The Reflective Student: A Taxonomy of Reflection Part 2 reflective student Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! At best, students can narrate what they did, but have trouble thinking abstractly about their learning - patterns, connections and progress. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach. 1. See my Prezi tour of the Taxonomy 2. Each level of reflection is structured to parallel Bloom's taxonomy. taxonomy of reflection Bloom's Remembering: What did I do? Bloom's Understanding: What was important about what I did? Bloom's Application: When did I do this before? Bloom's Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did? Bloom's Evaluation: How well did I do? Bloom's Creation: What should I do next? Image credit: flickr/Daveybot Trackback URL
Universal Intellectual Standards by Linda Elder and Richard Paul Universal intellectual standards are standards which must be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in checking the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation. To think critically entails having command of these standards. To help students learn them, teachers should pose questions which probe student thinking; questions which hold students accountable for their thinking; questions which, through consistent use by the teacher in the classroom, become internalized by students as questions they need to ask themselves. The ultimate goal, then, is for these questions to become infused in the thinking of students, forming part of their inner voice, which then guides them to better and better reasoning. CLARITY: Could you elaborate further on that point? PRECISION: Could you give more details? DEPTH: How does your answer address the complexities in the question? BREADTH: Do we need to consider another point of view?
The Reflective Teacher: A Taxonomy of Reflection Part 3 reflective teacher Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Teachers are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. 1. See my Prezi Tour of the Taxonomy 3. Each level of reflection is structured to parallel Bloom's taxonomy. taxonomy of reflection Bloom's Remembering: What did I do? Bloom's Understanding: What was important about what I did? Bloom's Application: When did I do this before? Bloom's Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did? Bloom's Evaluation: How well did I do? Bloom's Creation: What should I do next? image credit: flickr/duane.schoon Tags: Bloom, Common Core, Critical thinking, Curriculum, Evaluation, Higher-order thinking, Innovation, Relationships, Relevance, Rigor Trackback URL
The Importance of Generalizations in Social Studies | Bridging the Gap Shiveley & Misco (2009) suggest that generalizations are a logical step in teaching kids to think critically about what they know and transferring that knowledge to a variety of topics within the social studies. After understanding the relationship between “fact” and “concept” students will be capable of producing high-quality generalizations that eliminate isolation of ideas and stimulate crossover and relevance to the social studies curriculum. Research Summary The authors suggest that a critical component to understanding the need for generalizations is the ability to discern between fact and concept. Fact: a specific and often isolated piece of information that is believed to be true and which can be confirmed by empirical evidenceConcept: an idea used to organize a class of objects or experiences, typically one or two words, which may be concrete (dog, chair) or abstract (love, justice).Generalizations: a statement of a relationship between two or more concepts. Citation: Like this:
A Taxonomy of Reflection: A Model for Critical Thinking My approach to staff development (and teaching) borrows from the thinking of Donald Finkel who believed that teaching should be thought of as “providing experience, provoking reflection.” He goes on to write, … to reflectively experience is to make connections within the details of the work of the problem, to see it through the lens of abstraction or theory, to generate one’s own questions about it, to take more active and conscious control over understanding. ~ From Teaching With Your Mouth Shut Over the last few years I’ve led many teachers and administrators on classroom walkthroughs designed to foster a collegial conversation about teaching and learning. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I’ve developed this “Taxonomy of Reflection.” – modeled on Bloom’s approach. 1. Take my Prezi tour of the Taxonomy A Taxonomy of Lower to Higher Order Reflection Assume an individual has just completed a task. Trackback URL
Facts, Concepts, and Generalizations - Explanations and examples Examples:Concepts: Flowering plants have flowers that develop into fruits, roots, stems, and leaves. The following are also concepts: flowers, light, magnifying glass, animals, rock, soil, erosion, magnet, force, energy, Concepts summarize and categorize objects. The difficulty of learning a concept depends on the number of characteristics, the abstractness or concreteness, and the reasoning that connects the characteristics. The abstractness of a concept is related to how the concept can be experienced. Examples: Magnets attraction is stronger the closer they are to each other.
