Why are some children more advanced in their abilities to classify, use symbols, and separate themselves from the “here and now”? Irving Sigel, a distinguished research scientist, has studied this question for three decades, learning that these seemingly unrelated abilities are, in fact, connected. His discoveries can help both teachers and parents to assist students in developing their capacities to think, to learn, to solve problems, and to understand and manipulate the signs and symbols we use for reading, writing, mathematics, and science.
Two Key Concepts
Sigel bases his work on the relationship between two concepts: representational competence and distancing. Commonly, representation refers to the idea that a thing or a name can stand for something else. For example, the U.S. flag represents the United States, and a picture or a photograph represents that which is depicted. Representation in this context refers to external representations—something outside of ourselves in the physical world.
Sigel reminds us that representation has a second meaning having to do with internal representations—mental activities such as images or words that stand for something. Everything we know is represented mentally in some form or another. For example, if we are asked how to get from one place to another, we envision an image of the route. When we read a book, we know that the words represent ideas, places, events. When reading history, we know that we are not taking part in the events, but dealing with representations of them.
We usually assume that the ability to understand and use representations is innate, but Sigel's research shows that this ability, which he describes as representational competence, is learned. Much of his work has dealt with the questions of what we must learn to become representationally competent and how we learn it.
Representational competence develops as we learn that objects, events, and places—in fact all knowledge—can be represented in some form. A picture can represent a house, a person, or a distant place. A mathematical notation can represent the process of addition or substraction or some numerical value; the quantity “3” can be represented in a variety of ways. A scientific formula, such as one describing the change in the boiling point of water at different altitudes, can be represented in words or by various graphs and charts. In each case, the same meaning can be conveyed in various forms. The external representations are descriptions of the knowledge that is our internal representation of the information.
But how do we learn representational competence? This ability develops in part from a group of life experiences, which Sigel describes as distancing experiences. These experiences require us to separate ourselves mentally from the ongoing present. For example, if we were to ask you, the reader, why you are reading this article, you would have to stop, separate yourself from your present activity, and reflect upon the events that led you to the act of reading. Likewise a child, asked to retell an experience he or she has just had, must separate mentally from the present and bring to mind the previous event. The same model applies to the future or the ongoing present; we could ask you or the child what you planned to do tomorrow or ask a student to think about another way to approach a problem.
Many types of distancing experiences exist, and all require that we bring to mind some previous experience or future plan or to create some alternative for the present. They place cognitive demands on us to transcend the ongoing material present and to deal with the past, the future, or the ongoing nonmaterial present. In each case, we have to represent experiences in some form. Based on a long-term research and educational program, Sigel concluded that the accumulation of these experiences leads to representational competence.
Developing the Distancing Theory
In 1966, Sigel set out to study classification competencies in 5- and 6-year-old children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Not surprisingly, his studies showed that socioeconomic background made a difference in children's ability to create meaningful groupings. His study, however, also provided an unexpected insight into how the ability to use symbols develops.
The study used pictures of items familiar to the children such as animals, kitchen utensils, writing materials, and furniture. The children from privileged homes had no difficulty in creating rational groupings with these pictures. In contrast, the underprivileged children could not establish group relationships among the pictures, even though they could identify the items in each picture and relate individual items to one another. Yet, when the children sorted three-dimensional objects instead of the pictures, both samples of children constructed reasonable groupings. Sigel concluded that the children unable to sort the pictures did not understand that the pictures represented the three-dimensional objects, and he began to investigate why.
Sigel believed that the ability to sort pictures can be considered an early form of literacy because pictures are representations; like words, they can represent an idea, an object, or a place. He also believed that if he could identify the experiences that allowed one group of students to more successfully understand representation than the other, he would better understand how literacy develops in children. This knowledge could then be translated into teaching experiences, which parents and teachers could then use to enhance the thinking and problem-solving abilities of children.
Sigel identified a number of specific experiences that the underprivileged children were missing—engagement, anticipation, reconstruction, and transcendence. Experiences of engagement are those, such as questions, that cause the mind to start thinking about something. Just as a car, even with the motor running, does not go anywhere until the clutch is engaged, the brain does not think about things unless challenged to do so. Anticipation refers to a particular type of engagement that deals with thinking about and planning for the future, and reconstruction involves thinking about the past. Transcendence involves moving from the concrete to the symbolic level. Because all these experiences require children to create cognitive distance between themselves and the immediate present, Sigel named his discovery the “Distancing Theory.”
In the years since his initial discoveries, Sigel has integrated the concepts of representational competence and distancing into a model of cognitive development that deserves much greater attention from educators than it has received. His ideas clarify the relationship between thinking and the use of symbols. By establishing the link between representational competence and distancing, he has provided us with guidelines that we can use to evaluate the potential effectiveness of educational goals, outcomes, programs, and teaching strategies, materials, and assessments.
Nearly every aspect of the teaching/learning process can be improved by examining it from the perspective of Sigel's theory. The aspects of Sigel's research that are most relevant to teachers include how to help students develop representational competence, the importance of dealing with discrepancies, and how to use higher-level questioning.
Developing Representational Competence
Few would argue against the importance of competence in reading, writing, and arithmetic or that such competence involves representation in some way. Many of us, however, have not thought much about how representation and competence are connected. What do we mean by competence in writing or arithmetic? Why is it that the ability to use proper grammar and punctuation does not guarantee that students can organize and write a logical essay or express themselves clearly? Why is the solution of story problems more difficult for most students than the manipulation of algorithms?
