Teaching Minds How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools Teaching Minds How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools ROGER SCHANK Teachers College, Columbia University New York and London Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 Copyright © 2011 by Roger Schank. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN 978-0-8077-5266-1 (paper) ISBN 978-0-8077-5267-8 (hardcover) Printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Milo (who can now read this) and for Max, Mira, and Jonah Contents Preface 1. Cognitive Process-Based Education 2. Teaching Kids to Walk and Talk 3. What Can’t You Teach? 4. Twelve Cognitive Processes That Underlie Learning 5. Real-Life Learning Projects Considered 6. A Socratic Dialogue 7. Knowledge-Based Education vs. Process-Based Education 8. New Curricula for a New Way of Teaching 9. How to Teach the Twelve Cognitive Processes That Underlie Learning 10. Defining Intelligence 11. Restructuring the University vii 12. How Not to Teach 13. How the Best Universities Inadvertently Ruin Our Schools 14. What Can We Do About It? Notes About the Author Preface My father always told me that I would be a teacher. He didn’t mean it in a nice way. My father talked in riddles. As the only child in the house, I had plenty of time and opportunity to figure out what he was really saying. This was it: I am afraid that like me, the best you will be able to do in life is to be a civil service worker. He was also saying: If he had realized he was going to be a civil service worker, at least he could have been a teacher, which he might have enjoyed. He wasn’t really talking about me at all. I never had any intention