Problem Solving Techniques Teaching Kids to Think for Themselves Once upon a time in school, a child would have a few classes on “logic” or “critical thinking.” It’s too bad that such lessons do not exist any longer. So, it’s a parent’s job to teach critical thinking to their child. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Now, how do you translate these ten points so that you can guide a child through the steps? Then, use the “translation for children” below to guide a child think through the critical thinking process. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. For younger children, it might be a good idea to note with pencil and paper the answers that they give you, so that you can review it with them once they complete the list. Remember that there are two keys to helping a child to learn to think logically and critically: how we as adults model and demonstrate the steps in our daily lives, and being consistent in leading the child through the steps when they need to use them, instead of doing all of their thinking for them!
Reasoning Training Increases Brain Connectivity Associated with High-Level Cognition 121 3Share Synopsis A number of studies across various domains– from juggling to taxi navigation to meditation to music to motor learning to processing speed– demonstrate the importance of experience on patterns of neural connectivity. Finally, the cognitive ability domain is catching up. In recent years, neuroscientists have discovered a large-scale brain network critical for novel and complex goal-directed problem solving. One of the most exciting findings in the past few years is that coordination among the key players of this network is substantially affected by training and experience. In a more recent hot-off-the-press analysis, Mackey, Alison Miller Singley, and Bunge used the same study sample to investigate whether intensive reasoning training would result in stronger communication within the prefrontal parietal network. First, there was an effect of the course. To be sure, this doesn’t negate the role of biology. © 2013 Scott Barry Kaufman, All Rights Reserved
Copy of 6 Hats & The Pledge by DawnTheresa GoodmanRodriguez on Prezi The magical theory of relativity by Petra Marjai on Prezi acknowledging uncertainty | tolerance for ambiguity CC Image Source: According to systems theorists like Donella Meadows, if our efforts as individuals or institutions mean we’re trying to exert control over existing conditions, this kind of thinking is likely to prove counter-intuitive. Interesting. Some pointers about control: it’s a “manifest delusion”intervention will generate unpredictable results“norm settings” or defaults amplify incompetence“human development in a turbulent world” resists control measuresirony prevails (Michael, 1999, p. 8). So where does that leave our management squad, coordinators, executive teams, administrative crew and their ilk? Educational authors frame the directional schemata with pursuit of moral purpose: Makes sense to me in my current frame of reference; this was our school nearly two years ago: Reality is, the experience hasn’t been too painful, either. What is possible? Movement is the key idea here. For that insight, I’m left feeling grateful. Like this:
The State of Critical Thinking Today “Too many facts, too little conceptualizing, too much memorizing, and too little thinking.” ~ Paul Hurd, the Organizer in Developing Blueprints for Institutional Change Introduction The question at issue in this paper is: What is the current state of critical thinking in higher education? Sadly, studies of higher education demonstrate three disturbing, but hardly novel, facts: Most college faculty at all levels lack a substantive concept of critical thinking. These three facts, taken together, represent serious obstacles to essential, long-term institutional change, for only when administrative and faculty leaders grasp the nature, implications, and power of a robust concept of critical thinking — as well as gain insight into the negative implications of its absence — are they able to orchestrate effective professional development. Part One:An Initial Look at the Difference Between a Substantive and Non-Substantive Concept of Critical Thinking A critical thinker does not say:
Glossary of Critical Thinking Terms Glossary: A-B accurate: Free from errors, mistakes, or distortion. Correct connotes little more than absence of error; accurate implies a positive exercise of one to obtain conformity with fact or truth; exact stresses perfect conformity to fact, truth, or some standard; precise suggests minute accuracy of detail. Accuracy is an important goal in critical thinking, though it is almost always a matter of degree. It is also important to recognize that making mistakes is an essential part of learning and that it is far better that students make their own mistakes, than that they parrot the thinking of the text or teacher. ambiguous: A sentence having two or more possible meanings. analyze: To break up a whole into its parts, to examine in detail so as to determine the nature of, to look more deeply into an issue or situation. argument: A reason or reasons offered for or against something, the offering of such reasons. to assume: To take for granted or to presuppose. authority: Back to top