The main idea was metacognition. Metacognition is how one
thinks about his/her thought process. The three types are planning, monitoring,
and evaluating. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about our own cognitive
process and an understanding of how to relate those processes to maximize our
learning. This goes into 3 categories: person knowledge, task knowledge, and
strategy knowledge. Metacognition develops over time, not just over night. As
you grow older you start to understand things that you would not have at a
younger age. It changes for certain children. Questioning is a good method for
critical thinking, as said in the book, but what if your questions do not spark
class discussion? What if your class does not do well with discussion? How can
you make students comfortable with having discussions in class? Lower order
thinking does not require much effort. It is more on remembering something or
recalling it. Higher order thinking requires more thinking. For example in
higher order thinking, you are able to analyze, create, and evaluate which you
would not be able to do in lower order. We know from past information that
development happens over time. People are not just one day all the way
developed. These chapters agree with that. I would facilitate metacognition
into my classroom by preparing an activity for the class to do. I would outline
everything they had to do and then they would have to perform the task. I would
watch them and make sure everything is going right and lead them in the right
direction. I would evaluate their work and give them a grade based on their
work.
I would really hope a classroom has meaningful discussions! As teachers, we should pose higher level questions to the class. This would mean asking open ended questions using words like "why," "how," "elaborate/describe." This will force students to think deeper and refer to the text they've been given. If the class is not good with discussion, then the teacher should find other ways for the students to showcase their knowledge and use higher-order thinking. The teacher can assign long-term projects or presentations. The teacher can help the class feel comfortable having discussions in the class by first having students write questions down on a piece of paper so that they're anonymous and read those questions aloud. People who feel comfortable can answer those questions. Vice versa, the teacher can come up with questions and have the students write down their answers on a piece of paper, again for anonymity. This way, they can begin feeling comfortable expressing their answers and later be able to say it in front of the class and have ownership of their ideas.
ReplyDeleteI think the chapter was encouraging teaching self questioning. Questioning is important when leading class discussions (as a teacher). I think asking students to relate something to their past experiences is a great way to start off. Also, I saw a teacher do something that is a great practice--she asked the question then waited about 15-20 seconds (or longer) before letting anyone respond. This gives the time needed for creative or higher order thinking.
ReplyDeleteTeaching students to self question is somethign else entirely, but just somethign you could model and communicate consistently.
I'm a bit confused how your last example at the end is a form of metacognition. Preparing an activity, asking them to complete it, and then grading it, doesn't seem to involve them thinking about their own thinking at all.... Am I missing something? This might require some higher order thinking from YOU as a teacher, since you are planning and evaluating, but you are also not thinking about your own thoughts (unless you revise your teaching strategy afterward).