Is Structure-Building inherent or something to be learned?


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It seems to me that structure-building is a mix of nature versus nurture, much like many other things (as far as we know). Some people are natural, or more talented, structure-builders, as if it’s a cognitive mechanism they were born with. But structure building can be learned, nurtured and improved upon. “We know that when questions are embedded in texts to help focus readers on the main ideas, the learning performance of low structure-builders improves to a level commensurate with high structure-builders (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014, p. 155). We can learn to be higher structure-builders if we apply deliberate practice.

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This is similar to how people can learn to use memory cues to increase their working memory capacity and recall ability, much like the Oxford students taught mnemonic schemes. If a student can learn how to link “Herman and Mack’s restraint theory” (Brown et al., 2014, p. 192) to a plant and a bowl of mac and cheese from the memory of a café she visited, then anyone with an average level of cognition can learn to increase their structure-building capacity.  

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Martin, Nguyen, and McDaniel (2016) found that “high and low structure builders demonstrated equivalent metamemory accuracy” and their “findings suggested that low structure builders may suffer from deficiencies at many levels of text representations as well as deficiencies in metacognitive control during restudy” (p. 52). This is not discouraging news though. Metacognition can be learned, which in turn, may benefit learning strategies and structure building.

Resources

Hurley, D. (2012). Can you make yourself smarter? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html

Brown, P.C., Roediger, H. L. III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Martin, N. D., Nguyen, K., & McDaniel, M. (2016). Structure building differences influence learning from educational text: Effects on encoding, retention, and metacognitive control. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 52-60. Retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0361476X16300017?token=610676B759E3F42E5A5AFD5A2D55D22B1BE92B6ED569C005F38392E041408DAC785D8FDF4E62FE22B5C064BDEF116A84

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