5 Tools to Help Students Learn How to Learn Helping students learn how to learn: That’s what most educators strive for, and that’s the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. “We want students thinking about their thinking,” said Leslie Maniotes a teacher effectiveness coach in the Denver Public Schools and one of the authors of Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. “When they are able to see where they came from and where they got to it is very powerful for them.” A good example is a long term research project. During the process, students will go through different stages of emotions. [RELATED READING: Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning]
Why "20% Time" is Good for Schools Have you ever met an adult who doesn't really love what they do, but just goes through the motions in their job and everyday life? Have you spoken with men and women who constantly complain, showing no visible passion for anything in the world? I'm sure that, like me, you have met those people. I've also seen the making of these adults in schools across our country: students who are consistently being "prepared" for the next test, assessment, or grade level . . . only to find out after graduation that they don't really know what they are passionate about. These are the same students who are never allowed to learn what they want in school. Enter 20% time. What 20% time allows students to do is pick their own project and learning outcomes, while still hitting all the standards and skills for their grade level. With 20% time, we can solve one society’s biggest problems by giving students a purpose for learning and a conduit for their passions and interests. Students Teachers Parents
Eight Ways of Looking at Intelligence Big Ideas In “Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird,” poet Wallace Stevens takes something familiar—an ordinary black bird—and by looking at it from many different perspectives, makes us think about it in new ways. With apologies to Stevens, we’re going to take the same premise, but change the subject by considering eight ways of looking at intelligence—eight perspectives provided by the science of learning. A few words about that term: The science of learning is a relatively new discipline born of an agglomeration of fields: cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience. Its project is to apply the methods of science to human endeavors—teaching and learning—that have for centuries been mostly treated as an art. As with anything to do with our idiosyncratic and unpredictable species, there is still a lot of art involved in teaching and learning. 1. Situations can be internal or external. On one level this is obvious, but on another it is quite radical. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Terrific Mini Guide to Help Stude... December 26, 2014 Questioning is the key to critical thinking and through questions students get to explore the deep layers of meanings that would otherwise go unnoticed. Of course not all questions have this analytical ability. For instance, closed questions tend to limit the thinking choices available for students. The same with questions that promote factual recalling. In today's post, I am sharing with you this mini guide created by Foundation of Critical Thinking which you can use with your students to help them better comprehend and apply critical thinking in their learning. I learned about this great resource from a post shared by Education to Save The World. Image credit: Foundation of Critical Thinking
10 ways to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning 1. Don’t make all the decisions Allow choice. Encourage students to make decisions about how they learn best. Create opportunities for them to pursue their own interests and practise skills in a variety of ways. Cater for different learning styles. 2. Ask open-ended questions, with plenty of possible answers which lead to further questions. 3. Minimise standing out front and talking at them. 4. Talk about your own learning. 5. Get your students to write down what they learned, whether they enjoyed a particular learning experience, what helped their learning, what hindered their learning and what might help them next time. 6. Record student thinking and track development over time. 7. Help students to define goals for their learning. 8. If you know exactly where the lesson is leading and what you want the kids to think, then you‘re controlling the learning. 9. Make sure you and your students know the reason for every learning experience. 10. I know there are lots more ways. Like this:
