Thinking. An obvious standard that all classrooms in all grades state is a main focus. But is it? When asked about concrete and observable targeting and developing of student thinking, many teachers resort to their use of Bloom’s Taxonomy in developing questions. According to Dr. Kagan (2005), “Although Bloom's Taxonomy is very useful from a practical perspective, in three important ways Bloom's Taxonomy does not align well with recent findings of brain science Universities and district and push Bloom’s as the standard for thinking levels without considering alternatives or evaluating its effectiveness.” Additionally, most of the artifacts collected that target thinking often represent the concrete product of the thought or an elementary use of graphic organizers. Too little is being done that explicitly grows and documents the progression of thought for students, which means most activities are just that, subject-specific activities that target testing and not thinking. The irony is that more targeting of thinking ends up producing students who can retain and depict their learning in all settings. Ron Ritchhart, among others, worked developed a system of routines that target thinking in students in all grade levels. Through Project Zero at Harvard, numerous teachers expanded their whole to focus on whole-brain instruction and provided educational opportunities that translated beyond subject knowledge to transferrable knowledge. Teachers are modelers of the thinking culture. A culture of thinking in schools cannot be rote nor cannot be faked. It is a genuine and purposeful environment set with the students and modeled by the teacher. In the correct environment, thinking proliferates given the parameters and language of the teacher and the opportunities to document and reflect on thinking, situations designed by the teacher to include. List of Thinking Opportunity Routines |
Mr. Brenton DeFlitchStriving to provide unique and research-based strategies to modernizing the educational experience of students. Archives
February 2017
Categories |