Lots of good teachers, me included, work quite hard to get student to think at a 'higher level'. In Bloom's Taxonomy this would be in the Analysis/Synthesis level, or in some thoughtful response to a divergent question. Thinking at a higher level about the content at hand would be great, but a deeper desire is just that they exercise their brains for more than stimulus-response game playing or repeating the obvious.
After years of challenging, encouraging, praising, modeling I came to the conclusion that higher order thinking will only naturally (not forced) occur if the topic is related to the life of the student. It the broad sense, related can be as simple as having fun...solving puzzles, creating new ideas...self-directed mental challenges that end up with the intrinsic reward of a self-approved solution.
And now that I'm engrossed with data based observation, I have discovered something quite interesting - give kids data on their own behavior, either as an individual or as a group, and they go immediately to the analytic level, and love it. They will reflect, think divergently, propose and test changes, and anxiously look forward to the next round of higher order thinking.
And it's a pretty easy step to transfer that analytic thinking to school related content -- "Remember how 40% of your statements to each other were negative? How does that relate to the X versus Y conflict (take your pick)?" or "Compare your individual time-on-task rate with the campaign promises of President X (take your pick) for greater government efficiency."
My observation is that the data collected needs to be real (not how many are wearing red, or how many pencils were dropped), and best if collaboratively identified as something of interest. Assigning a student to be the data gatherer further engages them.
Tools I've seen used with students include Time On Task, Positive/Negative, Verbal Tics, Bloom's Taxonomy (levels of questions answered or asked by students), Teacher Travel (tracking what % each part of the room was engaged in a discussion), and of course, the Generic Tools. Entering the names (Generic Timer) of a small group working on a project together and then tracking the % of time each contributed to the discussion is enlightening.
Give them the data and ask "Is this what you thought was happening?" "Why/Why not?" "Is there a need for a change?"... and away you go.
After years of challenging, encouraging, praising, modeling I came to the conclusion that higher order thinking will only naturally (not forced) occur if the topic is related to the life of the student. It the broad sense, related can be as simple as having fun...solving puzzles, creating new ideas...self-directed mental challenges that end up with the intrinsic reward of a self-approved solution.
And now that I'm engrossed with data based observation, I have discovered something quite interesting - give kids data on their own behavior, either as an individual or as a group, and they go immediately to the analytic level, and love it. They will reflect, think divergently, propose and test changes, and anxiously look forward to the next round of higher order thinking.
And it's a pretty easy step to transfer that analytic thinking to school related content -- "Remember how 40% of your statements to each other were negative? How does that relate to the X versus Y conflict (take your pick)?" or "Compare your individual time-on-task rate with the campaign promises of President X (take your pick) for greater government efficiency."
My observation is that the data collected needs to be real (not how many are wearing red, or how many pencils were dropped), and best if collaboratively identified as something of interest. Assigning a student to be the data gatherer further engages them.
Tools I've seen used with students include Time On Task, Positive/Negative, Verbal Tics, Bloom's Taxonomy (levels of questions answered or asked by students), Teacher Travel (tracking what % each part of the room was engaged in a discussion), and of course, the Generic Tools. Entering the names (Generic Timer) of a small group working on a project together and then tracking the % of time each contributed to the discussion is enlightening.
Give them the data and ask "Is this what you thought was happening?" "Why/Why not?" "Is there a need for a change?"... and away you go.
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