Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h61FVlC17040; Tue, 1 Jul 2003 11:31:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 11:31:48 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <1c3.bf91b2d.2c33027b@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2403] Thinking about Thinking X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 39 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 2070 Lines: 39 Thinking about Thinking. . . The Equipped for the Future Teaching and Learning Cycle addresses the issue below by reminding teachers to make sure (throughout the cycle] that learners clearly understand what they are learning and why. When teachers are designing learning activities to address real-life concerns of the learners, they (the teachers) are advised to ask themselves In what ways will I help learners identify the cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies they already use, develop new strategies, and choose the most appropriate strategies for their purpose? Meta Potts, Moderator 4-EFF List FOCUS on Literacy Glen Allen, VA This is an excerpt from the PEN WEEKLY NEWS BLAST for June 27, 2003 THINKING ABOUT THINKING IS ESSENTIAL FOR LEARNING Although mastering subject matter is important, strategies to increase thinking power are equally important, writes Marv Marshall. Schooling today emphasizes "correct" answers and single solutions. But in so many situations, it is not how many correct answers one knows, but rather how one proceeds when one does not know -- as when confronted with problems, dilemmas, enigmas, and situations to be addressed, the answers to which are not immediately known or readily available. This is becoming truer every day in the rapidly changing information age. Students often attempt to solve a problem or analyze a situation without thinking. The answer may be so obvious that they just say it. There are many situations that can be dealt with successfully in this way. However, a problem arises when this approach does not work because the task has become too complex. For students who are habituated to thinking at the perceptual level, and who have not developed cognitive tools, such problems appear to be "too much" for them to deal with, and they just give up. According to Marshall, the inability to take charge of one's own cognitive processes is a very large part of the at-risk/dropout problem -- as well as discipline problems. http://teachers.net/gazette/JUN03/marshall.html
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