of how young people learn, develop, grow, and come to master complex skills has advanced substantially. This knowledge is critical for the education of all children, but it is especially powerful in creating educational equity where we have fallen short in the past. We
may profess to believe that all children are capable of learning, but our educational practices and policies too often reflect the opposite, including marginalizing those who don’t respond to “traditional” K–12 educational approaches. [[Unfortunately, the science is under CC. Creating educational equity is CC driven in the fact that the outcomes are to make more CC members of society. The opposite exists because of CC.]]
The Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance has articulated eight initial core findings, shown in the figure below, that have significant implications for our education systems. It should be emphasized that these findings are overlapping and need to be understood together in an
integrated way. This list of key findings is, and always should be, a work in progress. As the science of learning and development advances, and our work expands, we will learn and say more about these and other findings, and their implications. [[Again, SoLD highlights the CC nature of this and many other approaches to pedagogy. The Key findings have CC embedded in each idea.]]
The science is clear and full of promise: all children can learn and thrive if we transform how we educate and develop them. This transformation will take considerable thought, effort, and courage. However, with science guiding our path, there is no reason we cannot rise to the challenge and create education systems that help all children reach the heights of their enormous potential. [[No. We have to first transform the consciousness that currently educates and develops them. PC!! Interesting how after 6 decades we are still talking about trying to meet the challenge.]]
There is tremendous promise in the work being done on many fronts by leaders and practitioners within the research community and in the education and youth-serving fields that demonstrates what is possible for all children. If we build the right systems—with the best knowledge and stakeholder engagement, and continuously improve based on what we know about how children learn and develop—then each young person can not only succeed in school but also find their path in life. The
opportunities they find will match their individual talents and interests, and they will thrive in and contribute to their communities, benefiting us all. Building these systems is an urgent, immediate, and long-term venture, and the science of learning and development can help show the way. ☐ [[Again, why are we still using the same language used 60 years ago. Why are we talking about finding what is possible and building the right systems so that children can find their path in life? With the intellectual and financial capital spent in the past 60 years, why are we here?? Answers? CC!!]
All children can learn and thrive if we
transform how we educate and develop them.
This sidebar is adapted with
permission from the SoLD Alliance
paper How the Science of Learning
and Development Can Transform
Education: Initial Findings. To learn
more about each of these core
findings, see the full report at
soldalliance.org/resources.
10 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021
Note that cognitive studio habits differ from the typical set of disposition-oriented “habits of mind” many teachers are familiar with.29 Those are generalized dispositions toward thinking that are mindfully employed by characteristically intelligent, successful people when they are confronted with challenges during learning. [[All disposition-oriented “habits of mind” are covered under PC. Cognitive studio habits is what PC is all about.]]
To help students to cultivate their own studio habits, and thereby improve their information processing skills, teachers can:
• Coach students to be meta-strategic. While the popular notion of metacognition focuses on being an observer of one’s thinking in the moment, being meta-strategic focuses on cognitive planning and task analysis in order to size up the task and
select the right cognitive tools and strategies for the job. 30 [[Metacognition is what MOP does in its process of producing self-reflection and contemplation. Being meta-strategic is MOP producing thoughts about the entire PC mental model. The right cognitive tools and strategies for the job are Vectors that MOP can go to in being meta-strategic.]]
• Provide adequate time for processing. Cognitive scientists have long known that working memory (i.e., the mental space in which information processing happens) is limited—but what does this mean for teaching? Simply put, it means we need to pause active learning to give students time to chew on the new information and make connections with their existing knowledge. Honor this processing time. With our youngest students, it’s helpful to pause and process every few minutes. With adolescents and young adults, pause and process at least every 20 minutes. [[Pause to allow GOP and MOP to process inputs. Give GOP and MOP a few more Planes to do their thing. The key is to tell the students this is what’s going on inside their heads.]]
