Critical and creative thinking

Leonie mcilvenny

What does it look like in the new Australian Curriculum and how is it different from what we are already doing?

WASSEA ConferencePerth

21 May 2012

Program

• How critical and creative thinking looks in the new Australian Curriculum

• What we have done in the past?• Models of practice• Planning for implementation• Resources

Critical and creative thinking

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Critical and creative thinking

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Look at different frameworks hereBloom’s Taxonomy

habits of mindCort thinking

Inquiry learningInformation literacy

Questioningmultiple intelligences

graphic organisershave a picture of each

Metacognition

Becoming an audience for your own performance

Visible versus invisible

The ability to view our own performance is particularly useful when we learn physical skills. However cognitive work is often invisible and cannot be directly observed.

How do we help students become thoughtful about their own performance as they are learning to reason about maths and history?

What is metacognition?

Metacognition consists of two basic processes occurring simultaneously which are monitoring your progress as you learn, and making changes and adapting your strategies if you perceive you are not doing so well.”

(Winn, W. & Snyder, D., 1998)

Metacognition refers to our ability to understand and manipulate our own cognitive processes. It involves thinking about our thinking and purposely making changes in how we think.”

(Tan, 2003)

Two aspects of metacognition

Reflection- thinking about what we knowSelf –regulation – managing how we go about learning.

Research has shown that one of the key traits good problem-solvers possess is highly developed metacognitive skills. They know how to recognize flaws or gaps in their own thinking, articulate their thought processes, and revise their efforts (Brown, Bransford, Ferrara, & Campione, 1983).

Many students fail to think about their thinking. They do not think about how they think, which means they cannot control their information processing. They fail to engage in the “self- planning, self-monitoring, self-regulating, self-questioning, self-reflecting, self-reviewing” that is necessary to critical thinking and learning (Hyde and Bizar, 1989).

Novice and expert learners

Knowing how to learn and knowing which strategies work best are the valuable skills that differentiate between expert learners and novice learners.

Novice Learners • They always stop to evaluate their comprehension of the material. • They generally don’t examine the quality of their work or stop to make revisions as they go along. • They are satisfied with just scratching the surface and don’t attempt to examine a problem in depth. • They don’t make connections or see the relevance of the material in their lives.

Expert learners Expert learners are more aware than novices learner. • They try to check for errors, why they fail to comprehend, and how they need to redirect their efforts. • A novice learner would go on to the next page, thinking that merely reading the words on a page is enough. An expert learner would re-read the page until the main concept is understood, or flag a difficult passage to ask for clarification from an instructor or peers later.

How can we take students from being novice learners to expert learners?

It is obvious that expert learners benefit more than novice learners in the classroom. As teachers, we cannot sit back and watch. We have to use thinking techniques such as self-regulated learning to guide our instructional choices.

Research suggests that metacognitive abilities develop over time and depend upon a knowledge base, (Brown & DeLoache 1978)

Before they learn metacognitive strategies, children do not use tactics like planning their work or monitoring their own problem solving

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Ways of implementing critical and creative thinking in the school

What makes good thinking lessons is providing opportunities for learners to talk about their thinking, to jointly construct meaning, to evaluate their thinking and to make connections to contexts both within and outside the curriculum. McGuiness pg 9

The challenge is helping students learn how to “go meta’ in regards to thought processes that are not directly visible in order to improve their cognitive performance.

Teachers must create the classroom equivalent of the mirror in the dance studio wall of the video tape of the golf swing.

• Metacognitive Knowledge – awareness of one’s thinking – reflecting on what we know.

• Awareness of knowledge- understanding what one knows, what one does not know, and what one wants to know.

• Awareness of thinking – understanding cognitive tasks and the nature of what is required to complete them .

• Awareness of thinking strategies – understanding approaches to directing learning summarising, notemaking)

Metacognitive Knowledge

• What is your preferred way of learning?• Which Habits of Mind are your strongest habits?• What strategies can you use to help you improve

your memory?• What is the best way to learn this information?

Strategies to help

Ask students to think about the way they learn best.Students must learn to become aware of their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.How do I study best?What kinds of tools help me learn?

• Metacognitive regulation – the ability to manage one’s own thinking processes.

• When a student has information about her thinking (metacognitive knowledge) she is able to use this information to direct or regulate her learning. (Executive control)

• Involves the ability to think strategically and to problem-solve, plan, set goals, organise ideas and evaluate what is known and not known.

