The UNFAIR ADVANTAGE of being a PRODUCT of a LEARNING ORGANIZATION How 2 BEAT The EINSTELLUNG EFFECT

Related to these difficulties in math and science is another challenge. It’s called the Einstellung effect (pronounced EYE-nshtellung). In this phenomenon, an idea you already have in mind, or your simple initial thought, prevents a better idea or solution from being found.9 Wesaw this in the focused pinball picture, where your initial pinball thought went to the upper part of the brain, but the solution thought pattern was in the lower part of the image. (The German word Einstellung means “mindset”—basically you can remember Einstellung as installing a roadblock because of the way you are initially looking at something.) This kind of wrong approach is especially easy to do in science because sometimes your initial intuition about what’s happening is misleading. You have to unlearn your erroneous older ideas even while you’re learning new ones.10 The Einstellung effect is a frequent stumbling block for students. It’s not just that sometimes your natural intuitions need to be retrained—it’s that sometimes it is tough even figuring out where to begin, as when tackling a homework problem. You bumble about—your thoughts far from the actual solution—because the crowded bumpers of the focused mode prevent you from springing to a new place where the solution might be found. This is precisely why one significant mistake students sometimes make in learning math and science is jumping into the water before they learn to swim.11 In other words, they blindly start working on homework without reading the textbook, attending lectures, viewing online lessons, or speaking with someone knowledgeable. This is a recipe for sinking. It’s like randomly allowing a thought to pop off in the focused-mode pinball machine without paying any real attention to where the solution truly lies. Understanding how to obtain real solutions is important, not only in math and science problem solving, but for life in general. For example, a little research, self-awareness, and even self-experimentation can prevent you from being parted with your money—or even your good health—on products that come with bogus “scientific” claims.12

Oakley, Barbara. A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) (pp. 17-18). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[tharanmccravey]

AMEN! ITS ALL ABOUT PRAISING HIS SON! AMEN .