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One issue in the study of economics is that the textbooks, IMHO, have a great deal of misleading or over-simplified or obsolete material in them. I use the publisher-provided PPTs because otherwise I would have to write my own text and update it every semester to be able to keep up. Not enough time. I use the PPT as a starting point, and the entire Internet including government statistical sites,  reliable private information compilers and more or less objective YouTube videos as a palette to teach applied and real-world and current economics and discuss with students.

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One issue in the study of economics is that the textbooks, IMHO, have a great deal of misleading or over-simplified or obsolete material in them. I use the publisher-provided PPTs because otherwise I would have to write my own text and update it every semester to be able to keep up. Not enough time. I use the PPT as a starting point, and the entire Internet including government statistical sites,  reliable private information compilers and more or less objective YouTube videos as a palette to teach applied and real-world and current economics and discuss with students.

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“Retrieval Practice” looks like a possibly useful set of resources. Bookmarking for later perusal:https://www.retrievalpractice.org/

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“Retrieval Practice” looks like a possibly useful set of resources. Bookmarking for later perusal:https://www.retrievalpractice.org/

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There is a huge literature on Memory Palaces or “Method of Loci”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci, or “Art of Memory”, according to Cicero’s De Oratore invented by the ancient Greek poet Simonides. One of the major proponents was Giordano Bruno, the Renaissance polymath and Hermetic philosopher who was famously burned at the stake, in his De Umbris Ideorum and in Ars Memoriae, both in 1582, translated by Francis Yateshttp://web.mit.edu/uricchio/Public/Documents/media-in-transition/Yates%20-%20The%20Art%20of%20Memory.pdfBruno used very striking and memorable “archetypal” images in his Art of Memory, somewhat different from the “Palace” of other techniques.Speaking of Critical Thinking, Anthony Metivier has a video in which he describes his critique of Bruno:https://youtu.be/Vlz7YhxKRXc

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There is a huge literature on Memory Palaces or “Method of Loci”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci, or “Art of Memory”, according to Cicero’s De Oratore invented by the ancient Greek poet Simonides. One of the major proponents was Giordano Bruno, the Renaissance polymath and Hermetic philosopher who was famously burned at the stake, in his De Umbris Ideorum and in Ars Memoriae, both in 1582, translated by Francis Yateshttp://web.mit.edu/uricchio/Public/Documents/media-in-transition/Yates%20-%20The%20Art%20of%20Memory.pdfBruno used very striking and memorable “archetypal” images in his Art of Memory, somewhat different from the “Palace” of other techniques.Speaking of Critical Thinking, Anthony Metivier has a video in which he describes his critique of Bruno:https://youtu.be/Vlz7YhxKRXc

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Michelle Miller writes about memorizing long lists of unrelated (to the learner) words in science or language learning, but doesn’t touch on the most important variation in humans – that between small children and all the rest. All small children learn a lot of language and words in a short time – more than any subsequent age on average  – how do they do it? It should have lessons for us with respect to our learning and our teaching students how to learn. There is another exception: linguists. Many linguists are able to learn languages easily and quickly, because they have developed cognitive tools that enable them to “see the big picture” of the general structure of languages – is this capacity possible to develop in other people who are learning a professional vocabulary, which for many intents and purposes is a “language”? 

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Michelle Miller writes about memorizing long lists of unrelated (to the learner) words in science or language learning, but doesn’t touch on the most important variation in humans – that between small children and all the rest. All small children learn a lot of language and words in a short time – more than any subsequent age on average  – how do they do it? It should have lessons for us with respect to our learning and our teaching students how to learn. There is another exception: linguists. Many linguists are able to learn languages easily and quickly, because they have developed cognitive tools that enable them to “see the big picture” of the general structure of languages – is this capacity possible to develop in other people who are learning a professional vocabulary, which for many intents and purposes is a “language”? 

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Unfortunately, the idea of developing critical thinking as an effort with bipartisan support is now laughably naïve in 2023 – we now have a political class that spends a great time trying to prevent critical thinking. I am not political at all, but I think of critical thinking as a fundamentally important skill, not just for good citizenship and academic excellence, but also for the workplace. From the NACE criteria that employers look for that was shown in this course, employers apparently do not agree – critical thinking is not on their list of desired characteristics. Given the level of top-down management practices in the US today, that is not surprising, but it seems to me to be a competitive disadvantage for American business.None of the definitions offered for critical thinking are similar to the definition I prefer. Critical thinking in my opinion is not driven by the need for a desirable outcome as such – it is not a problem-solving method, it is a method of developing an overall understanding of a subject in context; it is driven by the need to accurately understand the reasons why a given understanding was constructed, and what would be a more accurate way to contextualize and rebuild a previous understanding.  Critical thinking is the ability to deconstruct the previous understanding of a subject and reconstruct it in a way that is more fully reflective of its historical, sociological, and structural elements in the context of current needs and understanding. An example is the invention of modern non-pictorial art; another is the development of non-melodic music – both in the early 20th century. Both break down and provide a foundation for the rebuilding on a new basis of the art forms they represent. Statistics is not a tool for critical thinking – it is merely a tool. It is useful if and when it is used for the purpose of critical thinking, depending on FOR WHAT PURPOSE and HOW it is used. Critical thinking is more like Karl Popper’s assertion that the scientific method requires that one NOT *prove* a hypothesis, but attempt to “falsify” it until one runs out of possible problems with the hypothesis – it can then tentatively be said to be “not disproven”.