The abilities to write logical paragraphs and solve story problems are examples of literacy, but from Sigel's perspective, they are also examples of representational competence. In each case, the problems involve both the quality of the person's knowledge, which is an internal representation, and the ability to communicate, or “represent” what he or she knows using a variety of signs and symbol systems.
Many educational goals are examples of achieving representational competence. These goals include: using language fluently; using mathematical symbols with competence and precision; learning about the world from written and spoken language, mathematical formulas, charts, graphs, and other symbol systems; expressing ourselves and representing our knowledge using a variety of symbol systems; and generating written, tabular, and graphical representations of a science experiment. How can we help students develop these abilities?
- challenge students to think in the nonpresent. Examples include visualizing, creating narratives about events that are not occurring in front of the student, conducting imaginary experiments, reconstructing past events, and planning for the future;
- provide opportunities for alternative actions when students are unable to solve a problem. Examples include asking students questions such as, How many ways can you solve this problem? What other rules might apply? How can you find out whether the problems can be solved or not?
- challenge students to find alternative solutions for problems they have already solved;
- help students understand that every object has more than one property. When classifying, teachers should talk about the objects, look at them from different points of view, discuss their origin, manufacture, and where they can be bought;
- provide opportunities for the student to become aware of temporal and physical relations among objects, events, and people. Teachers need to help students understand that things have histories and that reconstructing past events can help them better understand the present and predict the future;
- help students to understand that ideas can be presented in various media or symbols, and most important, that an equivalence principle operates when a variety of media is used. Examples include: (1) asking students how many ways they can represent an idea or concept; (2) helping students consider the idea that a single object can have multiple functions (for example, a book may also serve as a paperweight); and (3) having students complete a project, then describe what they did in as many ways as possible—stories, pictures, videotapes, and the like;
- ensure that students engage in reconstruction or anticipation experiences (planning or predicting). They should consider the past in order to plan something. Examples include planning a trip based on experiences from a previous trip and planning a class project that incorporates past class activities; and
- give students opportunities to reflect on their thinking and their work.
Sigel created a hierarchy of distancing strategies ranging from high to low, which a teacher or parent could use to plan questions or activities. Low-level distancing strategies are, for the most part, memory activities. Medium-level distancing activities require higher-level thinking about things that exist in the physical world. High-level distancing activities involve abstractions, generalizations, and in some cases, open-endedness.
Beyond Higher-Level Questioning
The use of higher-level questioning can be a powerful distancing strategy, but when many teachers question students, they often move from student to student, asking each one only one or two questions so as to involve as many students as possible. Sigel and his colleagues found that this practice results in very little distancing, and is not, therefore, the best way to develop representational competence. Rather, teachers need to engage an individual student in dialogue using probing questions that force the student to examine, justify, clarify, and reconsider his or her first response in the light of counterexamples. In short, inquiry teaching is required.
Sigel acknowledges that inquiry teaching is difficult for teachers and requires skills that must be developed through intensive staff development. If the student whose answer is challenged does not trust the teacher, or the other students, the follow-up question, intended to cause the student to think more deeply about the subject, may have the opposite effect. The student may interpret the follow-up question as a clue that the initial response was wrong and that he or she is about to be made to feel foolish in front of the rest of the class. Threat seems to reduce our ability to think at higher levels, and what could be more threatening than public failure and ridicule?
For this type of instruction to be effective, a teacher must create a classroom environment where students feel safe to express their thinking, where they trust their teacher and fellow students, and where they understand the difference between criticizing ideas and criticizing people. Until a teacher establishes trust in the classroom, strategies such as discussion and cooperative learning may be more effective than inquiry teaching.
Dealing with Discrepancies
In order for representational competence to develop, an environment of shared meaning must exist in the classroom. This environment develops where communication occurs between teachers and students and among students. As individuals strive to probe the meaning of others' words and actions in order to determine what meaning is shared, tension develops. Sigel hypothesizes that this tension is a result of discrepancies and that discrepancies are prerequisites for cognitive restructuring.
Dealing with discrepancies is essential in the development of representational competence. Discrepancies usually result from some sort of distancing, in most cases a question. As educators, we are often guilty of involving our students in decontextualized memory activities that create no discrepancies and therefore produce no mental reorganization or growth. Teachers will quickly recognize when discrepancies occur, because students appear frustrated and confused. Teachers will also recognize when the discrepancies are resolved as they observe the common student reaction of “Aha.”
Sigel's emphasis on discrepancies as necessary for cognitive growth paved the way for current approaches to learning that emphasize both the importance of the active construction of meaning by the learner and the importance of the role of the teacher. Although constructivism—the theory that the learner must actively construct his or her own knowledge—is currently in vogue, many discussions about it do not connect constructivism, representational competence, and distancing.
At the University of Wyoming, we are developing inservice activities to help teachers understand and implement Sigel's ideas in the classroom. We are currently testing a series of staff development activities during which teachers experience shifts in their own representational competence and practice distancing strategies with their students. These workshops involve the careful analysis of the questioning used in classrooms. The primary goal is to improve instruction, but teachers tell us that it also gives them new tools with which to examine their curriculum.
What might a classroom look like where students are actively developing representational competence? We envision that students would be working on challenging projects that require them to draw on previous experience, create alternatives, and plan future activities. As they work, students seek out information and apply it in novel ways, developing their thinking skills. Teachers and students question one another's plans, ideas, and understandings. Students have time for group work, for individual research, for discussion, and for quiet reflection. After completing their projects, students reflect upon their actions verbally, visually, and in writing, and present their work using a wide range of media and symbols. The planning and the culminating strategies the students use allow them to turn their skills and knowledge into abilities that they can carry with them in their lives.
