Describe a time that you tried to understand, or you were trying to explain something to someone, but you, or they, lacked background knowledge or had an inaccurate mental model. Include ALL of the following in your post 1) the situation, 2) what was said, read, written, or communicated, 3) what made it difficult to comprehend, and 4) what would have aided you with either your comprehension or explanation. Label each part of your description 1 through 4.
1. I observed this situation during my son's science fair share night. All of the participating students had their projects displayed and parents walked around and listened to each student's presentation. 2. My son was presenting to a mom, who obviously didn't know much about electricity. He tried to explain to her how a dimmer switch worked, but she didn't know anything at all about electricity. 3. She didn't know about basic circuits and wasn't familiar with the terminology. 4. Ideally, he could have backed up and started from the beginning. As an 8 year old, I don't think he could comprehend that a mom wouldn't know about electricity. (He is using his background knowledge to assess the situation. His mom knows about it... so all mom's should.) In his 8 years, he hasn't been exposed to that many adults, so his view of what they should know is pretty limited.
ReplyDelete1. An example of a situation in which I was trying to explain something to someone who was lacking background knowledge is when I was trying to explain to my 3 year old nephew that penguins do not fly.
ReplyDelete2. I asked him what animal was on the tv screen and he replied, "Penguins." I told him he was right and asked him where they live. Odin responded and said "they fly to the north pole then move to Florida to get a tan." (I'm not particularly sure where he got the 'get a tan' thing but we went with it. I informed him that penguins, in fact, do not fly but he disagreed, stating that all the birds outside fly so penguins have to fly. I tried to explain to him that not all birds fly and they do not all come to Florida to get a tan but he lacked the background knowledge to understand that penguins cannot fly.
3. I think what made it difficult to comprehend was the fact that he only knows how to generalize things like that the birds he is used to seeing fly therefore all birds fly.
4. I'm not really sure what would have aided me in this situation but time. I don't think he really understands that there is more to the world than what he sees on a day to day basis and that just because he sees something one way does not mean that there is an exception.
1. A time when I was trying to explain something to someone was at work. I was the manager and was in charge of training new people. A specific time i remember when I was trying to teach a girl how to use the register and she simply just did not understand some of it.
ReplyDelete2. I asked her if she understood what I was telling her and she said yes. Then when I told her to practice and ring up some customers she just sat there and starred at the screen. When I asked her if she needed help she said no. I was really confused because she said she knew but then she wasn't doing anything. Shortly after she said I don't understand can you help me.
3. It made it difficult for her to comprehend because she had never done anything of that sort or had any background knowledge on how to work a register. So giving her all the information at once and just having her do it she was completely lost.
4. I think it would of helped if I would have asked her if she had ever used a register before and then after she said no give her some background information and basic knowledge of the technology.
1. My roommate asked me about her art work
ReplyDelete2. She had finished a one of her abstract pictures and asked me what I thought about it. I really did like, I just had no idea what I was looking at. She told me that it was abstract and tried explaining to me what abstract art was.
3. When she tried explaining what abstract art was I was instantly confused. I liked the art that she had done, when she explained again I understood what she was saying I could not make the connection of why abstract art was what it was and I did not understand the purpose of it.
4. The last time I was in any art class before this situation was middle school. I knew certain terms because I had heard of them before and vaguely remember learning about them. It was not until I took some classes that I really understood the differences in styles of art and why they were what they were.
1.The situation that lacked an inaccurate mental model was when I tried to explain to my 3 year old niece how a riding lawnmower works.
ReplyDelete2.She was unable to understand the concept about the blades underneath the lawnmower that spin in circular motion to trim the grass. She believed that all you had to do was drive the motorized lawnmower over the grass and the grass would automatically shrink or become smaller.
3.Having a toy lawnmower, it was difficult for her to understand about the blades underneath because her toy didn’t have them. She could not comprehend that her toy was missing the most important part to it.
4.Showing her a video or an actual model of the blades underneath the lawnmower would have better helped her to understand how the blades spin on the lawnmower to trim the grass.
1) One particular time that stands out in my mind was a time when I was tutoring College students. I was tutoring a student in the subject of sociology. The student was not a native speaker and had been in the country for about 6 months.
ReplyDelete2) The course focused primarily on American Sociology. I was trying to explain terms such as social class, stratification, mobility, etc. She became very frustrated, saying, “I don’t understand, I don’t understand.” She tried to explain how life was in her country and I tried to relate the sociology terms terms to her culture. Unfortunately, she became angry following one particular explanation and walked out. She said I really offended her. This saddened me, as I never meant to upset her.
3) She had a hard time understanding what I was explaining because she had not grown up in America and had little experience in the present culture. She could only relate what I was explaining to what she knew and had experience with. I believe there was fault on my part too for not understanding her culture.
4) I believe that what would have helped this situation was to find a sociology text or article explaining the terms in the students culture. Also, maybe having the student wait to take the course until she has had more experience in the social comings and goings of her present cultural experience. I have often asked myself how I could have made that situation better.
1) A time when there wasn't sufficient background knowledge was when I was teaching my 3rd grade students about the moon. After a couple of minutes I quickly realized they didn't know much about the Earth and Moon.
ReplyDelete2)I began class by asking the students to tell me what they knew about the moon. We made a class list. It was clear that they had a lot of misconceptions. They thought the moon rotated like Earth, the moon gave off its own light, and that Earth revolved around the moon.
