Possible Quotes - Overall

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.

-- The Foundation for Critical Thinking

Intentional. adj. 1. Done or made or performed with purpose and intent. 2. Characterized by conscious design or purpose.

-- Wordbook English Dictionary and Thesaurus

 

<better quotations/ideas are possible I'm sure GKD>

Haven't really focused on this much. Here's another one I like - for its content, not its beauty: 

"Thinking routines direct and guide mental action."  (That's why we call them thinking moves).

Goes nicely with:

"Dispositions motivate, activate, and direct our abilities."

 

The QEP SLO

The QEP SLO Students will demonstrate their capacity to change and learn through effort and the intentional practice of thinking.

(But how? GKD)

Module III: Make Thinking Visible

This in a nutshell is the message of extensive research on the nature of human thinking and learning. The rationale can be boiled down to a single sentence: Learning is a consequence of thinking. Retention, understanding, and the active use of knowledge can be brought about only by learning experiences in which learners think about and think with what they are learning. -- Perkins, David. Smart Schools (pp. 7-8). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Quoted by Ron Ritchhart in Making Thinking Visible, 2011 p. 26.

 

KF-1 Thinking to Learn

Quest-1: Why is the inclusion of student thinking in classroom practice an essential component of learning to learn? (It's not what you think).

Ans-1: Thinking with Knowledge = Learning with Understanding

The conventional pattern says that, first, students acquire knowledge. Only then do they think with and about the knowledge that they have absorbed. But it’s just the opposite: Far from thinking coming after knowledge, knowledge comes on the coattails of thinking. As we think about and with the content that we are learning, we truly learn it. Indeed, this even holds for the simplest kind of learning, straight memorization. Over and over again, studies have demonstrated that we memorize best when we analyze what we are learning, find patterns in it, and relate it to knowledge we already have. In other words, when we think about it. -- Perkins, David (2008-06-30). Smart Schools (p. 8). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

And I might include this additional piece which continues the above quote.

As early as 1888, the renowned American psychologist William James expressed the point eloquently this way:

… the art of remembering is the art of thinking; … when we wish to fix a new thing in either our own mind or a pupil’s, our conscious effort should not be so much to impress and retain it as to connect it with something else already there. The connecting is the thinking; and if we attend clearly to the connection, the connected thing will certainly be likely to remain within recall. (Italics are James's).

Therefore, instead of knowledge-centered schools, we need thinking-centered schools. This is no luxury, no utopian vision of an erudite and elitist education. These are hard facts about the way learning works. -- Perkins, David (2008-06-30). Smart Schools (p. 8). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Or perhaps this one or some portion of it:

… Understanding is not a precursor to application, analysis, evaluating and creating but a result of it… Understanding or insight are the direct result of much and varied activities and the associated thinking that (goes) along with those activities. Thus, we might consider understanding not to be a type of thinking at all but an outcome of thinking. (MTV 8)

 

KF-2 Students Thinking

Quest-2: If learning is indeed a product of thinking must instructors necessarily give up "teaching time?"

Ans-2: Yes. Ritchhart sums it up well:

Quot-0a. Thus thinking is at the center of the learning enterprise and not a mere add-on, something to do if there is time. We as teachers must acknowledge that when we reduce the amount of thinking we ask of our students, we reduce the amount of learning as well. (MTV 27)

Ans-2b. Then he goes on to explain the necessity and purpose of "Making Thinking Visible."

Quot-0c. However, even when we create opportunities for thinking, we must realize that students' thinking may still be invisible to us. To make sure thinking isn't left to chance and to provide us with the information we need in order to respond to students' learning needs we must also make their thinking visible. MTV 27)

Ans-2c. Summing up, let us say it boldly. If we want to support students in learning and we believe that learning is a product of thinking then we will want to help them learn to think better. But not for its own sake alone. We are not simply helping them learn to think but rather equipping them so they can think to learn (with understanding).

 

KF-3 Invisible Thinking

Quest-3a Why is Making Thinking Visible necessary?

Ans-3: Because thinking is by it's very nature invisible. If we are to improve it, it needs to take on concrete form in the classroom.

Excerpt-3. Perkins, David. "Making Thinking Visible." New Horizons for Learning. Johns Hopkins U School of Education, Dec. 2003. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://tinyurl.com/phtsrxq>

Consider how often what we learn reflects what others are doing around us. We watch, we imitate, we adapt what we see to our own styles and interests, we build from there. Now imagine learning to dance when the dancers around you are all invisible. Imagine learning a sport when the players who already know the game can't be seen. Bizarre as this may sound, something close to it happens all the time in one very important area of learning: learning to think. Thinking is pretty much invisible. To be sure, sometimes people explain the thoughts behind a particular conclusion, but often they do not. Mostly, thinking happens under the hood, within the marvelous engine of our mindbrain.

