Author: Terrell Heick
by Terry Heick The long-term output of any school should be not just proficient students, but enabled learners. An “enabled” learner can grasp macro views, uncover micro details, ask questions, plan for new knowledge and transfer thinking across divergent circumstances. This doesn’t happen by content “knowledge holding,” or even by the fire of enthusiasm, but by setting a tone for learning that suggests possibility, and by creating a culture of can. First, it’s important to realize that a “culture” is comprised of tangible factors (students) and intangible factors (curiosity). It is also ever-present — it exists whether or not we…
by Terry Heick This is a quick post that just occurred to me while writing about–well, writing about writing. I was brainstorming ways to use technology to help students improve their writing and realized that over and over again, I was thinking about the process of writing and how crucial it is to quality of whatever the writer is left with at the end. Great writing starts at the beginning, whether with an idea or need or purpose of social context or spark of inspiration. Whatever it is that ’causes’ the writing to begin–what’s wrought there at the beginning is…
I. Human beings are capable of extraordinary joy and extraordinary suffering. II. Suffering is inherent in the human condition and is not entirely correctable. III. Suffering that occurs as a kind of product–something occurring by design–is, however, correctable. IV. Many of the issues that cause suffering do, in fact, occur ‘by design’ and are thus correctable. V. Identifying and prioritizing these ‘issues’ is the work of a culture and its human infrastructure. VI. This will not happen automatically, nor without great effort, affection, patience, and a willingness to not reach for ‘quick solutions.’ VII. The ability to prioritize and confront and…
A Basic Framework For Teaching Critical Thinking In School by Terrell Heick In What Does Critical Thinking Mean?, we offered that ‘(c)ritical thinking is the suspension of judgment while identifying biases and underlying assumptions to draw accurate conclusions.’ Of course, there are different definitions of critical thinking. The American Philosophical Association defines it as, “Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. It involves being active (rather than reactive) in your learning process, and it includes open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, and the ability to examine and evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view.” But…
by Terry Heick Simple premise, as titled: what sorts of ‘things’ make teaching unsustainable, and what sort of advice can help teachers reflect on these ideas to mitigate any damage and make the profession more enjoyable, and thus sustainable. 10. Grow a healthy and useful professional learning network. See also 10 Reasons Every Teacher Needs A Professional Learning Network Human connections sustain humans. 9. The school year is a marathon, not a sprint. And this should have significant implications for instructional design–spiraling, for example. Some ideas students can ‘get’ right away, while others will take all year. Continuously spiral those…
by TeachThought Staff Inquiry-based learning is an approach to learning guided by students through questions, research, and/or curiosity. An inquiry-based learning strategy is simply a way to facilitate inquiry during the learning process. It might be useful to think of ways to suppress inquiry to emphasize the strategies that might be used to promote it. Years ago in the (tongue very much in cheek) 12 Ways To Kill A Learner’s Curiosity, I said that limiting choice, thinking in black and white, and focusing on answers instead of questions were just a few ways to stifle inquiry and curiosity. In Strategies…
by Terry Heick As a follow-up to our 9 Characteristics of 21st Century Learning we developed in 2009, we have developed an updated framework, The Inside-Out Learning Model. The goal of the model is simple enough–not pure academic proficiency, but instead authentic self-knowledge, diverse local and global interdependence, adaptive critical thinking, and adaptive media literacy. By design this model emphasizes the role of play, diverse digital and physical media, and a designed interdependence between communities and schools. The attempted personalization of learning occurs through new actuators and new notions of local and global citizenship. An Inside-Out School returns the learners, learning, and ‘accountability’…
To grow, teachers must be able to reflect critically on their own performance. Education is ‘actuated’ by teachers. It makes sense, then, that education should also be able to reflect critically on its own performance as well. Currently, this occurs through the comforting precision of analysis and numbers. The language of math, data, and statistics provides a universal language that (ideally) resists rhetoric and insists on facts. This also provides a footing for research and natural anchoring points for the kinds of strategies we use to improve our schools. To be whole, however, this critical reflection–this self-criticism–needs to be qualitative…
by Terry Heick Reflection is a fundamental tenet of learning; it is also, therefore, a fundamental part of teaching. Why it happens is a matter of humility. But how and when it happens–and with whom–is less clear. This is partly because there are multiple sides to reflection–length, width, and depth. A Z-axis. It is whole. As a kind of definition, to reflect means to look back at how something ‘went,’ and see it for all of its available parts and patterns: Causes and effects; comparisons and contrast; strengths and weakness; its characteristics; how close it came to what you were…
by Terry Heick What are the different types of questions? Turns out, it’s pretty limitless. I’ve always been interested in them–the way they can cause (or stop) thinking; the nature of inquiry and reason; the way they can facilitate and deepen a conversation; the way they can reveal understanding (or lack thereof); the stunning power of the right question at the right time. There’s a kind of humility to questions. Someone who doesn’t know asks someone who might. Or even someone who does know (rhetorically) asks someone who doesn’t to produce an effect (rhetorically). There’s a relative intimacy between someone…