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I have been waiting for metacognition and critical thinking to come up in our readings. I found that it was a huge struggle to get my students to develop these two skills last year, all year. I work primarily with Hmong students whose parents who have only been in the US for the last 5-10 years and they still impose a strong cultural influence on their children about how things should be done, so I have been wondering if this largely affects their metacognition and critical thinking skills or not. For example, some traditional Hmong parents are very particular about how things are done at a certain time, a certain pace and a certain  process. If what you are doing deviates from what the parents have set in their mind,  prepare to have a earful of words. So some kids in my classroom depends a lot on directions and pointers for them to complete even the smallest daily routined tasks. I found myself always repeating to my group of 4th and 5th graders, okay, now you are done with your morning work, what have we been doing everyday after morning work? What do you think you should do next? Look on the board, it is written on there. If you have no pencil what do you think you should do instead of just sitting there? When the teacher is explaining directions, should you be going to your desk to look for things? If you don't know how to do this problem, what do you think you should do instead of just sitting here? Look at our task chart, look at our organizers, where can you find the answers? If you don't know what this word means, where do you think you can look to find the definition?

Additionally, in the Hmong culture, boys, especially the youngest will be taken care of so well to the point where they grow up their whole life without having to do utilize their metacognition, automated basic skills, problem solving skills because their parents does every thing for them, from cooking for them, washing their clothes, telling them when to wake up, when to sleep, pick up after them, give them money so they don't have to work for most of their lives and so I've seen that boys in my class have a difficult time completing tasks when asked to think on their own. And I've also seen this into adulthood problem solving, because the elders will step in to solve problems for you, such as your own marriage problems.

My question after the reading is, how can I as a future teacher, help my students (especially Hmong boys who I will be working with) to be more metacognitive and independent learners without me having to give them costant guiding questions or pointers to complete routine tasks?

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Dena, I really liked what you said about the questions in regards to the "Language and Thinking" section you were talking about. I may have heard that from the same professor. I'm not sure. I read a book called "Building Academic Language" by Jeff Zwiers for one of my classes and their's a section on getting students to ask better questions and getting them involved with discussions. I think it would give you some more ideas on this topic. It offered a lot of great strategies. One of the things I liked was how it taught students to lead discussions and gave them tools to do so.

Module 26's Transfer section caught my attention. I think it is helpful for students to learn basic skills, but it's true that a lot of what we learned gets lost in the learning of new material. In high school, I took an anatomy class and memorized every bone, muscle, ligament, etc. in the body. I remember a very small fraction of them now. What is useful to teach our students? How can we limit the information being lost in translation of learning new material? The book suggests teaching material that will transfer well like basic skills reading, math, writing, computing, etc. and overlearning/teaching a skill past the point of mastery. I wonder if there are other ways? I do find that I'm able to apply a lot of material to other things, but then there are always instances where I learn something just to learn/understand it better.

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Ingrid Hofmann - responding to Doug and Alan

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Ingrid Hofmann - responding to Doug and Alan

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In Cluster 9 of our textbook, Woolfolk discusses the difficulties students of all ages encounter with transferring knowledge. In order to really demonstrate learning, students need to acquire knowledge, become familiar with domain-general and domain-specific metacognitive skills, learn how to apply the material to a broad range of problems, and finally practice transferring knowledge to other situations. During the transfer of knowledge is where students’ individual talents and skills can really help them shine because they are able to follow their own interests as well as include learning and experiences from other areas freely and creatively. In my opinion, transfer of knowledge is probably the single-most important skill we can share with our students, even though it may appear difficult.

Doug, I really enjoyed your perspective on how 16th century European scientific explorers used knowledge acquired by Arabic philosophers. Similarly, I liked the simple technique of journaling that Alan described to encourage creativity in his children as well. Really all cultures and all subjects can help us show students how we all learn from one another. This made me think of a book I discovered last year for my 5th grade Science students The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba.  There are different versions of the non-fiction story available depending on the age of the readers. The book describes how in Malawi in 2002 a terrible famine forced 14-year-old Kamkwamba to quit school. Instead, he learned how to use air to create electricity. Out of garbage he built a windmill bringing electricity and hope to his village. The text can be used in different subject areas from Science through Social Studies to Language Arts. What stories or texts have you encountered in your studies that can demonstrate the transference of knowledge to students in different subjects or of different ages?