 

KF-3b

Quest-3b

Answer-3b

Excerpt-3. Perkins, David. "Making Thinking Visible." New Horizons for Learning. Johns Hopkins U School of Education, Dec. 2003. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://tinyurl.com/phtsrxq>

Not only is others' thinking mostly invisible, so are many circumstances that invite thinking. We would like youngsters, and indeed adults, to become alert and thoughtful when they hear an unlikely rumor, face a tricky problem of planning their time, have a dispute with a friend, or encounter a politician's sweeping statement on television. However, research by our group and others shows that people are often simply oblivious to situations that invite thinking. For a number of years, we have been building what is called a dispositional view of good thinking that pays as much attention to people's alertness and attitudes as it does to thinking skills as such. We ask not only how well do people think once they get going but how disposed are they in the first place to pay attention to the other side of the case, question the evidence, look beyond obvious possibilities, and so on. Our findings argue that everyday thinking may suffer more from just plain missing the opportunities than from poor skills (Perkins, Tishman, Ritchhart, Donis, & Andrade, 2000; Perkins & Tishman, 2001).

Resource-"40 Years of Teaching Thinking: Revolution, Evolution, and What Next" David Perkins Lecture. The Harvard Dispositional Model 5 minutes. (48:30-55:35) I've lost the minute marker but will get to that...)

 

KF-4 Visible Thinking (too much thinking in these titles GKD)

Quest-4 And how can we go about the process of making thinking visible?

Answer4a: Questioning. Modeling an interest in ideas. Constructing understanding. Facilitating and clarifying thinking. Listening. Documenting.

Read chapter 2 of Making Thinking Visible, pages 25-39.

Quote4: "When we talk about making thinking visible, we are generally referring to those specific thinking strategies and processes students use to build deeper understanding. These are the processes that need to live at the center of classroom activity, directing the work of both teachers and students. As we make our thinking -- our own as well as that of our students -- visible, we draw attention to the mechanisms by which individuals construct their understanding. To the extent that students can develop a greater awareness of thinking processes, they become more independent learners capable of directing and managing their own cognitive actions." (MTV 22)

 

Answer4b: Through the use of thinking routines which make up the bulk of the Making Thinking Visible book.

 

Answer 4-c: SAVE FOR RESOURCE PORTFOLIO Another good answer: Using the language of thinking. We may want to consider the Tishman/Perkins article as a reading. But like most things it's probably too much. Perhaps an excerpt from it.

There are many ways to make thinking visible. One of the simplest is for teachers to use the language of thinking (Tishman & Perkins, 1997). English and all other natural languages have a rich vocabulary of thinking. Consider terms like hypothesis, reason, evidence, possibility, imagination, and perspective. Routine use of such words in a natural intuitive way helps students catch on to the nuances of thinking and thoughtfulness that such terms represent.

Using the language of thinking is one element of something even more important: being a model of thoughtfulness for one's students. Teachers who do not expect instant answers, who display their own honest uncertainties, who take a moment to think about "What if" or "What if not" or "How else could this be done?" or "What's the other side of the case?" express respect for the process of thought and implicitly encourage students to notice problems and opportunities and think them through.

Resource-4 Tishman, Shari, and David Perkins. "The Language Of Thinking." Phi Delta Kappan 78.5 (1997): 368. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. http://www.tinyurl.com/thinking-language.

 

KF-5 Thinking Moves

Quest-5: Are there particular kinds of thinking that support understanding across all the disciplines? And that are especially useful when trying to understand new concepts, ideas, or events?

Ans-5: Yes, there are. Ritchhart and colleagues identified six thinking moves "that are integral to understanding and without which it would be difficult to say we had developed understanding." Those six moves are :

• Observing closely and describing what's there
• Building explanations and interpretations
• Reasoning with evidence
• Making connections
• Considering different viewpoints and perspectives
• Capturing the heart and forming conclusions

 

Resource. Read pages 5 -15 of Making Thinking Visible.
Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison.Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

 

KF-6 Thinking Routines

Ques-6: What are Thinking routines?

Ans-6: Thinking routines are simple questions and short sequences of steps which have been validated by research to promote engagement, understanding, and independence in those who use them. They enliven class discussions, help students think better and provide an easy to learn activity for instructors.

We can look at them in three ways:

• As tools. They promote thinking about the discipline. Instructors can use them as class activities and students can use them publicly and privately to support their own thinking.
• As structures. The steps taken in sequence serve as scaffolds¹for facilitating clear thinking.
• As patterns of behavior. As the routines become established patterns of behavior they build classroom and campus culture.
•  

Quest-7: How do thinking routines work?

Answ-7: What is most important is that "they direct and guide mental action." (Intellectual Character) As more and more instructors use them to teach their discipline the words of the routines are frequently encountered by students and become a habit of mind. The steps in the routine build on each other to strengthen understanding. As routines become “shared scripts” students are able to use them with increasing independence.

