Making Critical Thinking Intuitive Teaching For Intuitive Understanding The meaning of “intuitive” we are using in this chapter makes no reference to a mysterious power of the mind, but rather to the phenomenon of “quick and ready insight” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary). This sense of the word is connected to the everyday fact that we can learn concepts at various levels of depth. When, for example, we memorize an abstract definition of a word and do not learn how to apply it effectively in a wide variety of situations, we end up without an intuitive foundation for our understanding. We lack the insight, in other words, into how, when, and why it applies. Children may know that the word ‘democracy’ means “a government in which the people rule”, but may not be able to tell whether they are behaving “democratically” on the playground. Unfortunately much of what we originally learned in school as children was abstract and unconnected to everyday life and experience. Inferences and Assumptions
Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking Learning the Art of Critical Thinking There is nothing more practical than sound thinking. No matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter where you are, or what problems you face, you are better off if your thinking is skilled. As a manager, leader, employee, citizen, lover, friend, parent — in every realm and situation of your life — good thinking pays off. Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. What is really going on in this or that situation? Successfully responding to such questions is the daily work of thinking. Ask yourself these — rather unusual — questions: What have you learned about how you think? If you are like most, the only honest answers to these questions run along the lines of, “Well, I suppose I really don’t know much about my thinking or about thinking in general. It is important to realize that serious study of thinking, serious thinking about thinking, is rare. 2. 3.
8 Ways to Create Online Test | Training & E-Learning Zone for Quizzes Online test brings a lot of benefits to assessment: time-saving, flexibility and economical. For test-takers, they can take the online test at their own preferred time – great flexibility. For trainers/teachers, it spares the time to mark the test because the test is graded automatically – big time-saving. Create online test with desktop Flash quiz maker Desktop Flash quiz makers let users create Flash quizzes in minutes without programming skills. Create online test with Google DocsGoogle Docs is a totally free online tool to conduct online multiple choice test and surveys. Create online test with Adobe Flash If you are sophisticated with Adobe Flash Script, using Adobe Flash to make test for online use is the most flexible way. Create online test with Microsoft Excel As we all know, Excel is a great program for creating spreadsheets and tracking information, but it is also useful for creating quizzes for online testing.
How Students Can Overcome Their Fear Of Failure This is a guest post by Daniel Wong of Living Large. “Put your notes away. It’s time to take the test,” says your teacher. You feel paralyzed by fear. Your stomach tightens. Your palms get sweaty. As your teacher places the test paper on your table, your mind goes blank. Sound familiar? Through my work, I’ve had the privilege of interacting with thousands of students. Many students tell me that the words “test” and “exam” strike terror in their hearts. “I can’t afford to do badly on this test!” It’s important to assess students’ learning, but surely tests and exams shouldn’t elicit so many negative feelings? Education today isn’t characterized by a sense of discovery and exploration. Why is education scary? Instead, it’s characterized by fear. Fear of losing out. This is understandable. But teachers have a role to play too. “The fear of failure begins in the teacher” Please don’t get me wrong; I greatly admire the work that teachers do. Personally, I don’t have what it takes to do a teacher’s job.
Critical Thinking Model 1 To Analyze Thinking We Must Identify and Question its Elemental Structures Standard: Clarityunderstandable, the meaning can be grasped Could you elaborate further? Could you give me an example? Could you illustrate what you mean? Standard: Accuracyfree from errors or distortions, true How could we check on that? Standard: Precisionexact to the necessary level of detail Could you be more specific? Standard: Relevancerelating to the matter at hand How does that relate to the problem? Standard: Depthcontaining complexities and multiple interrelationships What factors make this a difficult problem? Standard: Breadthencompassing multiple viewpoints Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Standard: Logicthe parts make sense together, no contradictions Does all this make sense together? Standard: Significancefocusing on the important, not trivial Is this the most important problem to consider? Standard: FairnessJustifiable, not self-serving or one-sided Think About... State the Question
Glossary of Critical Thinking Terms Glossary: A-B accurate: Free from errors, mistakes, or distortion. Correct connotes little more than absence of error; accurate implies a positive exercise of one to obtain conformity with fact or truth; exact stresses perfect conformity to fact, truth, or some standard; precise suggests minute accuracy of detail. Accuracy is an important goal in critical thinking, though it is almost always a matter of degree. ambiguous: A sentence having two or more possible meanings. analyze: To break up a whole into its parts, to examine in detail so as to determine the nature of, to look more deeply into an issue or situation. argue: There are two meanings of this word that need to be distinguished: 1) to argue in the sense of to fight or to emotionally disagree; and 2) to give reasons for or against a proposal or proposition. argument: A reason or reasons offered for or against something, the offering of such reasons. to assume: To take for granted or to presuppose. authority: Back to top faith:
English Resources - list of online tools Why Being Bilingual Can Actually Make You Smarter Last Updated: 4/15/2014 20:29 PST What if you were told there was a way you may avoid dementia, strengthen your cognitive skills, and heighten your intelligence, and all you had to do was learn to strike up basic conversaions in another language? It probably sounds great, because if you’re like most you would love to be able to speak a second language. But then, you recall your experience in high school foreign language – boring rote memorization and long hours with little progress – and perhaps it doesn’t sound so good any more. But, what if you were told it would take only 10 days to be on your way to becoming bilingual? Most people recognize the many benefits of learning a foreign language: You can travel to foreign countries and feel comfortable, be a more productive and enticing employee in today’s competitive job market, and immerse yourself in the vast cultures that surround you. What is the Pimsleur Approach?
WIKINDX 3 21st Century Skills Critical Thinking- Fact? Inference? Judgment? | Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle Many students need help in developing critical thinking skills as part of the 21st century skills. A technique that I have used both when I taught Critical Thinking courses at the college level and when I have taught higher level thinking in my own Spanish or English classes is Fact-Inference- Judgment. Look at this picture taken by me in Costa Rica: Fact – something that is obviously (physically) in the picture, text, movie, etc. Inference- based on noticing things in the picture, text, movie, etc., a person makes an assumption. A judgment is a value statement or emotional statement. As we help students to give only facts and inferences about media, we develop their critical thinking. My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education. Also, my book, Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education. Like this: Like Loading...
The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom Teaching and learning critical thinking in the classroom will be the topic of my next Education Week Teacher column (contribute your ideas there, please), so I wanted to develop a “The Best…” list with supporting materials. I put out a call on Twitter and Google Plus for people to make suggestions, but unfortunately didn’t do a great job of keeping track who made the suggestions. I apologize if I did not credit you for your suggestion. I hope readers will contribute additional suggestions. You might also be interested in: The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom The Best Sites For Students To Create & Participate In Online Debates The Best Tools To Help Develop Global Media Literacy I also included a chapter and several lesson plans related to critical thinking in my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges. The Critical Thinking Community What Is Critical Thinking?
Creationism in public schools, mapped. Where tax money supports alternatives to evolution. A large, publicly funded charter school system in Texas is teaching creationism to its students, Zack Kopplin recently reported in Slate. Creationist teachers don’t even need to be sneaky about it—the Texas state science education standards, as well as recent laws in Louisiana and Tennessee, permit public school teachers to teach “alternatives” to evolution. Meanwhile, in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, taxpayer money is funding creationist private schools through state tuition voucher or scholarship programs. As the map below illustrates, creationism in schools isn’t restricted to schoolhouses in remote villages where the separation of church and state is considered less sacred. Click to enlarge. Tax-funded creationism Green: Public schools in states where state law permits creationist instruction. Orange: Private schools that teach creationism and accept tax-funded vouchers or scholarships. Red: Responsive Ed charter schools using creationist curricula.