Developing a Thinking Curriculum II

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Developing a Thinking Curriculum (II)
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Principles of Developing a Thinking Curriculum

• Basic syllabus
• related resource materials
• knowledge on teaching thinking
• pupil profiles e.g. childrens background
  knowledge, interests, ability, etc.
• curriculum overview
• design of lesson(s)
• curriculum differentiation

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Process of Teaching a Thinking Lesson
Apply knowledge of thinking theories/skills
Write thinking lesson objectives (content)
Select/design teaching strategies Integration
Assess pupils thinking Reflection Revision
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Curriculum Differentiation

• Teacher differentiates the curriculum when he/she
  provides a gradation in content and assessment in
  order to cater to the respective needs of the
  pupils in different ability groups in the class.
• Not more, But Different
• Not MOTS curriculum

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Curriculum can be differentiated/modified
according to/ by

• interests of the pupil(s) individualization
• pace acceleration / revision
• depth breadth enrichment / remediation

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Characteristics of an effectively differentiated
classroom

• Instruction is concept focused and principle
  driven. Students learn to understand key
  principles on which the study is based.
• Ongoing assessment of student readiness and
  growth are built into the curriculum.
• Flexible grouping is consistently used. Students
  are grouped and regrouped according to task, need
  and ability.
• Students are active explorers with teachers
  guiding the exploration. Teacher student
  collaborate on goal setting based on student
  readiness, interest learning profile. Learning
  assessed on student growth and goal attainment.
  (Tomlinson, 1995)

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Teaching methods that encourage more thinking

• Inquiry or guided discovery
• Content novelty / content acceleration
• The Socratic method
• Problem-based Learning
• Games e.g. chess, IQ games, puzzles, etc.

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Inquiry or Guided Discovery

• Process
• Trigger activity e.g. real life activity
  (tossing a 10-cent coin, 50-cent coin, a 1 coin
  to teach probability/chance events), or activity
  worksheet (measuring area of rectangles of
  different sizes), or experiment in lab (testing
  different washing agents with litmus paper and
  making a table of findings)
• Pupils are encouraged to use INFERENCE and
  INTUITION as thinking strategies to find out the
  general trend of observation or formula or
  characteristic or hypothesis and then test
  it.

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Inquiry or Guided Discovery

• Characteristics
• basic underlying key principles built into part
  of the guided discovery process
• interesting and exciting
• teacher need to reinforce concept(s) learnt
• children learn to develop insights and become
  curious about natural occurences

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Content novelty / content acceleration

• Use new / latest findings reported in news to
  relate to basic content, or substitute text with
  external materials (IT, magazines) enrichment
• fast paced when content is easy
• explain and rephrase thinking processes of pupils
  aloud, especially for slower pupils
• give interesting flexible worksheets
• give reading/project/IT work/remedial for pupils
  of each ability group (no marking please)

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The Socratic method
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• Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, (Platos
  teacher), encountering someone who claims to know
  much, professes to be ignorant and seeks
  assistance from the one who knows. As he begins
  to raise questions, however, it becomes clear
  that the one reputed to be wise really does not
  know what he claims to know, and Socrates emerges
  as the wiser one because he at least knows that
  he does not know. Such knowledge, of course, is
  the beginning of wisdom.

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The Socratic method

• Latin word educare means to draw out
• teacher asks a series of acute or deep questions
  that probe profundly into thinking, forcing
  students to examine, defend and describe their
  perceptions and ideas, before accepting them as
  worthy of belief

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The Socratic method

• Origin
• This is a dialectical style of debate
• the pursuit of truth through questions, answers,
  and additional questions. Philosophical ideas
  are advanced, discussed and criticized in the
  context of a conversation or debate involving two
  or more persons.

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The Socratic method

• Teach students various ways of asking Qs ask a
  question to clarify, to probe, to seek
  reasons/evidence, to search for implications and
  consequences
• Student could add to remarks of previous student,
  comment on it, agree, disagree, substantiate with
  evidence, or ask another Q

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The Socratic method

• Benefits
• Students reach their own insights and express
  them in their own words
• Both teacher and students benefit through
  powerful feedback loop that spurred their
  intellect and widened their perceptions

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Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

• Students adopt the role of future practitioners
  of the discipline an unclear, or
  ill-structured problem is posed.
• These problems have four characteristics
• (i) the problem cannot be understood without
  more information
• (ii) the problem has no right answer
• (iii) the problem shifts as more information is
  obtained
• (iv) the answer is not assuredly right.