• Provide visual processing tools. Effective pausing and processing often requires more active manipulation of the content than we can provide students in a brief turn-and-talk structure. Common processes that add visual supports to ongoing verbal work,* like sketchnoting, thinking maps, or thinking routines (such as
“Parts, Purposes, and Complexities” 31 ), can be external tools students add to their internal cognitive toolkit. Over time, these are used less often as external scaffolding tools, and the thinking routine or processing tool becomes a permanent internal cognitive structure in their brain for turning facts and figures from inert information into usable knowledge. The added benefit is that these visual processing tools become part of their lifelong toolkit for thinking through complex problems. [[The only external tool is to show students is Inputs à Outputs. As the students mature in understanding PC, the PC mental model can become the visual (Inputs à Producer’s (student’s) GOP and MOP via Vectors à +/-FARTs (all Human Outputs). This covers all of the conceptual terms about how the minds processes information (inputs)]]
• Offer students the option of choosing from a variety of tools. [[Meaning, a variety of Vectors. The only tool is PC’s mental model.]]
*Combining visual and verbal processing, while avoiding the pitfalls of accidentally
distracting students, can be tricky. For guidance, see “Sparking Interest, Reducing
Learning?” in the Fall 2020 issue of American Educator: aft.org/ae/fall2020/sundar.
Students have been learning
during the pandemic at home and
in their communities. We have to
honor this new knowledge.
Distinctions of Equity [[This was an insert in the paper.]]
It is important to distinguish between multicultural, social justice, and culturally responsive education when engaged in equity work to avoid confusing their particular purposes. Too often, these concepts are used interchangeably, but the distinctions outlined here show that they are neither equivalent nor a continuum. Educators cannot begin with multicultural education and believe it will lead to culturally responsive education (CRE). Why? CRE is focused on the cognitive development of underserved students. Multicultural and social justice education play supporting roles. [[However, all three must fall under PC. Under CC we have the problems of distinction and the problem of arguing about the elements of the three ideas as with one benefits adding more humans to CC’s world.]]
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
Focuses on celebrating diversity.
Centers around creating positive social interactions across difference.
Diversity and inclusion efforts live here.
Concerns itself with exposing privileged students to multiple perspectives, and other cultures. For students of color, the focus is on seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum.
Social Harmony
[[First, we are to celebrate the fact that we all have the same PC mental model. The variations in the many components of the mental model contain any discussion of diversity, multiple perspectives, being reflected in the curriculum, and whether we are to celebrate these differences. Social harmony means recognizing the simple and complex human production chains that we are all part of.]]
SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Focuses on exposing the social-political context that students experience.
Centers around raising students’ consciousness about inequity in everyday social, environmental, economic, and political situations. Anti-racist efforts live here.
Concerns itself with creating a lens to recognize and interrupt inequitable
patterns and practices in society.
Critical Consciousness
[[This is all about Vectors in the student’s Matrix. All inequities can be found in the many elements of the PC mental model for each student. It’s wrongheaded to lump all mental models together. Raising students’ consciousness is really about removing CC. Anti-racist efforts start by seeing racism as a symptom of the CC disease that infects GOP and MOP’s assessments of inputs and production FARTs. This is the lens that’s needed. This is the language that students must have in social justice work. This is critical consciousness.]]
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE EDUCATION
Focuses on improving the learning capacity of diverse students who have
been marginalized educationally.
Centers around the affective and cognitive aspects of teaching and learning. Efforts to accelerate learning live here.
Concerns itself with building cognitive capacity and academic mindset by
pushing back on dominant narratives about people of color.
Independent Learning for Agency
[[As presented earlier, learning capacity is all about how the nature and operation of the student’s PC mental model (Inputs à Producer’s (student’s) GOP and MOP via Vectors à +/-FARTs (all Human Outputs). The model’s GOP is the affective component of the Producer’s brain-mind. The model’s MOP is the cognitive component. The dominant narratives are CC’s language and ideas. We push back on CC by incorporating the truth that humans are Producers with a natural PC. Teaching students that they are Producers with a PC mental model that takes them through life is the essence of independent learning for agency.]]