• It also involves the ability to teach others and to make the thinking process visible.

Metacognitive regulation

What is the best source of information for this task.What will you need to do to achieve the required outcomes?How are you going to demonstrate your understanding of the content for this topic?What did you do well and what do you need to improve next time?

Introduction

Introduce learning intentionsType of thinkingLinking to prior experiences

BarometerCompassMenuMake thinking processes explicitModel thinking processesLinking backwardsScaffolding visually

Lesson Body Completing challenging tasksPair or group workSeveral iterations of group workMostly pupil talk

Engaging with the thinking processModeling the languageAsking and responding to questions about thinking and learning while on-taskJointly constructing meaningPlanning and monitoring progressExplaining and justifying thinking

Review Reviewing and making connections across contexts

Reviewing the process of thinkingReviewing the quality of the collaboration and quality of talkEvaluating what has ben learnedMaking connections at the level of process to other contexts within and outside the curriculum

Three ways to direct our learning

• Teachers can help students become better at selecting strategies.

• They can help students ask and answer questions such as “ How can I keep track of what I know”. How do I decide what path to go down?

• How long should I try this approach?

• When should I switch to another strategy?

• What should I try next?

Developing a culture of metacognition in the classroom• Learning environments that are knowledge-centred

and learner-centred, and that take into account the role of assessment in learning, lay the foundation for a reflective classroom (Bransford et al 2000)

• Metacognitive activities that ask students to reflect o what they know, care about, and are able to do not only helps learners develop an awareness of themselves, but also give learner-centred teachers valuable information for their instruction.

Students need opportunities to reflect on their learning because it is often difficult for them to realise what they are doing when they succeed and when they fail.

The purpose of learning activities and assessment tasks needs to be made clear to to students.

Strategies for learning

Teachers who are developing metacognitive skills in the classroom help students incorporate active reflection in their learning. They model and scaffold the processes of reflection, questioning, evaluating, and other thinking strategies that may not come naturally. ( Linda Darling Hammond)

Predicting outcomes

Most often seen in mathematics or science classes, predicting helps students understand what kinds of information they might need to successfully solve a problem. Prediction also helps students compare their initial thoughts and the final outcomes of a problem or experiment.

Evaluating work

Students review their work and determine where the strengths and weaknesses are in their work and thinking.

Questioning by the teacher

The teacher asks students as they work..• What are you doing now?• Why are you doing it?• How does it help you?

Self –assessing

Students reflect on their learning and determine how well they have learned something or how their skill shave developed.

Self-questioning

Students use questions to check their own knowledge as they are learning

Selecting strategies

Students decide what strategies are useful for a given task. Strategy selection may depend on understanding their own learning styles and strengths as well as understanding the features of the problem.

Using directed or selective thinking

Students choose consciously to follow a specific line of thinking or structured approach in order to find an answer.

Using discourse

Students discuss ideas with each other and their teacher. This process makes thinking more concrete and helps students learn to ask questions, identify gaps in their knowledge, and learn from other’s thoughts and ideas.

Critiquing

Students provide feedback to other students about their work in a constructive way. This process allows students giving feedback to practice verbalizing their own thinking and students receiving feedback to improve their own thinking process and performance.

revising

Students return to their work after receiving feedback. This opportunity allows students to update their thinking and check their use of learning strategies.

Metacognition in the classroom

Classroom activities that call on these metacognitive strategies take many forms and vary depending on the topic.

• Journalling• Process reflection• Self-assessment• Reciprocal teaching

What can teachers do?

Teachers can model thinking strategies by reflecting on their own processes as learners.

Teachers need to reflect on their own teaching with their students

• Should we move on to the next topic?• Have I explained that clearly enough for everyone?• How could I have represented this information in a

different way?

Complex learning situationsWorking in groups – sharing ideas and strategiesConsciously using prior learning / knowledge to

solve a new problem

How is this achIeved in a school?

Explicit Program (Learning to Learn)Whole schools program where the skills are

strategically embedded into the curriculum and written into programs

TeachersProfessional developmentCurriculum writing

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/metacogn.html

http://www.nvo.com/ecnewletter/metacognitionhots/

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Screen capture and link to making metacognition mainstream

Link to studyvibe