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Abstracting as a Trans-disciplinary ISSN: 8756-3894 (print version) ISSN: 1559-7075 (electronic version) Habit of Mind Subscription Rates, Orders, Inquiries: Please contact the Springer Customer Service Center for the latest rates and information: by Danah Henriksen, Chris Fanhoe, Punya Mishra, The Americas & the Deep-Play Research Group*, Michigan State University (North, South, Central America, and the Caribbean): Springer Journal Fulfillment 233 Spring Street New York, NY 10013-1578, USA “Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” TEL: 800-777-4643; 212-460-1500 (outside North America) – Aesop E-MAIL: [email protected]; [email protected] (Central and South America) “Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. Outside the Americas: I prefer to see with closed eyes.” Springer Customer Service Center GmbH – Joseph Albers Haberstrasse 7 69126 Heidelberg, GERMANY “Abstraction is one of the greatest visionary tools ever invented by TEL: 49-6221-345-4303 E-MAIL: [email protected] human beings to imagine, decipher, and depict the world.” – Jerry Saltz SpringerAlert Service: The SpringerAlert service is an in- novative, free-of-charge service that notifies users via e- We have previously described seven “tools for thinking” that are part of trans- mail whenever new journal issues become available, and disciplinary thinking and creativity: Perceiving, Patterning, Abstracting, Embod- automatically sends the table of contents with direct links to the abstracts of papers in a newly published issue. Eas- ied Thinking, Modeling, Play, and Synthesizing (Mishra, Koehler & Henriksen, ily register for the SpringerAlert service on the journal’s 2011). The last two articles in this series focused on the skills of Perceiving and homepage: www.springer.com/11528. Patterning, respectively. This article highlights the third trans-disciplinary habit of mind: Abstracting. In our conceptualization, this involves a multisensory ap- ©2014 Association for Educational Communications and proach, emphasizing analysis of the domain and seeking analogies across do- Technology mains, to discover the core essence of some phenomena or object of study. Periodicals postage paid at New York, New York and ad- ditional mailing offices. t is common practice at the end of an interview, to ask an applicant to engage I in a seemingly simple task – to describe themself in three words. There are Postmaster: Send address changes to TechTrends, Springer, of course variations of this, where the interviewee must identify their greatest 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA. strengths, or summarize why they would be the best candidate for a position. This type of question forces one to go beyond the details of the resume, the layers of experience or the history of accomplishments, to capturethe core of what defines a person, and what they may have to offer. Each candidate’s response may be similar in concept, but almost certainly unique in the details and substance of how they encapsulate themselves. This essence may not remain static across time, since one’s response may vary depending on the context, or recent developments in life. That said, abstracting the key elements from your personality, accomplishments, education and potential (boiling all the details down to a set of fundamentals) may provide the interviewers with the insight they need to hire you. In a more general sense, the mental skill of abstraction can yield new insights about an idea, an individual, a thing, or a process, because it involves cutting to the core essence by stripping away details not essential to the task at hand. Abstraction can allow us to forge deeper connections and understandings, through a process of analysis as well as through making analogies to other * The Deep-Play Research group at the college of education at Michigan State University includes: Punya Mishra, Danah Henriksen, Laura Terry, Chris Fahnoe, William Cain, Colin Terry, Jon Good, & Rohit Mehta. Address all communication to Punya Mishra: <[email protected]>. Volume 58, Number 6 TechTrends • November/December 2014 3 areas. We explore these further in the nections for deeper understanding For example, a categorization of things sections below. and new and creative thinking. This based on “strength” may contain such is the process of analogizing, which is objects as a tank, a gorilla, and tung- Experiencing the Abstract often central to abstraction. Mishra sten. Thinking about the items in these et al. (2011) highlight this aspect of categories may provide new insight Abstraction is a process of the skill as, the “finding of analogies about how they are connected, struc- revealing a critical essence of some between seemingly disparate things.” tured or designed through compar- real object that exists by removingSo in this sense abstraction is a mul- ing and contrasting (Root-Bernstein, everything except a finite numbertilayered skill, involving the ability to 2013). The obvious surface differences (often just one) of its key elements. focus on one key feature of a thing, as between a tank, a gorilla, and tung- To identify a key element, one must well as the ability to think in analogies sten fade away as we focus on this new, focus on one specific area or feature of to foster deeper understandings, con- shared aspect of their nature. the object relevant to the current task nections and creative thinking. (Mishra, Koehler & Henriksen, 2011). Analogies in Disciplines Abstracting allows us to consider “Abstracting is Just Like”… these core elements or properties of and Human Cognition Categories and Analogies the object, not just by looking at it but Hofstadter and Sander’s (2013) also through a multisensory approach Through focus and observation, argument that analogies are the ba- with “all the wealth of sensations that the essence of an object, process, per- sis of human cognition arises from we experience” in the real world (Root- son or a thing can be revealed and the field of linguistics. Linguists have Bernstein, 2001). In order to truly identified. After this fundamental na- noted how the essence of communica- understand a thing and “abstract out” ture is recognized, we can start to look tion, or language itself, is abstract in its core properties – the essence of it, across seemingly different objects or nature (Chomsky, 1968). Language is or its fundamental nature – you must processes for similarities or differences, a system of connection between two examine all of its different properties and through the process of comparison disparate things – i.e. signs/symbols and nuances, by experiencing the and contrast begin to build analogies and the “things” that they describe – object using different senses and that help us to better understand the which help us communicate with oth- engaging in a process of analysis that object under scrutiny. Finding con- ers and share meanings and thought. questions these properties and their nections between objects moves be- This act of relating different things, to relevance to the goal being pursued. yond an identification phase and into better understand and explain them, For example, simply looking at an developing new possibilities for how is a process of abstraction, and thus a orange may provide information about we see objects and their relation to crucial part of our mental life. its shape, color and size. However this another. Hofstadter & Sander (2013) In a similar vein, the Root-Bern- would miss the insights that could be discuss the fact that once connections steins (1999) have noted that the basis gained through feeling the texture, are developed through categorization, of all art is abstraction (to communi- tasting the juice, cutting through the they can also be grouped based on a cate an idea or an impression through skin or smelling the fruit. Such ad- set of differentiating properties or at- a piece of visual work). But art is not ditional insights allow you abstract to tributes. In fact, in their recent book, alone as a field for abstract thinking. the “orange-ness” of an orange (not Surfaces and Essences, Hofstadter and For instance – what is mathematics if just in terms of color, but in the essence Sander argue that analogy lies at the not a universal language based on ab- what makes it an orange). This multi- “core of all thinking.” They emphasize stract thought? It is a system of signs sensory interaction brings out unique the importance and value of analogical and symbols that requires abstrac- meanings, and can lead to different thinking, suggesting that the only way tion (and logic) to describe quantities, impressions and new understandings we can understand new phenomena is measures, calculations, phenomena, of its essential nature. This process by making an analogy to something we and more. And by that token the sci- often takes time, as it requires careful have experienced in the past. The only ences are inherently abstract, not only observation and sustained engagement way we can grasp the new is by seeing because they use mathematical/sci- with the subject – which is part of the one thing in terms of another. entific language, but also because sci- “perceiving” skill discussed in a prior This leads us to groups of ideas ence involves the relational aspects of column (Henriksen, Mehta, Mishra & with common themes or unique differ- different phenomena, organisms, par- the Deep-Play Research Group, 2014). ences based on distinct characteristics. ticles, or natural objects and events. It At this level, the process of ab- Whether we identify similarities or dif- requires us to make connections, and straction remains a relatively isolated ferences, this technique of categoriz- as mentioned before, explain one thing activity.