Thinking is hard

 

I have copy-pasted a post by Dr.Shalini Ratan 1st Founder & Chief Knowledge Facilitator, NIRVAN Life Sciences which appeared on LinkedIn 2 weeks ago.

"Why do we become Believers and not Thinkers?"

Follow others, accept what is told to you, don't question, and don't apply your mind.

The mind gets programmed Not to Think. So, when the mind is not used it loses its capacity to dig and know, it turns lazy. It follows without effort and becomes Belief, rather "Blind Belief".

To Think is a Mind exercise. Unless the mind is challenged with counter thoughts, conflicting opinions, and multiple ideas it will not build itself.

That's why we like Conformed opinions; they soothe the mind.

Understanding Human Perception and Bias

 

After 14 years of arguing/discussing with many educators/researchers on social media, I have discovered that the human mind's tendency to cling to accepted ideas can serve as both a protective mechanism and a barrier to growth.

The human mind is a complex and fascinating entity, often resistant to change once it has settled on a particular understanding or belief. This phenomenon can be likened to the biological processes of reproduction, where the human egg has a protective mechanism that allows only one sperm to fertilize it, effectively shutting out others. Similarly, once our minds accept a plausible explanation, it can become a framework through which we interpret all subsequent information.

Examining Martin Bloomfield/Julian Elliott interview (Part 3)

 

At minute 29.18 of the interview, Dr. Martin Bloomfield said/asked:

Have you found or maybe have you debunked that certain reading interventions don't work with some kids and that these may be the kids that would previously have been called dyslexic or something that they need specific interventions or is that not?

Examining Martin Bloomfield/Julian Elliott interview (Part 2)

 

"The task is not to see what has never been seen before, 

 but to think what has never been thought before about 

                           what you see every day."

-- Erwin Schrödinger (1887 - 1961)

I listened to the whole interview of Julian Elliott with Martin Bloomfield which spoke about things everyone knows. Where is the solution to reducing illiteracy? LINK

Examining Martin Bloomfield/Julian Elliott interview

 

For those who have not listened to the interview you may listen to it here.

Julian Elliott:

Kids who struggle to learn to read have a difficulty based on many factors many of which we have no idea about, none at all they're not something you can easily measure. So, we should talk about individual children's special educational needs.

My comment:

Just because Martin and Julian do not know or bother to know does not mean no one else knows. I know and now many teachers around the world know.

I quit working in 2004, at the age of 52, to research why an intelligent kid who had gone to school for 2 years could not read even a single sentence. After about 2 years, I took in more similar students to learn why these smart kids could not read. I then discovered that most of them could read in Malay and those who went to vernacular schools could read in Pinyin.

After 6 years of teaching these kids, I was sure that the theory that had existed at that time that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of ‘dyslexia’ couldn’t be true. I wrote extensively citing my reasons why phonological awareness deficit can’t be the cause of ‘dyslexia’. LINK

Response to Dr Martin Bloomfield’s comment on LinkedIn

 

Dr Martin Bloomfield:

Professor Elliott is extraordinarily well-researched, and it would do you good to pay attention to his, and others', voices.

 

I have paid attention to Professor Elliott and many other researchers. In 2010, I told Professor Elliott and Durham University that I disagreed with what was said about dyslexia. I requested that he read my posts on my blog. He replied that he would.

Then in 2014, he published his book. He either did not understand my blog posts or he did not read them.

If he had researched ‘dyslexia’ (kids who can’t read) for more than 50 years, how does he not know what causes kids to disengage from learning to read? 

How Can We Educate Educators Who Struggle with Critical Thinking?

 

Learners generally fall into two categories: approximately 80% of children accept what their teachers present without question, often learning to read through patterns and analogies. In contrast, about 20% are logical thinkers who question everything they encounter. When their lessons conflict with prior knowledge or fail to make sense, these children may shut down or disengage from the learning process. This was already discovered by Thorndike in 1913 (More than 100 years ago). LINK

Most ‘Dyslexics’ Are Created by Misguided Teaching

 

 

I recently shared some thoughts with Ethan Lynn regarding a pervasive issue in education: many educators struggle to understand why some children cannot read. They either don’t understand or refuse to accept that the reason is confusion caused by teaching consonants with extraneous sounds.

 

This brings to mind a response I received from some ‘experts’ in Australia in 2020 regarding phonics instruction. You can read more about it here. LINK

Questions awaiting a reply from Ethan Lynn or anyone else (Part 2)

 

The following is extracted from Part 2 of being unable to read. LINK

Sounds represented by letters

I requested Ethan to listen to the sounds of the letters by kids who can’t read in grade 4. Let us see what he finds out.

This ‘research’ would be simple for any teacher to carry out. Get kids in grades 4 who cannot read, to sound out the letters, say, c, f, m, l and s. See if they pronounce them with extraneous sounds – cuh, fuh, muh, luh, suh. I’ll bet that is how they will pronounce these letters.

