Developing critical thinking questions can be challenging for teachers. So, how do we create inquiries that drive critical thinking? Teachers should ask questions that create ongoing thinking. When we receive an answer from a student, we have given them permission to stop thinking. When the questions continue, the thought processes continue.
Making sure we cover content for students to recall is stopping their thinking processes.
We should:
· Provide content that encourages thinking.
· Provide content that requires thinking to encourage learning.
When students have quality questions, thinking and learning are occurring. Quality questions are the result of quality thinking. When the question, "Is this going to be on the test?" is asked, the student has stopped thinking and are not engaged in the learning process.
Inquiry drives or directs thinking. If we as educators do not continue to ask questions about our field of study, our profession would die. According to, "The Role of Socratic ...
In parts 1 and 2 of "How to ask critical thinking questions," I discussed the importance of teachers asking proper questions. Also, making sure the questions are not just a restatement of something that was just taught.
I mentioned the idea of having the proper weight time and helping the students to learn how to answer higher level questioning. Teachers have to practice asking higher level questioning and planning the right questions to ask during a lesson can not be something asked at the spur of the moment.
Part 3 will discuss how to adjust the level of questioning for students. Sometimes the teacher may need to begin with questions on the knowledge level of Bloom's Taxonomy, such as, "What color is the ocean on a map. " However, teachers should not leave all of their questions at the knowledge level.
Moving to higher level questioning is intended to stretch the student's thinking. Cognitive or evaluative questioning helps the teacher determine whether the student is comprehending ...
I attended a graduation this past weekend. As the dean of the school of education confirmed the degrees I thought, what number of those students who selected teaching as their career really have the passion for teaching. Do they have the right stuff to be a teacher?
What does passionate teaching look like? Personally, I think it is a calling. Teaching is something you pour your heart and soul into. You care and you admire. Teaching should be a fun and colourful. Your students should love learning.
Teaching is totally full of personal relationships. Students need these relationships to be able to learn. According to Jerelyn Thomas in Passionate Teaching, "Bonding with students rests on what the teacher gives rather than what he / she asks of the students."
Mary Powell states in Passionate Teachers Create Passionate Students, "Students equate satisfaction with learning and be more inclined to enjoy school. Enjoying school is far more than just for the student." Teaching should come from ...
There are companies out there who are busy working on new technologies because they want to make life easier for the teacher. You can argue until you are blue in the face about whether this should be done, but this is something that is going to have with innovative technologies.
Now, lets take a trip down memory lane, a trip to when you were at school. The year is 1990 and a teacher's job is very hard. Let's look at the day from their point of view.
They go into the classroom and manually take the register. Now, the class begins. They are on their feet all day because they have to work at the chalkboard. They have to write endlessly on the board because they have to stop and change for different classes. They might have to do the same lesson over and over again for different students and this will mean drawing and writing the same thing over and over again.
Their life is very monotonous. Their legs and arms are probably aching. But, their workday doesn't end there. They will have to ...
Scaffolding Instruction
The term "scaffolding" is often heard in educational circles as a method of instruction in which the teacher models the learning strategy or task and then gradually shifts the responsibility to the students. The teacher first determines the students' zone of proximal development and then incrementally improves the learner's ability to become independent with the task at hand.
We usually think about scaffolds with regard to construction where a very organized structure is put up beside a building under construction in order to support workers as they perform their required tasks. In education we are using scaffolding to support students to construct meaning or the ability to independently complete an objective.
Within the field of education, the scaffold provides clear structure and precisely stated expectations, along with models and direct instruction. For example, it begins with "I do--you watch" which in reading might seem like a teacher reading aloud ...
Work smarter, not harder! How, you ask, with all of the added demands and expectations of differentiation that the educational world is now placing upon teachers? In this article, I offer one simple solution to help educators work smarter with the time that they have: open-ended question asking.
Open-ended questions
The open-ended question format is a natural answer for how to differentiate in the classroom! Instead of giving students the question all the time, give them the answer and have them become the teacher! I use this type of question in several ways. Sometimes it is a part of my launch for a workshop session, other times it is a part of the partner work that I expect my students to complete, and yet other times I use this type of question as an "exit" ticket for an informal formative assessment check.
In math class for example, you might ask the following:
"The answer is 10. What is the question?"
Imagine the power of working with this type of problem in your classroom, ...
Have you ever been sitting in class or a lecture or just listening to someone speaking using the same word or phrase over and over again, (e.g. 'ah'; 'OK') so that it becomes distracting? Yes, you have!
All of us have words or phrases that we are prone to use often. One such phrase might be, 'That's OK'. It is fine to use these phrases often if they are used in the right context. However, it is not 'okay' to use them as 'space fillers' as you think of what you want to say next. A pause in your speaking is better, as it can create a sense of anticipation in your students about what comes next and gives you a chance to get your thoughts together for what you want to say. Let your eyes roam around the class to make sure the class is ready for what comes next. This is a better 'space filler'.
As a teacher, one of your prime responsibilities is to be as perfect an example as possible of the correct use of language.
Using words like 'okay' often, can show a lack of vocabulary. On the other ...
Have you ever considered if there is a difference in how first graders, or fifth graders, or eleventh graders learn?
Is there a difference in their learning vs. how you and your colleagues learn? It turns out, the answer is definitely YES.
So, let's take a look at how ADULTS best learn. Adults:
• are autonomous and self-directed.
• use their foundation of life experiences and knowledge.
• are goal-oriented.
• are relevancy-oriented.
• want practical, useful information.
• need to be shown respect.
Adult learners prefer single concept, single-theory learning experiences that focus heavily on the application of the concept to relevant problems.
Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are going to keep - and use - the new information.
Information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true, and thus forces a re-evaluation of the old material, is integrated more slowly.
Adults tend to compensate for being slower in some psychomotor ...
As an instructor of over 20 years, I have had my share of co-teaching model experiences. Most of them were very good experiences. Some of them were difficult situations. However, I still believe a true co-teaching method is effective for both the special education student and the regular education student.
Co-teaching is a method of teaching students with two certified teachers. One teacher is a special education instructor and the other instructor is a regular education teacher. Both teachers are serving the needs of ALL students in the classroom.
Research indicates that co-teaching benefits both the students and the instructor. Both teachers have strengths and both have weaknesses. Hopefully, the area one teacher has a weakness; the other teacher has strength.
In one of my co-teaching experiences, I taught with a special education teacher who was excellent in math. Math is not my strongest subject to teach. So, he compensated my weakness in the deep understanding of the teaching of ...
Do you know someone with Autism?
Chances are, you know someone with an autism spectrum disorder. Autism is a lifelong complex developmental disability affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
The chances a child has autism are now 1 in 68!
Just last month, the Centers for Disease Control released the most comprehensive data in history on the prevalence of autism in the United States. The result? One in every 68 American children has an autism spectrum disorder.
Never before has autism affected so many people so quickly!
Every year, nearly 50,000 begin their journey with autism.
One person is diagnosed with autism every 20 minutes.
And the diagnosis has grown at an alarming rate of 30% over its 2012 estimate of 1 in 88.
As the incidence of autism grows so must our efforts to “improve the lives of all affected by autism.” Since the enactment of the Combating Autism Act in 2006 and its reauthorization by the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act of 2011, ...
