Cognition, Thinking & Understanding

Six Key Principles of the Cultures of Thinking Project

1. Skills are not sufficient; we must also have the disposition to use them. Possessing thinking skills and abilities alone is insufficient for good thinking. One must also have the disposition to use those abilities. This means schools must develop students’ inclination to think and awareness of occasions for thinking as well as their thinking skills and abilities. Having a disposition toward thinking enhances the likelihood that one can effectively use one’s abilities in new situations.

2. The development of thinking and understanding is fundamentally a social endeavor, taking place in a cultural context and occurring within the constant interplay between the group and the individual. Social situations that provide experience in communicating one’s own thinking as well as opportunities to understand others’ thinking enhance individual thinking.

3. The culture of the classroom teaches. It not only sets a tone for learning, but also determines what gets learned. The messages sent through the culture of the classroom communicate to students what it means to think and learn well. These messages are a curriculum in themselves, teaching students how to learn and ways of thinking.

4. As educators, we must strive to make students thinking visible. It is only by making thinking visible that we can begin to understand both what and how our students are learning. Under normal conditions, a student’s thinking is invisible to other students, the teacher, and even to him/herself, because people often think with little awareness of how they think. By using structures, routines, probing questions, and documentation we can make students’ thinking more visible toward fostering better thinking and learning.

5. Good thinking utilizes a variety of resources and is facilitated by the use of external tools to “download” or “distribute” one’s thinking. Papers, logs, computers, conversation, and various means of recording and keeping track of ideas and thoughts free the mind up to engage in new and deeper thinking and help ensure that our thinking doesn’t get lost.

6. For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers. The development of a professional community in which deep and rich discussions of teaching, learning, and thinking are a fundamental part of teachers’ ongoing experience provides the foundation for nurturing students’ thinking and learning.

Inteligencias Multiples: La teoria en la practica

Desde la publicación de Los Marcos de la Mente: La Teoría de las Inteligencias Múltiples, miles de educadores, padres, y los investigadores han explorado las implicaciones prácticas de las Inteligencias Múltiples (MI) la teoríala noción de gran alcance que están separados de las capacidades humanas, que van desde la inteligencia musical a la inteligencia involucrados en la comprensión de uno mismo. Inteligencias múltiples: la teoría en la práctica reúne publicó anteriormente y obra original de Howard Gardner y sus colegas de Project Zero para ofrecer una imagen coherente de lo que hemos aprendido acerca de las aplicaciones educativas de la teoría de MI de proyectos en la escuela y la investigación formal. ISBN-13: 978-8449318061

Teaching for Understanding with Technology

Teaching for Understanding with Technology shows how teachers can maximize the potential of new technologies to advance student learning and achievement. Using the popular Teaching for Understanding framework, teachers can guide learners to think, analyze, solve problems, and make meaning of what they've learned. The book offers advice on tapping into a rich array of new technologies such as web information, online curricular information, and professional networks to research teaching topics, set learning goals, create innovative lesson plans, assess student understanding, and develop communities of learners. ISBN: 978-0787972301

Multiple Intelligences and Adult Literacy: A Sourcebook for Practitioners

I must admit that I had never thought about uses of MI ideas with adult learners who were trying to master the basic literacies....Thanks to the pioneering work of [the authors], and AMI teacher-researchers, we now know that, in capable hands, the idea of multiple intelligences has a generative role to play in the education of adults."From the foreword by Howard Gardner This practical sourcebook includes: MI Basics-providing educators with the basics of MI theory: what it is and how it can inform practice. MI Reflections-looking at the successes and challenges involved in using MI theory in adult education, including an array of activities for exploring MI theory with students. MI-Inspired Instruction-discussing how MI theory can be used to develop learning experiences and instructional strategies that tap into students intelligence strengths. MI-Inspired Lessons-presenting concrete examples of how AMI teachers translated MI theory into lessons and activities for language arts, learning English, writing, reading for meaning, math, science, and more. Discussion Questions for individual and group reflection. Classroom Experiences for trying out ideas in your own settings. ISBN: 978-0807743461

Causal Patterns in Simple Circuits: Lessons to Infuse into Electricity Units...

Causal Patterns in Simple Circuits is a set of lessons that are to be infused into a broader unit on simple electrical circuits. The lessons are designed to address a set of persistent misunderstandings that students have when learning about simple circuits. These misunderstandings stem from how students reason about the nature of causality. Background information is given to help teachers understand typical misunderstandings and how each shows up in students reasoning about simple circuits. The module is designed to move students away from linear and sequential models towards more complex models that better explain the way circuits work. Each lesson includes subject matter goals and more general goals about the nature of cause and effect, as well as a set of steps to help students assess their understanding and to connect the knowledge beyond the original learning context. The curriculum incorporates best practices in science education, such as inquiry-based learning and modeling. It is designed for middle school but can be modified for use with older and younger students. Teaching about static electricity is recommended before teaching about electrical circuits. Understanding electrical charge helps prepare students for understanding electrical circuits. This curriculum module was developed as part of a research project called the Understandings of Consequence Project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. 2004