Questions awaiting a reply from Ethan Lynn or anyone else

 

Question from: The root cause of children being unable to read - Part 1

Why can't we find out the kids who can't read at grade level by the end of grade 1?

Your answers to these questions will be the beginning of a constructive discussion.

This lie that kids who cannot read like most kids in a class cannot be detected by the end of grade one is ludicrous.

This lie was propagated by those with a vested interest.  Every other educator repeats it as if it is the Gospel truth. Would any teacher here tell us why kids who can’t read like most kids in a class can’t be determined by the end of grade 1? 

Dyslexia Debate - Martin Bloomfield with Julian Elliott (Part 3)

 

Martin Bloomfield:

Certain as it were certain reading interventions don't work with some kids and these may be the kids that would previously have been called dyslexic.

My response:

Many issues children face in their learning are inter-connected. It might be that a child is displaying concerning behaviour, and is falling behind academically, so each intervention needs to address each individual’s specific areas of need.

The root cause of children being unable to read (Part 7)

 

Ethan Lynn, PhD:

Luqman Michel thanks for sharing. I’m curious—what exactly is the method you’ve used with the 80+ kids you’ve taught since 2004? Could you walk me through how you diagnose and then teach them to read?

Luqman Michel:

In Malaysia, I used to talk with kids who were sent to me for tuition. This is to ensure they can speak English well. All my students could speak at grade level or higher.

I then asked them to read the letter names to make sure they knew the letters. All of them do this with ease.

Dyslexia Debate - Martin Bloomfield with Julian Elliott (Part 2)

 

Julian Elliott:

What I mean by that is let's return to the original meaning of this term which is a severe and persistent problem with reading and we can use that to discuss or describe children.

So, the whole dyslexia debate is only about changing squiggles to language and that does not require high IQ.

The root cause of children being unable to read (Part 6)

 

Ethan Lynn, PhD

Luqman Michel, I noticed you’ve mentioned diagnosing reading issues by having children sound out consonants. Doesn't that rely on phonemic awareness as a key skill? I'm curious because this seems to contradict a previous post where you downplayed phonemic awareness deficiency as a cause for reading struggles. Could you clarify your thoughts on this?

Dyslexia Debate - Martin Bloomfield with Julian Elliott

 

Please listen to an excellent interview by Martin Bloomfield with Julian (Joe) Elliott. LINK

Julian has explained many matters concerning reading difficulties explicitly.

I will write a post on this interview in the next few days. It would be useful if you listened to the interview above first.

The root cause of children being unable to read (Part5)

 

Luqman Michel

Excellent questions. Thank you. I don't have supporting research by others as no one does this research. What little was done has been suppressed by those with a vested interest. (Remind me later on this.)

NOTE: Here is my answer to ‘Remind me later’. Research has been suppressed. Why isn’t a study that costs taxpayers billions of USD not been widely disseminated? Interviews were conducted with more than 100 experts and many kids who could not read.

I asked David Boulton, the interviewer of Children of the Code, what is his conclusion after his interview of more than 10 years with more than 100 experts and his answer was:

Children of the Code avoided advocating solutions so as not to be dismissed as having an agenda other than learning deeper into the challenge. LINK

Having been informed by experts in the interviews that the main problem with kids being unable to read is teaching the sounds of the letters wrongly David Boulton went ahead and posted 2 videos teaching letter sounds wrongly.

When I questioned him about the videos, he immediately unfriended/blocked me on LinkedIn. 

Why did he then delete the two videos?

Read the comments on the link above.

Is there a puppeteer who is directing the puppets? (More on this later)

The root cause of children being unable to read (Part4)

  

Ethan Lynn, PhD

Thanks, Luqman, I appreciate your insight and fully agree that phonics and letter-sound correspondence are one important key to reading success.

However, I’m a bit unclear about the idea that kids can "figure it out" on their own if they don't have proper instruction.

From my experience, those who don’t receive proper early instruction still need targeted intervention later on to fully catch up. This can and should occur in 4th grade and beyond and focus on the instruction you mentioned in the audio clip.

Could you clarify whether you're suggesting that most kids who can't read well by fourth grade will learn to read without further intervention even if they've received poor instruction? Or if there’s still a role for additional instruction? I'd love to better understand how your approach applies to struggling readers.

Luqman Michel Author

Ethan Lynn, PhD Has any research been done on how many students who could not read in grade four could read by the time they are in grade 9?

Did anyone find out how they could read without any remediation/intervention?

A large % of kids learn to read when they somehow figure it out.

They learn to read in later grades by using patterns and analogies.

Had they been taught correctly at the onset; they would not have had to figure it out.

 

Ethan Lynn, PhD

Luqman Michel, I agree that early instruction needs to be done right.

I'm curious about your argument that some kids eventually figure out how to read without intervention. How do they do this, and is there research supporting it? What do you mean by using "patterns and analogies," and what percentage of students successfully make this turnaround?

 

Additionally, what about the students who don’t figure it out? Are you advocating for no intervention, or could intervention help teach kids the right way, making up for what they missed early on?

To be continued…