Consultancy Matters

When students are provided consistent opportunities to develop and discuss complex questions, they’re empowered with knowledge, curiosity, and intellectual courage. We can make our classrooms places that encourage students to keep asking questions—which are the foundation of learning.

CREATING A CLIMATE FOR QUESTIONING
Modeling questioning strategies that get all students involved allows students to develop confidence in their own ability to craft meaningful questions and share their responses. We also need to establish classroom procedures for respectful dialogue so that students feel safe in sharing their thinking with their peers.

I indirectly model questioning strategies by carefully considering the questions I ask. I set up the year with a few questions that are then discussed throughout the year. Through seminar discussions and reflective writing in the spring, for example, I use questions such as “How does where you live impact how you live?,” “How do humans continue to progress in a diverse world?,” and “How does constructive conversation cultivate empathy and promote participation in local and global communities?” to discuss content as well as to make connections to the world.

Students consider these questions as they participate in the Spotlight Challenge, a design thinking project I created to facilitate opportunities for students to conduct research, craft speeches, and call their peers to action. Consistently making these connections helps create a climate in which students become accustomed to questioning everything. 

 

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

 

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=questions

 

Via Gust MEES

Thinking about Thinking Optimizes Learning

Most teachers know that if students reflect on how they learn, they become better learners. For example, some students may think and process information best in a quiet library; others may focus better surrounded by familiar noise or music. Learning strategies that work for math may be different from those applied in the study of a foreign language. For some, it takes more time to understand biology than chemistry. With greater awareness of how they acquire knowledge, students learn to regulate their behavior to optimize learning. They begin to see how their strengths and weaknesses affect how they perform. The ability to think about one’s thinking is what neuroscientists call metacognition. As students’ metacognitive abilities increase, research suggests they also achieve at higher levels.

Metacognition plays an important role in all learning and life experiences. Beyond academic learning, when students gain awareness of their own mental states, they begin to answer important questions: How do I live a happy life? How do I become a respected human being? How do I feel good about myself? Through these reflections, they also begin to understand other people’s perspectives.  

 

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

 

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=reflection

 

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Psychology

 

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Metacognition

 

Via Gust MEES