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Unfortunately, the idea of developing critical thinking as an effort with bipartisan support is now laughably naïve in 2023 – we now have a political class that spends a great time trying to prevent critical thinking. I am not political at all, but I think of critical thinking as a fundamentally important skill, not just for good citizenship and academic excellence, but also for the workplace. From the NACE criteria that employers look for that was shown in this course, employers apparently do not agree – critical thinking is not on their list of desired characteristics. Given the level of top-down management practices in the US today, that is not surprising, but it seems to me to be a competitive disadvantage for American business.None of the definitions offered for critical thinking are similar to the definition I prefer. Critical thinking in my opinion is not driven by the need for a desirable outcome as such – it is not a problem-solving method, it is a method of developing an overall understanding of a subject in context; it is driven by the need to accurately understand the reasons why a given understanding was constructed, and what would be a more accurate way to contextualize and rebuild a previous understanding.  Critical thinking is the ability to deconstruct the previous understanding of a subject and reconstruct it in a way that is more fully reflective of its historical, sociological, and structural elements in the context of current needs and understanding. An example is the invention of modern non-pictorial art; another is the development of non-melodic music – both in the early 20th century. Both break down and provide a foundation for the rebuilding on a new basis of the art forms they represent. Statistics is not a tool for critical thinking – it is merely a tool. It is useful if and when it is used for the purpose of critical thinking, depending on FOR WHAT PURPOSE and HOW it is used. Critical thinking is more like Karl Popper’s assertion that the scientific method requires that one NOT *prove* a hypothesis, but attempt to “falsify” it until one runs out of possible problems with the hypothesis – it can then tentatively be said to be “not disproven”.

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“As Willingham says, something as fundamental as attention couldn’t be deeply reshaped without a major overhaul of the brain – something that would be a function of evolution, not life experiences.”-Is there no cognitive study of people who have spent a lifetime modifying their cognitive function? People like advanced martial artists, yoga practitioners, monks, deep meditators, etc? Surely there are life experiences that can modify one’s attention, and it surprises me that this is being ignored. By 2023 they should have progressed beyond using only American male college students as subjects to more specialized and varied populations. Martial arts I know to an extent: the mind is trained to notice and react to peripheral details – it is a broad but focused attention, trained as a way to stay alive in fighting situations – even regular soldiers should have this quality to an extent – have not the armed forces done studies?

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“As Willingham says, something as fundamental as attention couldn’t be deeply reshaped without a major overhaul of the brain – something that would be a function of evolution, not life experiences.”-Is there no cognitive study of people who have spent a lifetime modifying their cognitive function? People like advanced martial artists, yoga practitioners, monks, deep meditators, etc? Surely there are life experiences that can modify one’s attention, and it surprises me that this is being ignored. By 2023 they should have progressed beyond using only American male college students as subjects to more specialized and varied populations. Martial arts I know to an extent: the mind is trained to notice and react to peripheral details – it is a broad but focused attention, trained as a way to stay alive in fighting situations – even regular soldiers should have this quality to an extent – have not the armed forces done studies?

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Miller, M. D. (2011). What college teachers should know about memory: A perspective from cognitive psychology. College Teaching, 59, 117–122.

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Miller, M. D. (2011). What college teachers should know about memory: A perspective from cognitive psychology. College Teaching, 59, 117–122.

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Lara Boyd. After Watching this, Your Brain Will Not Be the Same (14:24)https://youtu.be/LNHBMFCzznE

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Lara Boyd. After Watching this, Your Brain Will Not Be the Same (14:24)https://youtu.be/LNHBMFCzznE

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Growing Brains, Nurturing Minds—Neuroscience as an Educational Tool to Support Students’ Development as Life-Long Learnershttps://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/12/1622

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Growing Brains, Nurturing Minds—Neuroscience as an Educational Tool to Support Students’ Development as Life-Long Learnershttps://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/12/1622