In Pursuit of Excellence

May 17, 2020 Book Review…, News

Book: Thinking Boys – Teachers understanding the problem-solving skills of adolescent schoolboys- A Jamaican Study
Author: Canute White
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD

Canute White presents a trove of educational information at a time when adolescent boys are struggling to meet academic challenges. Exhaustively researched, White responds to the daunting data on education success among students in the age group under study.
He establishes the foundation and importance of metacognition (the heart of this treatise) and its positive correlation with academic proficiency. He clearly articulates “that adolescent boys who are not skilled in the use of metacognitive strategies would consistently earn low grade point averages.”
Metacognition is a concept requiring an understanding of [a] problem, planning a method to deal with [a] problem, carrying out the planned method and evaluating the outcome of the planned method. It is self-referential in nature, meaning that students adopting this approach regulate themselves and assume “more responsibility for their learning”. Such students, according to White, “are actively involved in reconstructing their existing knowledge with new knowledge.”
While metacognition demonstrates critical thinking and schematization, its applicability is not without limitations. White notes that while many educators advocate this approach as “the only method available to assessing cognitive processes,” the question of self-reporting must be addressed. He contends that problems of self-reporting include the reporters changing their cognitive procedures… and giving answers that they perceive the researcher wants to hear.
White posits that strategies employed in the successful resolution of a problem are dependent on varying factors, and presents quantitative and qualitative findings to better understand the underlying causes of underachievement.
He cites the work of Diane Charest (Reading at the Secondary Level: Concerted Action to Support Reading Research) in concluding that adolescent school boys “failed to monitor their comprehension of what they are reading (self-regulated strategy), set learning objectives (cognitive strategy), plan the steps in process (self-regulated strategy) and take notes in order to summarize the reading material or topic being taught (cognitive strategy).”
White argues that educators can effectively address learning deficits by “asking questions about the content of the text and material taught, giving instructions, answering students’ questions, reacting to students and commenting on their answers, having them read the material, using examples, asking students to give their opinions on concepts as well as teaching points, [and] asking students to state the difficulties they encountered during classroom sessions.”
Notably, White addresses the environment and its potentially disruptive impact on the learning process. Such a disadvantage, he argues, is mitigated by investigating the relationship between social factors and the effective use of metacognitive skills. He elaborates, “It is recommended that appropriate social and educational interventions be mobilized in order to address some of the social distractions that may be barriers to the academic achievement of boys who are otherwise equipped with the ability to plan, organize and monitor their own learning.”
White ably adds to the plethora of material on education while underscoring the importance of rigorous testing. Short of proactive and adaptive educators, adolescent boys are faced with an existential crisis that impacts the wider society. White is expectant that his endeavour will ignite debate on how to optimize the potential of young students. This is only achievable, he concedes, with the integrative efforts of policy makers and educators.
’Thinking Boys’ is opportune, and offers pedagogical solutions to problems plaguing existing models of learning. And throughout, the author makes his case: “Relative to their age factor, adolescent boys need to strive within the classrooms as they continue through the education process.”
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Thinking Boys – Teachers understanding the problem-solving skills of adolescent schoolboys- A Jamaican Study
Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
ISBN: 9781070792811
Copyright 2020
Available at Amazon
E-mail: canyouthsbooks@gmail.com
Ratings: Essential

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News