January 17, 2005
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A Simple Guide to Student Mystification
Invisible Context Switching
Invisible context switching is more or less a passive technique, in
that you don’t need to consciously apply it. It can happen simply as a
result of the transfer of information from the human thinking process
to physical communication (be it writing, speaking, typing… heck,
maybe even sign language). The outline of invisible context switching
is as follows:- Start with an medium to large topic; we call it the supertopic T;
- Go from T to two subtopics T1 and T2; T1 and T2 may be examples
or situations related to T. The differences between T1 and T2 are
little bits in their context; - Start talking about T1 then, as you finish talking about T1, do not use a conclusion sentence or anything that hints the end of T1;
- Go immediately to T2. Again, do not use any introductory sentence or anything that hints the beginning of T2;
- Once you are done with T2, conclude T also and do not mention any difference between T1 and T2.
If you do it right during the lecture, no student will realize that you
left a context gap for them to fill in and they will only think they
are stupid or something when they review (if at all) at home. The
resulting confusion is spectacular if one thing that works in T1 fails
to work in T2 simply because of the difference in context. Usually, you
do not have to consciously avoid using conclusion and introductory
sentences at steps 3 and 4. You either skip them because you think the
difference in context to be irrelevant or you simply forget to use them
due to the difference in speed between the generation of ideas in your
brain and putting those very same ideas in words or sentences in speech
or writing. Since the skill is more or less passive, it is quite
difficult to master because you can hardly “practice” for it. It is
rather something that professors develop unconsciously with experience.- SwordAngel
