by Terry Heick
The first step to help students think for themselves could be to help them see WHO They are and Or They are and what they should know in response.
See also 100 questions that help students think about thinking
If we really want the students to adapt their thoughts, conceive their thoughts and diverge their thoughts, it (thought) must begin and stop in a literal place. Generally, this means that starting with the learning target that a teacher establishes and ending with an assessment of the way the student has “done”.
Isn’t that, at best, strange? Reflection has nothing to do with content. Reflection is a strategy for learning content, but they are otherwise distinct. This process therefore concerns thought and learning rather than content and mastery.
Examine an autonomous learning framework
In 2013, we created a framework to guide students Autonomous learning. The idea was / is for each student to really think by themselves by examining what was worth thinking about them and why. There are two theories underlying this concept of students who can create and navigate their own learning paths:
1. Wisdom (for example, knowing what is worth it) is more important than content (for example, mastery of academic standards).
2. Technological progress has created an ecology that can support the pursuit of wisdom and mastery of content (in this order)
These theories do not seem scandalous, but in relation to existing educational forms, they may seem strange. How we plan, how we determine success, how we offer comments and even how our schools are physically organized all reflect a way of thinking that gives priority to the student’s ability to constantly prove control of the content delivered to them.
It is now a tired argument, but a theory is that modern education can be characterized by its industrial form and its managerial tone. Its main movers are standards, politicians and teachers rather than content, relationships and creativity. Its results are universal and impersonal, which is good for skills but does not resonate much further.
An answer is to help students design their own learning paths, in terms of content (What studied), form (how it is studied), and above all, aim (Why it is studied). The end result is, ideally, students who may “think by themselves”.
Teaching students to think about themselves: examining an autonomous learning framework
Big idea: Promote autonomous and critical learning
There are 6 areas in the context of autonomous learning:
1. Self: (for example, what am I of citizens, and what does it suggest that I understand?)
2. Context: (for example, what are the contexts of this subject or this idea?)
3. Activate: (for example, what do me know or the others on this question or this idea?)?
4. Pathway: (For example, what resources or strategies of thought do meaning for me to use?)
5. Clarify: (for example, on the basis of what I have learned so far, how should I revise my planned way?)
6, Apply: (for example, what changes in me should I see following a new understanding?)
Self -knowledge as a starting point
1. What is worth it to be understood?
Of all the ideas and circumstances that you meet daily, what is worth it to be understood? What knowledge or skills or in -depth understanding would support you on an instantaneous basis? What is the difference between leisure, interest, curiosity and passion?
It can even be openly academic. For example:
In mathematics, what is precious? What can mathematics do for “you – the place you live or the people who are close to your heart or the environment on which you depend to live?”
What can you allow you to see or do?
What perspective can a study in history provide?
What errors can a scientific approach to things prevent?
2. What problems or opportunities are within my reach?
It seems noble to want to resolve world hunger or play the violin at Carnegie Hall, but it may or may not be in your immediate reach. Here, right now, what can you do to get there?
3. What problems and important solutions do others have before creating?
Interdependence – Revaluing where we, as a family, district, state, nation, species, etc., and what trends and schemes emerge under the study that we can use to understand where we are going?
What are our collective achievements – Opry, space trips, human rights, etc.?
What are our collective failures – poverty, racism, ecological damage, etc.?
And in this spirit, how should I answer?
4. What citizens and inheritances are I part of and that are the memberships suggest that I understand?
This is sort of the ultimate question of the first step of the SDL model, and the last step: “what”, and how can I worry about this membership by my understanding and my behavior?
Here are some hypothetical examples of students’ responses.
I belong to the “Johnson” family, a family for a long time involved in photography and art. So how should I answer?
I live in an area which was “kind” but which recently deconvised by a lack of civic voice and action. So how should I answer?
I love social media, but I worry about how it affects my self -image / thought / life. So how should I answer?
I am an American, a Nigerian, a Canadian. I come from the Netherlands or from Prague or Paris or Tel Aviv or Peru. So how should I answer?
I love books, I like fashion, I like nature, I like to create –How should I answer?
My parents were divorced and their parents were divorced. So how should I answer?
I am poor. I am rich. I can’t wait. I am curious. I am loved. I am alone. I am confident. I am uncertain. How should I answer?
The first step to help students think for themselves; Fluck Flickeringbrad Image Fluck; Teach students to think by themselves