Everyone doesn’t have to use the same cognitive tool at the same time—though everyone should have the same opportunities to master a variety of tools. For liberatory education, each student is building a customized set of studio habits. When teachers have created time and space for this, it is easier to manage. [[Cognitive tools means MOP has Vectors (word Vectors, a grammar Vector, and many subject matter Vectors) that it can “Ride Down” to retrieve inputs. Liberatory education means that we utilize the Vectors that the student do have to build the Vectors that they don’t have.]]
Enrich Word Wealth Through Contextualized Word Study
The way the brain organizes and maintains its schema is deeply related to authentic vocabulary development. Think of vocabulary richness as the brain’s Google search engine. Deep background knowledge and word wealth go hand in hand. That is why our third master move is robust, contextualized word study. [[Meaning, add to and build more word Vectors. Show them the visual of a Vector and how inputs go into the Vector. Intelligence and academic production is a function of MOP doing a “Ride Down” word Vectors to connect with subject matter Vectors. This is why vocabulary is important. But more importantly, this is why the students must understand how their PC mental model works.]]
When teaching vocabulary development, we have to resist the old school (pun intended) practice of only creating a word wall and not interacting with it or merely front-loading vocabulary without ever talking about those words during a lesson. That’s not how we learn words. We learn them actively in context. Our brain uses the three branches of word study for this process: word play, word consciousness, and word knowledge. This is where the science of learning intersects with the science of reading. When our vocabulary expands, we become better thinkers, stronger readers, and more powerful writers. Why? Because words themselves are a form of background knowledge. When word wealth is developed in context, students are not merely learning vocabulary, they are mastering terms that represent whole bodies of knowledge. These are known as “concept words.” Take the word democracy, for example. A second-grader may learn about democracy with a teacher who engages the children in deciding what their classroom rules will be or by connecting to community norms they are learning at home. An eighth-grader in a US history course may come to understand the complicated aspects of democracy from America’s Jim Crow era through the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. And a 12th-grader in an American civics course may grapple with the strengths and weaknesses of our democracy today in light of globalization. [[What must be talked about first is how MOP works with word Vectors. Then, talk about how word Vectors are on the Planes with many other Vectors in the student’s Matrix; which is the context. Word play is when MOP randomly mixes and matches word Vectors. Word consciousness is simply knowing that a word Vector exist and its meaning is a result of other word Vectors. Word knowledge is simply having inputs in the word Vector. Concept words is the integration of a word Vector with other Vectors in the student’s Matrix. The interaction with each word Vector and all the other Vectors in the student’s Matrix is what makes better thinkers, stronger readers, and more powerful writers. In many cases, new Vectors (e.g., Voting Rights Act in 1965, Jim Crow, globalization have to be added to the Matrix. Remembering the key is that all inputs will be assessed by GOP and MOP for their threat or contribution to the survival and flourishing of the student’s phenomenal production systems.]]
We have to help students build “word wealth” as part of an ongoing process of building cognitive capacity. The key is making it fun and letting students own the process as their curiosity takes them down different paths based on their own community context. Here are some key tenets of word learning: [[Ditto above critiques. We have to show them how their brain-mind stores words in word Vectors and utilizes word Vectors to produce thoughts.]]
• Play with words to stimulate intellectual curiosity about how words work using games like Taboo and providing time for students to explore the words that catch their interest. [[This is CC selling of words. We must first show them how their brain-mind stores words in word Vectors and utilizes word Vectors to produce thoughts.]]
• Introduce morphology to students to highlight word knowledge and help them tune into roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Make it a regular practice with each new unit. Begin with word curiosities to spark interest. [[Morphology is simply an added input in the word Vector. This has to be discussed with the student. Show them the visual of a Vector and how inputs go into the Vector.]]