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I really enjoyed your post! I look at myself and feel that I am not creative, but I also feel that I have been trained to attempt to build off the creativeness of others instead of attempting something completely original. I notice that one of my daughter's is like me and I have to constantly encourage her to be her own thinker. My other daughter is her own thinker but does not like to try and develop it more. From what you posted and following up with what we read as a class I can encourage my own children that are in two different phases of creativity. I also see this as an opportunity to practice for future teaching opportunities as well. I don't want to stifle creativity in students and I want to allow time for them to practice being creativity. I feel that journalling is a good outlet to start. Form my kids I am giving them the option for the last month of summer to either read or journal/write a story.

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As I mentioned in class last week (not in so many words), I trained my gymnasts to hone their metacognitive skills to advance their skills and abilities. I worked with them to focus more on learning and improving rather than winning. This never came easy, especially in such a highly competitive environment, but growing and learning from their mistakes became the norm over time. I have seen so many coaches say “you fell on your back handspring on beam, so now you have to do twenty at practice,” as if the punishment was enough to teach them never to fall again. I encouraged my gymnasts to examine why they fell. I already knew, but I needed them to reflect on it themselves. After all, it was their experience, not mine. As they truly began to understand the mechanics of a skill, mistakes were made less often and the need for repetition decreased. From their we could build and add new skills onto that one. And yes, I’ve used this process effectively with girls as young as five and six years old.

Other effective learning strategies I used was the mantra, which I mentioned last week. I would work with my gymnasts to develop a series of positive mental cues to perform difficult skills. Instead of their minds wandering to “What if I crash?” they could replace those thoughts with the mechanics of the skill. The better they became at the skill, the less they needed in their mantras.

One last comment: there are way too many voters out there relying on heuristic, confirmation bias, and belief perseverance to make their decisions…

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I remember hearing the words 'confirmation bias' a few times in the past, but I have rarely cared to define or understand it. After this weeks reading I have realized that term is something that defines me quite often. When doing research and writing I usually search for materials and articles that agree with my opinion more than the ones that differ with it or are of an unbiased sort. As I studied history for the past four years, I am used to having to form a strong opinion about a topic and find ways to argue it, yet I feel that I need to get out of that practice in the field of education. I need to conduct research with a level and non-biased head. That will allow me to be more of a divergent thinker and be more creative with the new ideas and materials I find when creating lesson plans and other teaching materials/philosophies. Also, as the book lays it out, an important part of metacognition is the skill of planning and monitoring. I don't necessarily struggle with planning as much as I do with self-monitoring when doing research/projects. I feel like that is the root cause for my frequent procrastination. I can definitely benefit by chunking things out and leaving reminders for myself so I do work in a slower more controlled process. Either way, this portion of the text laid out the topic of monitoring as something we learn to do with practice, and that seems to hold true in the classroom as well as at home. I hope to implement some of the text's ideas on how to learn and self regulate for my own research and education, as well as help my future students understand their own metacognitive processes.

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I am already using it! I enjoyed this weeks reading and find it very challenging. Metacognitive knowledge is a new area of study for me so it is good to see that I have already been implementing parts of this in my life.  I plan on using some of the questions that I read in developing metacognition as I reflect on class more and more.

The area I want to speak on though is what I see in the classroom as a sub.  I know it happens because I am already answering questions from my own kids and now as a sub I answer this in the classroom.  The question of, “when am I ever going to use this in my life?” or something similar.  This week’s reading answers that question in two simple ways; it helps you develop problem solving skills and it helps you develop into a critical thinker.  When I was in Jr. and Sr. High school I would get very frustrated when I did not know something or I was not able to find an answer.  I quickly had to learn to slow down, walk away or other methods to clear my head and then come back to my work with a clear head to work the problem from another angle.  I still find myself doing that today but have had to develop some other strategies when I cannot walk away from a problem.

Some students have learned to walk away and take a break but what about students that cannot walk away from problems?  What if the problem is not necessary the school work?  What if the problem is all around them, family or life in general?  How can I as a teacher help them, “solve the problem?”  How can I encourage them to keep seeking answers?