3)These concepts were hard for them to understand because they are so abstract. It wasn't something that could be held. They needed more background knowledge on how things move in space.
4)Needless to say, I had to revamp my whole unit on space. I included several experiments or models of movement for the moon and Earth, found a couple of children's books, drew a lot of the concepts, and watched a great video about the moon and Earth.
1) My husband is a mechanic, and anytime he tries to tell me about his day at work I am lost.
ReplyDelete2) He could tell me about an engine and what was wrong with it for example and I have no idea what he is talking about.
3) I know nothing about cars, and most of the time he talks in car-lingo and then I am even more lost, so he tries to bring it down for me and I get irritated because I figure after 10 years I should know something about cars.
4) Sometimes he will pop the hood and point something out to me and that helps alittle, I dont know if I will ever completely understand what he is saying.
1. Just a few days ago, I was sitting on the couch when one of my friends pulled out a guitar and started to play. I have never played a guitar before and I don't have any background knowledge of the instrument, so I asked him to teach me a couple of things.
ReplyDelete2. He stayed on a couch opposite of me and told me exactly where to place my fingers on the frets and gave me the first four notes to strum. The lesson ended quickly because at that point I had no idea what to do.
3. I was confused because I was not familiar with the terminology he was using. My background knowledge was so limited that I did not even know the definition of “fret”. Also, I was trying to wrap my mind around four notes which was way too many for the first lesson.
4. Any amount of background information would have been helpful. The confusion could have been decreased if he had explained a few key terms at first then placed my fingers where they needed to go the guitar.
1. A situation in which I was trying to explain something to someone and they had no prior knowledge of the subject would be when I was a lifeguard at Hurstbourne Country Club. I was giving swim lessons to a 4year old little girl, and she wasnt able to understand the concept of swimming.
ReplyDelete2. During this lesson she kept crying and said that she wanted to quit because she kept sinking under the water & water kept going up her nose. I then told her that it takes practice and that no one knew how to swim without being taught.
3. It was difficult for her to understand that in order to keep the water out of her nose, she has to blow bubbles out of it. And as for continuing to sink under the water she has to learn to move her arms and lets in a specific motion to stay afloat. She wasn't able to fathem the fact that when swimming you have to do both of those tasks at the same time in order to be efficient at the sport.
4. If her parents would have told her before the lesson that swimming isnt the easiest concept to learn, then maybe our communication would have been clearer. If she had recieved more background knowledge on the sport prior to the lesson then she would have been able to understand that you have to do mutiple tasks in order to stay afloat and swim correctly.
Dr. Bausch- I'm using my computer at home, it would not let me sign in under g.uky.edu. You were right! I'm not sure why it let me post in class, but that is why I am "replying" instead of posting my blog. 1) When I was preparing to leave for college, the boys I babysit had a very hard time understanding what "college" was all about and what it meant to live there. 2) I tried communicating to these boys that college was just like school, except each class was held in a different building. I explained that you did not live at home with your parents, that you instead lived with all of the other college students in a dorm. 3) The fact that the boys had never seen or heard of "college" made it very difficult for them to understand. Also, their experiences and ideas of what school is like for them was a huge barrier in the way of their understanding of college. 4) Pictures, diagrams, and videos of colleges could have aided me in explaining to these elementary-aged boys what college was like. I also should have explained to them the purpose of going to college, which is to get a degree so that one can pursue a career.
Delete1. I must say that this is an everyday occurance for me when trying to tell my husband something about my day or what is going on in one of my classes. He always has a hard time keeping track of all of the information I throw at him at once. I talk fast and I say alot so it's also hard for him to pay attention and keep track of every word.
ReplyDelete2. As I said this is a daily occurance for me, so I can't pin point an exact conversation. What I usually talk about with my husband is either how my day went at school or what I'm learning about. Sometimes I talk to him about what's going on with one of my family members.
3. What makes it difficult for my husband to comprehend everything is my lack of organization in my train of thought. It's hard to tell him every little bit of my story without forgetting a vital detail. I wind up loosing him half way through the story and I get frustrated because he's not paying attention.
4. What would probably benefit me when explaining a story better is critically think about what I am going to say before I say it. My husband says that I am more of an emotional talker/thinker which makes it much harder for him to understand what I'm trying to say. If I can collect my thoughts together and allow myself to put those thoughts in to words I will be more successful at getting my point across.
1. My mom teaches Zumba and there is a website that you can go to and find instructors within the area. She wanted me to make sure that I could search her by city insead of name and see what it told you once you found her.I did exactly what she asked.
ReplyDelete2. I told her that I could find her by searching Georgetown Kentucky and what it said about her in the about me section. There were a lot of gramatical errors. I went into her account like she asked and fixed the errors which deleted what was already there so I wrote something new and a few others things that she needed. Once I was finished I told her the changes I made and read to her the about section again to make sure she was satisfied.
3. The thing that made this situation a pain and not fun what so ever was the fact that she was trying to multi task. She was cleaning and talking on the phone and not paying attention to what she had asked me to do or what I told her once I had completed the task.
4. The thing that would have helped the siuation would be if she would have sat down next to me and tried to learn to do what she needed herself and pay attention to what I was trying to do and making sure it was what she wanted. Due to the phone and cleaning it took me telling her things over and over and getting a little/ a lot frustrated. It would have made things easier for me to explain and for her to learn if she would have jus taken the time to listen and pay attention.