Creating Cultures of Thinking by Ron Richhart inspired me to consider what my dream classroom would look like, be like, where students were doing the “work” of learning. I found myself looking beyond the collaborative learning community I tried to create each and began to evaluate the purpose of learning, the culture of learning, making thinking visible, make thinking engaging, having students authentically collaborate on their work. . I have always been able to create a classroom with excellent routines that focused on behavior, management, planning, and executing the details of instruction. Yet, I hadn’t thought of exploring the idea of thinking as a routine that students need to be exposed to, or that creating a culture of learning included
The school must discipline creative thinking, as it will play a crucial role for the future. Bronson and Merryman report in their article that an
Evaluation and analysis of creative approaches and teaching strategies that can support and enhance the teaching of thinking and learning
Many educators operate their classrooms using a “learning theory” that they feel optimizes the best learning environment for their students. As an educator it is very important to create your own customized learning theory to use in your classroom. A customized learning theory is developed to create an optimum learning environment for students. Educators have to research and put into practice the ideas that they feel may work best in their classroom. In this paper, I will be discussing my own customized learning theory incorporating theoretical perspectives that I believe make an ideal learning environment.
Ron Ritchhart believes that classrooms can be rich with deep thinking when teachers are able to identify, model and praise the language of thinking with students. He believes it is a learned behavior. The subtle approach of teachers is imperative in building deep thinking skills. Asking students questions through from low level thinking tasks to scaffolding to deeper thinking tasks is what works. As an example, teachers will ask students, what do you see in a picture, what are the specific details you see, make interpretation of what you see, build evidence to support this interpretation, ask yourself is the thinking sound and reasonable, generate other alternative thoughts, provide evidence, make connections, raise questions. These question
In the Liberal Arts, abstract thinking and intellectual concepts are encouraged, as they continue to build and shape young minds, creating brilliant and capable thinkers, capable of changing the world. The only way to expose students to their affective capacities is "to cultivate and encourage those students with the will and the capacity for abstract intellectual work, support their willingness to step outside the desperate profit-race for time and explore the unimpeded and undirected path of their best thinking," demonstrating
Effective teachers are aware of different learning theories that influence classroom practice on a daily basis. According to Pritchard (2014), teachers must have an understanding
TACT, Theological and Cultural Thinkers, is a group of men and women from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who meet about culture, church, and corporate and individual spiritual formation. TACT is comprised of theologians, cultural thinkers, and spiritual formation practitioners. The goal and purpose of the group is to help develop spiritual formation churches that equip its members to become disciples of Jesus through developing personal spiritual growth, participating in communities of faith, and participating in sharing the Gospel and building the Kingdom of God.
To engage students in the 21st century has become challenging for educators all over the world. Learners are so diverse with their interests, needs, and aspirations. Educators are now responsible for shaping their students into successful, confident and creative learners. The researchers conducted mixed methods case study working with middle school students from a South Australian Middle School. The case study wanted to see how teachers and students were working together to become collaborative learning designers while helping to create an innovative method to include in their curriculum.
There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
I grew up in a small town, and it is incredibly easy to become a part of the crowd instead of an individual. People will take the side of the majority, especially when he is not entirely educated on a topic. Establishing a personal identity with a student will help her understand herself. Without a basic understanding of her own thoughts and beliefs, it will be hard to open her mind to understanding social topics. In my opinion, personalizing student artmaking creates less limits. This does not mean social topics should be omitted. It means that the success of “showing students how to find personal connections” should come after showing students how to find
2. Jeng, YC, Hsu, SL, Xie, J, Lin, R & Huang, CC 2010, 'The Influence of creative-thinking teaching on learning effectiveness', Advanced Management Science (ICAMS), vol.3, no.1, pp.33,38.
Lastly, by actively engaging students in a variety of interesting activities that encourage critical thinking and discovery, time misbehavior is minimized. The key is preparation and participation. Having activities and lessons prepared will negate the acts of sleeping, misbehavior, and/or sitting idly for the bell to ring. Furthermore, collaborative strategies can be used to help students become self-reliant learners that take responsibility for their own learning. For instance, when students explain the purpose of learning the material, they can assess their own progress and the relevancy to their lives.
In my experience I have found that a community of learners is wiser than the sum of its individual members. The task of the teacher—according to Kafai and Resnick (1996)—is to “mobilize community knowledge so that its members benefit from it” (p. 151). This may be accomplished in my classrooms by utilizing technology,
Through this past semester, we heavily discussed the important aspects of a functioning classroom, from different theorists to helpful teaching techniques. We’ve debated what it means to be a great teacher. I believe most of the theories we discussed could be incorporated much more in the classroom. John Dewey, Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, and Lev Vygotsky all understood the way children think and the importance of imaginative play. They also understood that children need to be active in nature. Also, we have discussed different forms of learning, such as project based learning, team teaching, and outdoor classrooms. In my opinion, the education system should have changes that benefit the students’ needs. They’re not getting the most out of their education.
Schools are rewriting curriculum to create learning environments that help all students become more successful by using creative methods to show lifelong learning is taking place, while encouraging students to take ownership of their learning. (Goodwin, B., 2017; Ferlazzo L., 2017) A