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Jon, I really like your comments and thoughts on dissension; I also will be teaching high school and I think it will be a great service to our students if we teach them how to discuss and disagree. Politics is one of the many areas that I usually see the lack of rational discourse become problematic – too many people are so busy extolling their “side” that they can’t hear any discussion nor separate themselves from their opinions.

In The Language of Thinking is a very short section, but I think it is highly important. It is similar to the advice one of my Hamline professors gave: When you ask if there are “any questions” you will shut down student thinking, when you ask “What questions do you have?” you are telling the students that you expect them to think and ask.

Rephrasing the question “What do you think about…?” can utilize an increased vocabulary and prompts deeper thinking and understanding. It can foster creative thinking by opening the students’ line of thinking. I especially like “What are some alternative explanations?” because it shows that there may be more than one possible answer. We could then discuss and debate the answers to determine the best explanation; they may both be the best explanation depending on circumstances; or perhaps there is another explanation that is better than either of them.

Are there other common phrases or ways of presenting material that could be altered to increase opportunities for cognition and creativity? Could this become overwhelming for students and shut down their thinking?

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People too often believe that creativity is something that just happens and that works of creative genius are attributable to something inherently special about creative people. The book, on the other hand, explains that creativity is a process. As with John Irving, most of the best known artists, writers, and innovators are those that have dedicated much of their life to a creative field and worked hard to create their best-known works. This connection between hard work and creativity is also demonstrated in the guidelines section where the book suggests to avoid describing the feats of great artists or inventors as if they were superhuman accomplishments. Finally, I think the connection the book makes between creativity and diversity is super important. Throughout history those who were most innovative were those who were willing to look beyond their society and apply to their work. For instance, the European scientific revolution of the 16th century was directly influenced by the work of Arabic philosophers and scientists that had already theorized many of the ideas that supposedly came to light during the “revolution.” This makes me wonder how we as teachers can be creative and maybe look outside our own culture for ideas about teaching. What pedagogies are used in different societies, cultures, and countries? How could those inform our own teaching?

I hope to create a classroom by providing time for students to create in a space without evaluation and by encouraging big ideas not matter how implausible they may be.

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Near the beginning of this week’s readings on complex cognitive processes, Woolfolk spends a considerable amount of time explaining the importance of educators not only teaching students what to learn, but also how to learn through strategic learning and comprehension skills. Other than the occasional mnemonic device in music or science class, my own teachers rarely, if ever, taught or suggested ways to follow along with their lectures or how to study the material at home. In retrospect, this seems like a critical component of a teacher’s responsibility to their students.

The curriculum for most history and social studies classes tends to involve heavy (and often dense) readings and can be very lecture-focused and teacher-centered. When I reached college, I would often try to type verbatim the entire lecture onto my laptop, rarely engaging with the material I was being presented. As a teacher, I want to be preemptive in avoiding this type of classroom environment and find ways for my students to engage with the material I’m presenting more actively.

Although often placed in opposition to the social sciences, creativity in the classroom can be a powerful tool in doing just that, especially in diverse classrooms where students approach the topics from very different perspectives. I greatly appreciated the text’s guidelines for how to incorporate creativity in the classroom and how easily many of these can be implemented in our increasingly standardized and test-focused classrooms. I do wonder, though, how much pushback teachers who stress the importance of creativity receive from school administrators who are often more concerned about the school-wide scores on standardized assessments. How might we balance these two seemingly opposite approaches to learning?

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Module 25 discussed the importance of creativity with the students. Growing up with an artistic talent, I’ve always felt that it was easier for me to express my academic reflections through art. However, from what I’ve noticed, the expectations for students to be creative does not always match up to the teachers. It is encouraged for students to be creative, but a lot of it can only be exhibited if the teacher allows the form to exist in the classroom. Moreover, the traditional high school classrooms do not seem all that creative to me as well. It’s mostly desks lined up in rows. Creativity can be fostered starting with the classroom design itself, through the teacher’s lessons/teaching materials, and then to the students. Also, creativity and diversity needs to be more present in the classrooms. As a soon to be English teacher, I want to fully inspire students to unleash their creativity as well as mine’s. I want to stray away from the traditional Western literature and expose students to ideas that have not been mentioned enough in schools. Nevertheless, that means that I need to make sure to find a school that will accept this concept. Moreover, how can we encourage more teachers to be creative in their teachings? I know that some teachers like to stick to routines and understand how that works for the elementary grades, but what can secondary teachers do to change up the routines in the classrooms?