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Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

• PBL is experiential.
• PBL is constructivist learning. It means the
  student builds on the known in order to structure
  the unknown. New content is then learnt with
  teacher(s) facilitating it.
• E.g. You are a science advisor at NASA. A
  planet much like Earth has experienced massive
  destruction of elements of its biosphere. What is
  causing the destruction of plant life? Can new
  plants from Earth be successfully introduced to
  help save the planets environment?

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Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

• Characteristics
• curriculum developed from the perspective of the
  student/learner
• learning as constructing teaching as
  facilitating
• whole to part organisation
• interdisciplinary need to plan for time for
  teachers to meet to develop the curriculum
  properly, or it becomes just another project

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Guidelines for Selecting or developing materials
to teach thinking

• Choose a suitable theoretical framework
• e.g. Blooms Taxonomy, DOT, etc. Write learning
  objectives which include thinking.
• Design a variety of activities which respond to
  the various thinking/learning styles of the
  students of different ability levels. Include
  individual and group thinking activities.
• Provide opportunities for students to work at
  varied rates or different paces. Provide choices
  if possible.

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Guidelines ..

• Compile resources CD-ROM, OHTs, games,
  worksheets, powerpoint presentation, real life
  problems, enrichment/remedial materials, etc.
• Integrate/correlate content and strategies with
  other related topics and subject areas.
• Check if the lesson(s) (i) covers the thinking
  skills you wish to teach (ii) encourages
  students to practise monitoring their own
  thinking, decision making problem solving
  processes (iii) help students to give and
  receive feedback effectively.

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Guidelines ..

• Check if lesson includes examples / illustrations
  of successful applications of effective thinking
  and problem solving by students in a variety of
  disciplines.
• PITCH Check real life examples, situations and
  activities are appropriate to the interests and
  experiences of the students for whom it is
  intended.
• Motivation plan for simple motivational elements
  which enthuse students in wanting to know more
  (increase their curiosity)

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Teaching for transfer

• Use thinking organizers (e.g. a compare-and
  contrast chart) allows students to reflect on
  the thinking itself. Students need be taught
  that these are general tools for thinking, and
  may be re-used in other situations.
• Two general approaches to teaching for transfer
  hugging and bridging
• (Perkins Salomon, 1986 Fogarty, Perkins
  Barell, 1991.)

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Teaching for transfer

• hugging
• This is to make the instruction as much like the
  diverse potential applications as possible.
  Simulations and examples used help students
  transfer their thinking from theory/concept to
  applications.
• The instruction hugs the envisioned
  applications as much as possible.
• Students have direct experience with possible
  applications.

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Teaching for transfer

• bridging
• With teachers guidance, students make
  generalizations about what they are learning,
  anticipate possible applications, and compare
  different circumstances analytically in a
  wide-ranging fashion.
• Example (hugging)
• Ask students to apply the same strategy for a
  dinosaur to another endangered species.

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Teaching for transfer

• It is an important part of teaching thinking.
• It means allocating specific time to engage
  learners in actually experiencing wider
  applications (hugging) and generalizing and
  thinking analytically about possible applications
  (bridging).

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Strategies for Managing a Differentiated Classroom

• Instructional strategies that can help teachers
  manage differentiation and help students find a
  good learning fit are
• Use of multiple texts and supplementary materials
• Use of computer programs
• Interest centres
• Learning contracts
• Compacting
• Tiered sense-making activities and tiered products

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Strategies for Managing a Differentiated Classroom

• Tasks and products designed with a multiple
  intelligence orientation
• Independent learning contracts
• Group instruction
• Group investigation
• Product criteria negotiated jointly student and
  teacher
• Graduated task- and product-rubrics

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LIFES LABORATORY

• .. the years of searching in the dark of a
  truth that one feels, but cannot express the
  intense desire and the alternations of confidence
  and misgiving, until one breaks through to
  clarity and understanding, are only known to him
  who has himself experienced them.
• -- Albert Einstein