• Build word consciousness through the study of word evolution in engaging ways. For example, students can trace the evolution of slang terms across generations and regions through oral interviews (or Zoom chats) with aunts, uncles, and cousins in
different age ranges and parts of the country or world. [[Ditto. Again, this is about adding inputs in the word Vectors. Having interviews is all about connecting the student’s current Vectors (especially, with aunts, uncles, and cousins in different age ranges and parts of the country or world) with any word Vector under study.]]
• Create explicit bridges between vocabulary development and the other master moves described earlier. Coach students to always notice and name similarities and differences in how language is used between their community and school contexts. [[Ditto. The key again is to show students how their MOP is working with word Vectors. Show them the visual of a Vector and how inputs go into the Vector.]]
As students consume the offerings from the Netflix-style resource list for expanding their back-ground knowledge, get them to track new words as well as how familiar words are used in new ways. Teach them to use visual tools specifically for word learning, like a Frayer Model graphic organizer32 or concept mapping, as part of their cognitive studio habits to capture words into their own personal dictionaries. Above all, cultivate a culture of word learning that builds collective word wealth over time. [[NOW WE SEE THE PROBLEM WITH ALL OF THE PEDAGOGICAL THEORIES, CONCEPTS, AND PRACTICES. Not only does SoLD give away the game of CC being played on our children, but this final statement reveals the problem in a nut shale. “As students consume” is CC!! The correct way to state this is “as students produce FARTs for Netflix-style resource list for expanding their Matrix of Vectors, get them to see how new words are added to their Matrix and how current word Vectors are utilized by MOP in new ways of producing thoughts for the world of inputs the student encounters daily. Show them the visual of a Vector and how inputs go into the Vector; this represents their own personal dictionaries.]]
Conclusion
Many schools will be looking to the science of learning and culturally responsive practice to improve teaching and learning and ameliorate post-COVID-19 learning loss. Yet, so many existing pre-COVID-19 structures, processes, and supposed “best practices” run counter to what we understand about information processing and the eight core findings from the science of learning and development. In addition, there are still myths and misconceptions about culture and the role it plays in learning. We too often reduce culturally responsive teaching to relationships, motivation, or engagement. In reality, it carries the blueprint for
liberatory education by helping historically marginalized students who are underperforming to engage in deeper learning by expanding their brain power. We don’t want to miss the moment. Students have been continuously learning during the pandemic at home and in their communities. We have to honor this new
knowledge. We have to learn to leverage it wisely. This simply means that as classroom teachers, instructional coaches, and school site leaders, we will need to be in a continuous process of unlearning, relearning, and reflecting in ways that
empower students to be the leaders of their own learning. [[It’s all pre-COVID -19 structures, processes, and supposed “best practices” that are off base. Indeed, the myths and misconceptions about culture and the role it plays in learning exist in total. Indeed, everything in the classroom is reduced to relationships, motivation, or engagement (everything is a commodity and a transaction). AND IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF CC. The notion of liberatory education, as proposed, is still framed by CC. And again, one has to question how 60 years of a huge amount of intellectual and financial capital has resulted in us ending a paper with “as classroom teachers, instructional coaches, and school site leaders, we will need to be in a continuous process of unlearning, relearning, and reflecting in ways that
empower students to be the leaders of their own learning.” SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG, WRONGHEADED, OR INTENTIONALLY WRONG! All the more reason to recognize that we have not been utilizing the language and ideas of who human being really are: WE ARE PRODUCERS!! AND THE LANGUAGE AND IDEAS THE FRAME EDUCATION MUST BE PRODUCER CONSCIOUSESS.
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(Continued on page 39)
AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2021 39
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(Continued from page 11)
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for Massena Plant,” WRVO Public Media, November 25, 2015.
7. B. Beckstead, “Alcoa Stays: Cuomo, in Massena, Announces
7-Year Deal with NYPA to Keep Plant Open, Save 450 Jobs,”
NNY360, March 22, 2019.
8. C. Bluefield, “McDowell Renaissance Village Ready for
Occupants,” Register Herald, August 14, 2