Re: Rachel's Post
I like the idea of incorporating theater into learning. I work with students who are quiet and shy, and I was wondering how do we help students break out of that when the time comes to presenting in front of a class? Specifically, Hmong students are not used to having a voice at home, and for some of them, there is a lot of anxiety when they have to talk in class (I'm the perfect example). What are some exercises/activities you can suggest?

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Like Andi, I also find the Guidelines in the text extremely helpful. In the Encouraging Creativity Guidelines, I appreciated point 2, “Tolerate Dissent”. In my desired age group to teach, high school, students are becoming more and more aware that at least half the world likely disagrees with something they hold dear. And I think it is extremely healthy for students to experience that dissent in the classroom. A student needs to come to terms with the fact that they are going to meet many, many people who disagree with them, and that is ok. Just because someone disagrees does not mean that they are wrong and you are right, it may well mean that you are wrong or that both are right. When students explore other ideas and ways of looking at the world it opens their minds to more possibilities. I do not want my students to have a narrow, indoctrinated view of the world, but, rather, I want them to be open to calm and reasonable discussion. Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”. This is the type of mind that I want for my students. I want them to think creatively and see a problem from multiple points of view before deciding on a best course of action. In my class I often encourage my students to play “devil’s advocate” and argue for a largely unpopular opinion. I feel that this helps them understand where the other side may be coming from and glean any value from their argument. ��S��_9�

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Like Andi, I also find the Guidelines in the text extremely helpful. In the Encouraging Creativity Guidelines, I appreciated point 2, “Tolerate Dissent”. In my desired age group to teach, high school, students are becoming more and more aware that at least half the world likely disagrees with something they hold dear. And I think it is extremely healthy for students to experience that dissent in the classroom. A student needs to come to terms with the fact that they are going to meet many, many people who disagree with them, and that is ok. Just because someone disagrees does not mean that they are wrong and you are right, it may well mean that you are wrong or that both are right. When students explore other ideas and ways of looking at the world it opens their minds to more possibilities. I do not want my students to have a narrow, indoctrinated view of the world, but, rather, I want them to be open to calm and reasonable discussion. Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”. This is the type of mind that I want for my students. I want them to think creatively and see a problem from multiple points of view before deciding on a best course of action. In my class I often encourage my students to play “devil’s advocate” and argue for a largely unpopular opinion. I feel that this helps them understand where the other side may be coming from and glean any value from their argument.

This bring up the question, how can I further encourage students to look at everything from multiple points of view? Dissent is the cornerstone of democracy, how can I communicate more clearly that disagreement should lead to democratic compromise?

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The point/counterpoint on whether schools should teach critical thinking and problem solving left out a few things I think are important to the argument. One issue is the age of the students. They talk about “improvements in achievement and comprehension for students of all ages who participate”, but how great is the improvement? I think that you would see a higher level of improvement for older students, but I don’t have any data to back me up. If the improvement is very small, class time might be better spent on building up core knowledge. I do think that critical thinking should be taught, however I wonder at what age it begins to “stick” better. I also would like to know exactly how this critical thinking is taught. Is is a logic class? More work needs to be done on eliminating bias. Some of the “critical thinking” I see in grad school only considers things from one viewpoint and doesn’t actually include all views. As far as critical thinking teaching not succeeding in Germany, some years ago I received a request from one of my younger German relatives (he was in Gymnasium at the time) to answer some questions about attitudes in the USA regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the questions that his teacher had given him to ask an American (me) amounted to the equivalent of “So, when did you stop beating your wife?”. The problem for me was not the opinion of the teacher, but the phrasing of the question was biased in favor of a certain answer and expected a certain viewpoint. That is not teaching critical thinking in my view.