Why Walking Is Great For Your Creativity Let’s face it, sometimes those brilliant ideas just don’t come easily. Whether we’re writing a paper, a book, or just trying to come up with an original birthday gift, we’ve all been stuck waiting for inspiration to find us. Finding a solution to these creative blocks is no easy task, but a group of researchers at Standford University set out to do just that. To figure out how to get our creative juices flowing, researchers first considered data showing that exercise prevents cognitive decline. Next, they focused on more short-term mental improvement, and the long-held idea that walking increases creativity. Their experiments are fascinating, and may be exceedingly practical in application. To start, the scientists tested creativity before and after walking on a treadmill. To see if these effects decreased with subsequent walking, they tested people who walked multiple times. Next, the researchers wanted to see if walking outside was more powerful than indoors. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Resiliency and Grit, Not Failure At ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas, Microsoft gave away over 10,000 Microsoft Surface Tablets to participants. Basically anyone that was at the conference that wanted one was going to get one for free with their registration. The majority of people that came to the conference had no idea that this was happening and I would say very few (if any) people signed up to go to ISTE to get the Surface. I chose not to get one. I chose not to take a free tablet/computer with my registration to ISTE. From what I heard before the conference, the device was not that great, would crash often, and was not as intuitive as other devices. As participants unpacked their devices, played with them, what they had told me was basically what I had heard in the reviews before. Here’s the thing…if Apple gave away an iPad at ISTE, I would have taken it in a second. Embrace Failure? This is not about Apple vs. Every time I hear things like this, I get worked up. Failure or something else? Language is important
24 Questions to Enhance Students Reflective and Critical Thinking Skills August 31, 2014 Reflection is a fundamental skill from which is branched out all other thinking skills. Reflection is a form of meta-thinking, a process of deep contemplation and pondering. It is also the basis of critical thinking for we can not raise critical thinkers if we do not have good 'reflectors'. When students are taught the art of reflecting, they become independent learners who are engaged in a constant process of assessment and re-assessment of their learning needs and strategies. Reflection is all about questioning. To cultivate a reflective culture within your class, students need to be encouraged to pose challenging questions as to the way they learn and think. Check the full graphic from this page.
- Create a Culture of Questioning and Inquiry 4 Comments August 14, 2013 By: Guest Blogger Nancy White Aug 13 Written by: 8/13/2013 6:00 PM ShareThis I have often suggested to teachers that when students have access to technology, whether it is provided by the school in a 1:1, BYOD, or simply the smart phone in their pocket, there should never be a question that goes unanswered –or un-followed. What I discovered in the 300+ observations I have done for our 21st Century Learning grant work was that the problem isn’t necessarily about allowing time for students to answer questions. As the new school year begins, think about how you might begin to shift from a culture of compliance, to a culture of questioning in your classroom. Ask: “What do you wonder?” This seems like a simple thing to do – and it is! Question wall I found these in several classrooms I visited recently. Question journal Get students in the habit of collecting questions in a journal – paper or electronic. Question Formulation Technique Inquiry days
Why Teaching Helps Students Learn More Deeply Teaching Strategies Tulane Public Relations/Flickr Learning, and thinking, are deeply social activities. This is not the traditional view (Rodin’s iconic sculpture, “The Thinker,” is conspicuously alone in his chin-on-fist musings), but it’s the view that is emerging out of several decades of social science research. Our minds often work best in interaction with other people’s minds, and there are particular kinds of relationships that are especially good at evoking our intelligence. One is the master-apprentice relationship. “Student teachers score higher on tests than pupils who are learning only for their own sake.” Students enlisted to tutor others, these researchers have found, work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately and apply it more effectively. Educators are experimenting with ways to apply this model to academic subjects. Feedback from the teachable agents further enhances the tutors’ learning. Related
Online Student Communication Guidelines To be effective, an online classroom must be a safe space where students feel their voices will be respected, supported and heard. Establishing clear guidelines for online interactions is a critical step in creating an online forum that will be successful long-term. A stronger in-class community will form as a result of establishing and maintaining a safe space in your online site. Strategies for Creating and Maintaining a Safe Space: Use each other’s names. Examples of Strong Sentence Starters: Rebecca’s comment made me think about…. Although Zach made a strong point that__________, I think…. I had not thought about Leigh’s point that…. I respectfully disagree with Lawrence’s assertion…. I really appreciate Deborah’s insight into…. Thank you, Manuel, for sharing…. Great point, Angela! Even though Katie’s point is valid, I tend to…. Building on Dustin’s statement that…. In contrast to Michelle’s point…. Brady highlighted some key ideas when he said… Caitlin, can you clarify your statement that…?