Notice & Focus: Training for How to Think

1. Notice & Focus: Training for How to Think Notice things, Focus on details, then Rank them

2. Chapter 1Counterproductive Habits of the Mind: Getting Ready to Have Ideas Introduction • Writing is a way of figuring out what things mean • Writing expands our ability to notice things • A Skeptic asks questions and believes doubt is positive

3. From www.skeptic.com Skepticism as a way of thinking has a long historical tradition that can be traced back at least 2,500 years. The foremost historian of skepticism, Richard Popkin, tells us: “Academic scepticism, so-called because it was formulated in the Platonic Academy in the third century, B.C., developed from the Socratic observation, ‘All I know is that I know nothing.’” Two of the popular received meanings of the word by many people today are that a skeptic believes nothing, or is closed minded to certain beliefs. There is good reason for the perception of the first meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives this common usage for the word skeptic: “One who, like Pyrrhoand his followers in Greek antiquity, doubts the possibility of real knowledge of any kind; one who holds thatthere are no adequate grounds for certainty as to the truth of any proposition whatever.”

4. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Banking—does not teach thinking. • Paolo Friere describes this concept: teachers make “deposits” in student brains; students later make “withdrawals.” • Paraphrasing is an activity to overcome banking—it requires a student to think, consider, and restate ideas after careful consideration.

5. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Generalizing—Removes the mind; often generalizations are only evaluative. • To fully understand, we need to move beyond surface-level understanding. • To avoid generalizing, always provide details in your responses. • Use words closer to the top of abstraction ladder. [e.g. not “car,” but instead, “my red Pontiac GTO coupe”]

6. “car” vs. “Red Pontiac GTO Coupe”

7. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Judging—usually judgments are made too quickly with too little information. • If nothing else, establish the criteria upon which to judge. • Resist temptation to immediately judge; instead, figure out deep meaning before deciding how you feel about something. • Use descriptive adjectives instead of evaluative ones. [e.g. “mentally ill,” instead of “crazy”]

8. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Debate-style Argument—Over-emphasizes the conclusion, instead of thought processes. • Defending your position becomes more important than developing ideas. • Fosters a climate where other side is summarily dismissed. • Promotes “taking sides” instead of reaching deep understanding.

9. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Binaries—Dichotomies (paired ideas) that lead to oversimplification. • Off/On; Yes/No; Right/Wrong; Agree/Disagree; Approve/Disapprove • It is important to recognize them, and even construct them, but dangerous to ignore the “grey area” between polar extremes. • How an issue is framed often leads to a false binary: “Which party is best-suited to run our country, Republicans or Democrats?” • A binary can be a beginning, but not be a final result. [e.g. “You are for us or against us.”]

10. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Personalizing—Over-personalizing leads to reaction instead of reflection. • All writing is somewhat personal, but no academic writing is completely personal. Your experience is meaningful, but is a starting place, not a conclusion. • Notice your first responses, analyze where they came from, and determine if it is fair to draw conclusions from them.

11. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • Opinions—Important to have, but not as important as ideas. • Your opinions cannot be sacrosanct. They must be supported by reasoning or evidence. • Opinions need to be your own, and not those of your family, church, teachers, or friends. • Opinions are mental reflexes; ideas attempt to answer questions that are suggested by whatever you are studying.

12. Chapter 1, cont.8 Habits of the Mind (7 bad; 1 good) • IDEAS—GOOD HABIT…thinking for yourself. • An idea simply may be discovering a question. • An idea may answer a question. • An idea can describe something that confuses you. • An idea usually starts with something you don’t fully understand. • An idea explains the significance of something you have never thought about before.

13. Conclusions about Habits of the Mind Someone with an analytical mind will: • Notice more behaviors, actions, stimulus; • See and appreciate questions instead of only answers; • Suspect rigid dichotomies; • Dwell on issues instead of jumping to conclusions; and • Realize that writing isn’t merely expressive, it is creative…writing is a way to THINK and CREATE knowledge—you shouldn’t know what you’re going to write when you sit down to write.

14. Notice & FocusNoticing: Learning to Observe • Most importantly, observe details before drawing conclusions. • Gather data, analyze it, then make a judgment. • The starting point isn’t the thesis, it is observation. • The thesis will always evolve until the end of a paper.

15. Noticing: Learning to Observe Noticing Things • We condition our brains to internalize stimulus into ready-made compartments: good/bad; attractive/unattractive; smart/stupid; rich/poor; funny/dull. • Familiarity Breeds Contentment—we must defamiliarize ourselves to open our eyes. [e.g. when you came to college, everything was new…but already by your second quarter, certain aspects are predictable…].

16. Noticing: Learning to Observe Notice and Focus *******Ranking******** • Step 1: Always ask yourself: what do I notice? The more detailed you can be, the better. • Step 2: Notice three details about each, then rank them in order of importance. • Step 3: Understand why what you noticed is interesting, revealing, significant, or strange. • Which is the most significant? • Which is the most interesting? • Which is the most strange?

17. Exercise in Notice/Focus/Ranking:What ten things do you notice? Pick one part and notice 10 things about it. Rank what you have noticed.