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Critical thinking and problem solving skills are important to teach in the classroom. It surprised me that the point/counterpoint (pg 382) showed an argument against the transferability of these skills. These skills (as well as creativity) are needed to help solve our society's current and future problems. Critical thinking is defined as "evaluating conclusions by logically and systematicly examining the problem, the evidence, and the solution". These skills are applicable to all subjects. Teaching students how to be critical thinkers will help them be open minded, life long learners, good judges of credibility , good planners, etc. The text points out they will also be good at asking appropriate clarifying questions. Albert Einstein once said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes." Critical thinkers spend a lot of time looking at the problem and clarifying it. Critical thinkers look at problems from different angles and perspectives helping open their mind to see the world a bit differently.

Teachers should create problem sets and other assignments that help facilitate the growth of students' critical thinking skills and these assignments should be relevant to the real world issues. Scaffolding may be extremely beneficial to help students build these skills, too. Encouraging creativity by accepting and encouraging divergent thinking, providing a stimulus for creative thinking, etc. (pg 375-377) could also help build critical thinking skills. The guidlines on page 377 for encouraging creativity provide some great examples that can be used in class to do this.

How can we facilitate the growth of critical thinking skills while also encouraging creativity in every subject and age group in our schools?

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On page 376 the text stated, “However, patterns of creativity in other groups are complex- sometimes matching and sometimes diverging from patterns found in traditional research.”  By traditional research they mean white males.  When reading this sentence, it seemed to me that this was an excuse for not doing more research.  I’m not sure if it was meant that way, but that is how I read it and it made me mad.  I’m wondering if anyone else felt like that when they read it?  Or did you read a different meaning from it?  I know that Alex mentioned that when she did her research that is also what she found.  If learning about different cultures and values increases creativity, why is research in this particular area so narrow?

Switching gears, we all know reading is important, but it can be one of the most challenging skills to learn.  In my classroom we use Fry’s Words.  Dr. Edward Fry created a huge list of the most common words used in English.  I feel that this list is incredibly helpful for all of my students (because to a degree they all struggle with reading and writing), but, especially with my student who is an English Language Learner.  By learning the first 100 words on this list, my student now has more confidence when he reads kindergarten and first grade books because he has learned the majority of those words already. I plan on incorporating Fry's Words into all of my future teaching.  Does anyone else use this program? If you do, what are your thoughts on it?  What other reading programs have people been exposed to?

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I think the most helpful part of the reading this week, and usually every reading, are the guidelines that are given to us. I think that those really give us insight and tips to bring into the classrooms with us once enter the work field.

The specific guideline that I appreciated was that of the "How to encourage creativity" section. Because I want to have a classroom where the arts are nurtured and that those who want to express themselves have that opportunity, these guidelines were very helpful. I know that I already try and use these tips in my classroom currently, but they helped me narrow in more on how to actually accomplish this. Tip 4 I believe is crucial, "Emphasize that everyone is capable of creativity in some form." While I am teaching younger kids, and most of them still have creativity and want to do crafts, music, etc, older kids have come to learn that they "aren't" creative or that creativity is actually a fault and not actually a blessing. We need to continue to encourage our kids to be creative or to at least have an avenue for them to do this. Thinking creatively helps problem solve, it helps makes different connections, it helps them critically think. If we continue to have the arts shunned or not important I think that we are really doing a disservice to our children.

I know that in my Pre K we always have arts and crafts open and always have an abundance of material available for them. I know that creativity is more than arts and crafts, but this is just one way that we always have creation available. We also multiple building toys or tools that they can build things with. All of these tools help promote creativity in our classrooms. What are some ways that teachers who teach older kids keep creativity in their class when the arts have now become electives. How do we incorporate them in core classes

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Applying learning strategies, (Reaching every student, pg. 362), study by Susan Cantrell didn’t make sense to me as an example that reached every student.  The LINCS vocabulary strategy results only worked for eighth graders or younger.  They stated that perhaps reading instruction is most effective for elementary and middle schoolers, but that doesn’t reach every student.  I would have liked an example to see how the ninth graders were helped with their reading or vocabulary.  On page 371, the book states, “Many people tend to stop working before they reach the best solution and simply accept an answer that works in some cases.”

