Cognition, Thinking & Understanding

Places to Play in Providence: A Guide to the City by our Youngest Citizens

The guide that resulted from a collaboration between the Making Learning Visible team at PZ and a school-readiness initiative, Ready to Learn Providence (R2LP). The publication was created by preschool children and teachers from eight inner city programs and programs and features children's illustrations and descriptions of their favorite places to play in the Rhode Island capital.

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Hailed by educators throughout the world, Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has been applied in hundreds of classrooms and school districts since Frames of Mind was first published in 1983. Gardner challenges the widely held notion that intelligence is a single general capacity possessed by every individual to a greater or lesser extent. Amassing a wealth of evidence, Gardner posits the existence of a number of intelligences that ultimately yield a unique cognitive profile for each person. This tenth anniversary edition, published in conjunction with a reader on multiple intelligences, features a new introduction that explores the theory's development over the last decade. ISBN-13: 978-0465024339

Learning is a Team Sport: Kindergartners Study the Boston Marathon

Ben Mardell's 32-minute documentary about teachers' and kindergarten students' learning while engaged in an MLV-inspired study of the Boston Marathon; the video shares the strategies used by teachers and what children learned along the way.

The Nature of Scientific Thinking Lessons Designed to Develop Understanding of the Nature

From the background: Students in many science classrooms are presented with the scientific method as the fundamental plan scientists use to gain their understandings. Scientists throughout history have come to their conclusions in a variety of ways, not always following such a specific method. Interestingly, even when scientists do use the scientific method, they rarely use it in the stereotyped, step-by-step way that schools tend to teach it. This is a curricular unit that helps students understand why and how scientists think through their process.

Accountability in Three Realms: Making Learning Visible Inside and Outside the Classroom

Abstract: This article describes the changing culture of a public school as members of its community explore new ways of being accountable to progressive ideals in an age of skills-based learning and standardized testing. Using documentation makes adult and student learning visible in and outside the classroom, supporting three forms of accountability: (a) accountability to self (looking at what one intended to teach in relation to what actually happened); (b) accountability to each other (contributing to collective learning as well as one's own); and (c) accountability to the larger community (evaluating the relationship between the school's mission and classroom practice). Documentation leads to more intentional and reflective teaching, provides evidence of student learning not represented by standardized tests, and supports the development of a school's identity. The authors conclude that documentation, although not a replacement for standardized tests, is a versatile tool that blurs the line between formative and summative assessment.