Ubiquitous ACEs

Traditional thinking within education means that when we learn Abstract Cognitive Enablers (ACEs) or Concrete Cognitive Enablers (CCEs) we box the skills within a discipline or context and they are not available for use elsewhere.

ACEs, just like any other skill or knowledge, suffer from the problem of transference in learning. This is a memory problem that is predicated on the semantic nature of long-term memory (LTM). LTM is organized by conceptual relationships. This is easy to understand because we know from subjective experience that when you think of anything, other memories that are associated with that bit (item, idea, emotion) are readily available to your thinking e.g. Doctor/Nurse. This is the basic structural organization of LTM.

There are three parts to memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Any bits that are moved from short-term memory (STM) to LTM must be encoded in relation to something that is already there. This is not well understood by educators, and the most traditional method of encoding is to repeatedly go over a bit until it moves from STM to LTM - kind of like making tracks in the beach deeper and deeper so they don't get washed away. This kind of memorization is both difficult and ineffective because it leads to unintended decontextualized storage and makes long-term retrieval difficult (if not impossible). We know that to remember bits well, they must be encoded within a context – establishing memory trace relationships. Contextualizing information while encoding leads to a well-organized semantic structure in memory storage that can result in effortless, long-term retrieval.

Context-dependent learning ties what has been learned to a given context. A brilliant piece of work done in 1975 by Godden & Baddley had students memorizing word lists in different contexts. One list in scuba gear at the bottom of a pool and another list in a traditional classroom. When the students were tested on their recall for the memorized words, they could only recall the pool list when they were tested at the bottom of a pool, and the same for the classroom list. Brilliant experiment demonstrating the tightness of context in learning and memory.

This is all great to know, but what does it have to do with high-level skills?

First, we must realize that skills, just like bits, are stored in LTM. They are stored within a context, just like everything else. The more ordered the context, the easier they are to retrieve. However, there are knowledge and skills that we want to be context-free and stored as procedures (procedural memory) rather than semantically organized information. CCEs and ACEs stored as procedures rather than as semantic relationships are agnostic and are available anytime and anywhere – like reading for example.

Both CCEs and ACEs are stored as procedures rather than semantically organized skills. However, the traditional way that we learn these skills means that most of them are tied to specific contexts. A subject discipline is simply one dimension of a context. This means that in a traditional learning situation, learning an ACE within mathematics means that this skill will be available whenever someone is faced with a mathematical problem. This is the reason why so many brilliant academics and researchers appear to lack brilliance in other contexts. They have highly developed thinking skills, but these skills are constrained by the context within which they are learned. I find this when I talk to other academics about the evidence underlying The Science of Learning. The evidence means nothing and their practices rarely change as they defend what they do with great rigor and with no evidence whatsoever.

For CCEs and ACEs to be agnostic to context (including subject discipline) they must be learned and practiced across several contexts simultaneously, think of reading as a CCE. This is the easiest way. The other way is to relearn the skills in various contexts – not nearly as efficient.

However, given that a few of us may have already acquired one (or several) of these ACEs within a context, we can expedite the process. With effort, we can explicitly take the skills that we have learned and use them in different contexts. This is difficult, but in a supportive environment, we can do this. That is the core of what I do.

The first cycle of learning at Socelor.com is to figure out the method I have developed and familiarize yourself with the concepts and long-term goals of learning in general with the second cycle focussed on understanding and developing ACEs. Subsequent cycles are the supportive environment where we take what we know and apply it in several contexts, including the context of the learning they are engaged within the cycle.

It is as simple as it sounds – at least to me. Come and have a look. Given the stakes we are facing with the advent of advanced AI, either you or someone you know needs this.

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Heather E. McGowan Donna Patricia Ann Eiby John Reaves Jim Bruner Michael Strong Bridgette Morehouse Espinola Woolfolk Chris Shipley Roger Prentis Ken Carroll Jessy Watmough Chasen Miko, BSc, CCAC Bailey Way Shiela Chipman Paul Petillot Marina Gorbis Ken Mellendorf Gabriella Kovacs MA, PCC Harriet Thompson, PhD, MBA Sue Fewster Muneer Gohar Babar Kristopher Stewart, PhD Patrick Young John Allen Washington Binu Zachariah Amy Buttell Cristina Sim?es Bryan Quibell Maria Calkins Annalies Corbin Annalie Killian Stephen Spinelli Amy Beard Karen Rivoire ?????? Susan S. Shannon Lucas Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH, MBA Tim S. James Johnson Rachel Happe Tonya Allen Enrique Rubio (he/him) Jennifer Sertl Jenni Clark John Hagel Lauren Mason Carris ? Cindy Lenferna de la Motte Jan Owen AM Hon DLitt Peter Hinssen Dianne Millard John Lowman Dr Shaukat Ali Maria da Gra?a Moreira da Silva Patricia Kimberley Robert Wuagneux Jacqueline Rice Joey Grace John Vokey Michaela Evanson Stan Rosenschein Leon Chew Przemek Blicharski Taylor Filipchuk Wyatt Snape