Would the LINCS strategy work if the ninth graders were able to create their own stories with the vocabulary?  Were the stories presented not relatable to a ninth grader?  Were the lesson plans geared toward younger students or were they modified for their age groups?  What does work for ninth graders that struggle with reading?  As a future ESL teacher, this is important to me, and I would have liked an example that did “reach every student.”

I thought the example presented for problem solving was very good.  The tenants said the problem was elevator was slow, when the real problem was they were bored.  I thought it was a good reminder for academic, behavior, or other problems that may arise in a classroom and how we need to dig a little deeper to find the real problem.  How do we as teachers not let our biases and assumptions get in the way of finding the real issue?  Is it something that we are doing as a teacher?  Is our curriculum working?  Are our teaching methods helping them?

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For my senior seminar in Psychology as an Undergrad, I took a class on cognition and my senior project dealt with gender differences (particularly bias) in creative thinking and achievement. I was not surprised to hear the textbook mention that much of the research that has been done has focused primarily on Western values and specifically white males. This was my experience when gathering sources for that project. There was a short section which discussed the value of having multiple points of view in creating an environment that is not only more conducive to creative thinking for our students, but is culturally responsive. That students can benefit greatly from exposure to a wider range of perspectives on any given issue, and that one of those benefits is increased creative thinking.

This is also important in the area of problem solving and critical thinking. It comes up so often, but creating a classroom that is more student centered and culturally responsive allows students to be more actively engaged in their learning. It creates an environment that encourages students to think creatively and dissect the lesson with a critical eye. I want my students to have more than a textbook experience in my classroom. Having a large selection of reading material that challenges my students to ask questions, to take a new perspective on an issue, to feel a connection to the lesson, things that will help them with their learning.

Creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, all of these tie in to the transfer state, when knowledge is cemented. Having a student centered and culturally responsive classroom will aid in all of these areas. Understanding what the students need to know and making those important connections between the content and their lives, this is what is important to me and my future classroom.

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Reading about the process of creativity and its role in problem solving, I could not help but think about the important role theatre can have in developing students’ creativity.  For example, creative dramatics is a student-driven process in which students create original dramatic content, often to demonstrate or further explore content learned in other classes.  Such exercises often involve a period of exploration and collaboration with a group, followed by a series of “work in progress” performances to show off their work and give and receive critical feedback.  The process is one that encourages students to think creatively in a group about how best to tell a story, and encourages critical thinking as students unpack and process the work they and their classmates are doing.  I think visual and performing arts courses are so valuable in the ways they stretch students to think creatively and also critically, and find it especially exciting the cross-disciplinary intersections that can exist in such curriculum, which can lead to transfer of these skills.

I also think it is so important to remember that innovators are often rule breakers. This got me thinking about the role of creativity and personal exploration in culturally-responsive classrooms, especially as this applies to resisting students. I want my theatre arts classroom to be one that honors the strength and importance of creative thinkers and values the creative process as one that can innovate our society’s ways of thinking, often challenging and highlighting social problems.   If we want our students to be critical and independent thinkers, we must create spaces that honor the creative process & its role in learning how to learn.

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Pages 374-377 discuss the importance of creativity in problem solving and how such thinking can benefit learners. As a supervisor for diverse marketing interns, I help them understand their multicultural backgrounds offer divergent thinking is needed in the creative industry. I explain the powerful tool they each encompass in the opportunity to change the face (race, ethnicity, gender, SES) and voice (lived experience, perspective, bias, etc.) of the industry. How might teachers help students embrace their divergent thinking as a way to be adaptable varying problem solving strategies? What role should teachers have in helping parents support autonomy, curiosity and challenge?

Brainstorming (p.378) is a fundamental task used by many, particularly marketers. I’ve taught my cohort of interns to begin with this process to breakdown complex processes. While challenged by their client, they were unsure what a partnership means, so I framed the term differently to think about a partnership, like a friendship. The word association created an opportunity for ideation.

Critical thinking in Communication Arts and Literature will be vital in my practice. Through a culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy, I plan to facilitate discussions, writing and other activities to get students thinking deeper about the context, characters, themes, etc., within assigned literature. How can educators encourage and assess critical thinking for transfer into real life situations outside the classroom (i.e. being critical about the mass media messages via commercials and news)? How might teachers collaborate with parents to identify what beyond basic skills are worth learning?