Author: Terrell Heick
by Terry Heick If the ultimate goal of education is for students to be able to answer questions effectively, then focusing on content and response strategies makes sense. If the ultimate goal of education is to teach students to think, then focusing on how we can help students ask better questions themselves might make sense, no? Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers The ability to ask the right question at the right time is a powerful indicator of authentic understanding. Asking a question that pierces the veil in any given situation is itself an artifact of the critical thinking teachers…
by Terry Heick A few years ago, I wrote about Types of Learning Journals and reflection was a part of this thinking. I’ve also shared a small collection of basic reflective questions in the past that could be used as a tweet or other social media post. Now, for an updated post, I’ve collected many of these questions into a single post that you can sift through and hopefully find something you can use in your classroom tomorrow. Some are questions while others are question stems that can be used to guide reflection in specific lessons or scenarios where unique…
by Terry Heick Reflection is a natural part of learning. We all think about new experiences–the camping on the car ride home, the mistakes made in a game, or the emotions felt while finishing a long-term project that’s taken months to complete. Below I’ve shared 15 strategies for students to reflect on their learning. Modeling the use of each up front can go a long way towards making sure you get the quality of work you’d like to see throughout the year–and students learn more in the process. 15 Reflection Strategies To Help Students Retain What You Just Taught Them…
Once it’s begun, it’s difficult to fully separate the person from the task. When the artist is painting, the painter and the act of painting become a single ‘thing.’ The painting becomes a part of it all, too. As a teacher, your ‘self’ is embedded within your teaching—which is how it goes from ‘job’ to craft. The learning results are yours. You probably call them ‘your’ students. The same goes for students as well. There is a pleasing kind of string between the 8-year-old playing Minecraft and his or her digital creation. This is the magic of doing. But this also…
by TeachThought Staff Do not limit a child to your own learning, for they were born for another time. R Tagore While each generation is unique, possessing its own challenges, opportunities, and cultural contexts, the methods of teaching and the knowledge passed down often reflect the values and norms of previous eras. This gap between the present generation’s needs and the past’s teachings can limit children in various ways, inhibiting their ability to engage with and thrive in their contemporary world fully. From the moment they enter the world, children are shaped by the values, beliefs, and practices of the…
by TeachThought Staff Thinking in the 21st century is just different. That doesn’t mean we’re all suddenly omnipotent cyborgs, nor do we all become mindless social media addicts who spend our cognitive might tapping, swiping, and drooling on our smartphone and tablet screens. But just as the 19th century presented unique challenges to information processing compared to the 18th or 20th, the 21st century is different from the one before it or from the one that will come after. punyamishra.com recently released the following graphic, which I thought was interesting. It identified knowledge types for modern learning, settling on Foundational,…