How to Implement Deep Learning Characteristics in the Classroom | The Educato... Deep learning is the foundation on which I instruct my students; whether it is through the use of practical thinking skills, human dimension activities, and/or data gathering. There are other deep learning characteristics I implement daily, but these are most commonly used in my classroom. These strategies help to... Deep learning is the foundation on which I instruct my students; whether it is through the use of practical thinking skills, human dimension activities, and/or data gathering. There are other deep learning characteristics I implement daily, but these are most commonly used in my classroom. These strategies help to keep me focused on one common goal for all my students: to promote better learning outcomes for all students-ones that are transformational. Engaging students actively in their own learning, and encouraging understanding of presented materials, should be the main goal of all educators. Practical thinking skills are an essential part of my lesson planning.
Games and your brain: how to use gamification to stop procrastinating 1.4K Flares Filament.io 1.4K Flares × It is Thursday afternoon. Hump day. You are being humped. The one thing you wished to accomplish today remains unaccomplished, sitting there as a painful reminder of your failure, goading you to check Tumblr just one more time. And there’s your answer! Turning repetitive tasks into games is the secret sauce to getting things done. Where did gamification come from in the first place? The idea behind gamification—challenge, motivation, reward— have been present in video games from the start, and it was gaming’s growth from niche to mainstream in the 2000s that helped push game mechanics into new industries and fields. The spark for the gamification boom is often traced to technology apps like Foursquare, which popularized ubiquitous badges for highly engaged users, and social games like Zynga’s FarmVille, which achieved huge commercial success on Facebook with its infinite reward system. Why our brains are so attracted to playing games (image via) 1.) 2.)
How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different by Terry Heick This content is proudly sponsored by The Institute for the Habits of Mind, promoting the development of personal thinking habits in 21st century learners. In an era dominated by constant information and the desire to be social, should the tone of thinking for students be different? After all, this is the world of Google. As a result, the tone of thinking can end up uncertain or whimsical, timid or arrogant, sycophant or idolizing–and so, devoid of connections and interdependence. The nature of social media rests on identity as much as anything else—forcing subjectivity on everything through likes, retweets, shares, and pins. But this takes new habits. Information Abundance There is more information available to any student with a smartphone than an entire empire would have had access to three thousand years ago. New contexts—digital environments that function as humanity-in-your-pocket—demand new approaches and new habits. Persisting.
Critical Thinking Abilities Weak versus Strong Critical Thinking Critical thinking involves basic intellectual skills, but these skills can be used to serve two incompatible ends: self-centeredness or fair-mindedness. As we develop the basic intellectual skills that critical thinking entails, we can begin to use those skills in a selfish or in a fair-minded way. In other words, we can develop in such a way that we learn to see mistakes in our own thinking, as well as the thinking of others. Typically, people see mistakes in other's thinking without being able to credit the strengths in those opposing views. We call these thinkers weak-sense critical thinkers. Another traditional name for the weak-sense thinker is found in the word sophist. Sophistic thinkers succeed only if they do not come up against what we call strong-sense critical thinkers. Perhaps even more important, strong-sense critical thinkers strive to be fair-minded. Figure 3.1. Figure 3.2.
thinking skills There is no logic in connecting an office copier with 'nose'. That is to say, there is no 'logic' in our normal undertanding of logic. This understanding is based on passive surface information systems. There is, however, the logic of active surface information systems, and that is the logic of a patterning system. In such a system, the putting together of 'copier' with the random input 'nose' is perfectly logical. At the same time, the juxtaposition is a logic of action. JUXTAPOSITIONAs many readers will know, the random juxtaposition is one of the many tools of lateral thinking. • What has smell to do with a copier? Smell is a sensation. • What could smell be used for? When copiers run out of paper or toner, there is usually a light signal - perhaps a red light. SMELL SIGNALWhat about a 'smell signal'? There could be different smells for different things. MOVEMENTThe above example illustrates the process of 'movement', which can be practised until a skill is built up in this operation.
10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking One of education’s primary goals is to groom the next generation of little humans to succeed in the “real world.” Yes, there are mounds of curricula they must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test. Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking 1. This team-building game is flexible. You can recycle this activity throughout the year by adapting the challenge or materials to specific content areas. Skills: Communication; problem-solving 2. This activity can get messy and may be suitable for older children who can follow safety guidelines when working with raw eggs. Skills: Problem-solving, creative collaboration 3. Zoom is a classic classroom cooperative game that never seems to go out of style. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10.
25 Critical Thinking Strategies For The Modern Learner Critical thinking is the engine of learning. Within this complex process or so many other relevant themes that contribute to learning: creativity, analysis, evaluation, innovation, application, and scores of other verbs from various learning taxonomies. So the following infographic from Mentoring Minds is immediately relevant to all educators, and students as well. It’s a bit of a mash of Habits of Mind, various 21st century learning frameworks, and the aforementioned learning taxonomies, promoting collaboration, problem-solving, and real-world connections (standard “critical thinking fare” with Habits of Mind-sounding phrases such as “Open-Mindedness”). At the bottom, it pushes a bit further, however, offering 25 critical thinking strategies to help support progressive learning. While a few are a bit vague (#12 says to “Think critically daily,” and #17 is simply “Well-informed”), overall the graphic does pool together several important themes into a single image.
Deeper Learning: Performance Assessment and Authentic Audience In a conversation with a veteran educator -- a man with years of experience teaching English and acting as a headmaster -- I was confronted with a prejudice so ingrained in my teaching that I was almost embarrassed to admit it. He said, "You know, when I ask a student to write a paper and turn it in to me, that's ridiculous; I'm the worst audience they could have." I was intrigued. He went on, "Who am I to assume that someone will want to write their best work, something truly personal and creative, for me? A single-person audience is a pretty lame audience, let alone the fact that I'm a middle-aged white guy." That hit me like a rolled-up newspaper. As I absorbed this veteran educator’s words, I realized that not only was I wrong in my assumption that I (or any teacher) is a meanigful audience, but also that my assumptions about how grading and assessment work were so far removed from modern research that I might as well have been a 21st-century doctor treating humours. This matters. 1. 2.
Survey: Learning '21st-Century Skills' Linked to Work Success - Teaching Now A study released today by the polling firm Gallup Inc. finds that students' exposure to so-called 21st-century skills in school correlates positively with "perceived quality of work" later in life . For the study, which was commissioned by Microsoft Partners in Learning and the Pearson Foundation, Gallup asked 1,014 individuals aged 18 to 35 how much experience they had with certain advanced learning skills during their last year of school, including college or graduate school, if applicable. (Cognitive testing conducted by Gallup prior to the survey determined that individuals at the upper end of the age range would have comparable recall of their last school year.) The skills in question—often dubbed 21st-century skills because of their reputed connection to present-day workplace demands—included collaboration, knowledge construction, global awareness, use of technology for learning, real-world problem solving, and skilled communication.