1. Scaffolding. A Definition

   : Temporary support or assistance, provided by a teacher, peer... or computer, that permits a learner to perform a complex task or process that he or she would be unable to do alone -- the technique builds knowledge/skills until learners can stand on their own, similar to scaffolding

   on a building.”

   (ERIC Thesuarus of Educational Terms) ↩

 

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Error Detection: Look at the bottom of the qepcontentportofolio screen: "Learning to Learning"

Another Correction: Beginning Quote is not correct. Some of my words are there:

 

This IS a quote:

"Thus, thinking is at the center of the learning enterprise and not a mere add-on, something to do if there is time. We as teachers must acknowledge that when we reduce the amount of thinking we ask of our students, we reduce the amount of learning as well."

 

Ritchhart, Ron; Church, Mark; Morrison, Karin (2011-03-25). Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners (pp. 26-27). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition. 

 

This is quote + my words:

 

If you want to preserve it this is one way you'd do it:

"If we want to support students in learning and we believe that learning is a product of thinking" (MTV 5 ) then we will want to help them learn to think better. 

 

Key Focus: THINKING ROUTINESQ4: What are thinking routines?

A4: Thinking routines are simple procedures, usually consisting of only a few steps.  They "provide a framework for focusing attention on specific thinking moves that can help to build understanding." (MTV 45)

Thinking Routines have been validated by research to promote engagement, understanding, and independence in those who use them. They enliven class discussions, help students think better and provide an easy to learn activity for instructors. 

 

"The routines exist both as public practices that can be useful in groups at school and as private practices to be used by individuals.  Indeed, this is the true power of the routines in developing students as thinkers and learners."  (MTV 46)   We can look at thinking routines in three ways:

 

1.  Each routine is a TOOL for promoting one or more kinds of thinking about the discipline. Instructors can use them as class activities and students can use them publicly and privately to support their own thinking. (MTV 45- 46) Notice that the See-Think-Wonder routine, used in the Module 2 F2F session, incorporates several thinking moves.

                                          <OPEN AND READ> Thinking Moves in STW 

 

2.  The steps of a routine are crafted to support and STRUCTURE students' thinking.  The steps taken in sequence serve as scaffolds for facilitating clear thinking. ... Therefore, in using the routines, the goal is never simply to fill out or complete one step and move on to the next but to use the thinking occurring at each step in the subsequent steps. ... For instance, in See-Think-Wonder, the close observations of the "See" stage provide the foundation for well-grounded interpretations at the "Think" stage."  (MTV 47) 

                                                                       

 3.  As the routines become established PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR they build a classroom and campus culture    in which students learn how to learn and thinking is made visible.

 

This is were I have continued at the place you left off:

 

David Perkins on the occasion of his retirement from the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

spoke about thinking routines in a 2011 lecture (Askwith Forum): 

 

INSERT THE VIDEO HERE...

WITH THIS TEXT UNDERNEATH:

 

Perkins, David N. "40 Years of Teaching Thinking." Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 27 Sept 2011. Web. 13 Oct 2013. 

Thinking routines clip is located at 39:30-44:34.

 

TO Becki: My reason for doing it this way rather than the partial clip is (you may have guessed) to make it easier 

rather than harder for them watch more. That's the same reason I've included the Askwith Forum as a link. As always, however, I

defer to your good judgment.  

 

Key Focus: LEARNING PRINCIPLES  SAVE FOR RESOURCE PORTFOLIO 
 Q5: What are the key messages about learning that undergird thinking routines? 

 A5: They are outlined in Chapter 8 of Making Thinking Visible.

 

• 1. Learning is a consequence of thinking.
• 2. Learning is as much a collective endeavor as it is an individual process.
• 3. Learning is provisional, incremental, and evolving in nature.
• 4. Learning involves continual questioning aimed at uncovering the complexity of ideas.
• 5. Learning is an active process that entails getting personally involved.

"These messages about learning have the power to shift the landscape of schools and classrooms by helping students to become more self-directed learners and teachers to see students as more thoughtful and engaged learners."  (MTV 261-263).

 

It is in the spirit of No. 5 that this content portfolio now includes a "homework activity."

 

Key Focus: YOUR PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
 Q6: Will you complete this hands on guided practice activity before the next QEP F2F session and bring it with you for an activity we'll do at that session? 

 A6: We hope so since this can play an important role in your learning how thinking routines work.

 As students of "Making Thinking Visible" here's your assignment. 

 

Becki: I had this idea that we might use an amended version of the process I/we used to select this thinking routine. It's probably crazy but please look at it againin that light. Here's the document as I sent it to you: Choosing Routine-3-2-1.docx

 

THIS IS where there would begin a guided practice with the routine. Which you're much better at doing than I am. 

I'm going to stop now, read the 3-2-1 section again and wait for your phone call.