All in Guest Posts
Teaching background knowledge is relatively straightforward with the right level of material and good teaching. But how do educators teach the habits of mind that involve being active and creative in the analysis and application of background knowledge as students are acquiring that knowledge?
In this guest post interview Mike Bell explains how he got interested in evidence-based teaching and provides an overview of his new book “The Fundamentals of Teaching“…
When I talk to adults about metacognition, I begin with a broken vacuum cleaner (a picture of it, that is) and ask, 'What would you do if your vacuum stopped working?’ Someone always says they would kick it, but most people take a more measured approach. They might begin by opening it up to see …
Why might checklists help? First, our memories and intellects are fallible. We suffer from cognitive overload. Second, we’re overconfident. We might skip some steps because we’re confident that we can succeed regardless. Checklists address both problems…
Stop me if you've heard this one. The left hemisphere of your brain is responsible for logical processing; the right hemisphere is designed for creative and wholistic thinking. While there may be a tiny grain of truth to these over-generalizations, there is a much less talked about difference in brain functioning. As you go from the back of the brain to the front, thinking goes from extremely concrete to highly abstract.
During a 3 month, online professional development opportunity exploring making learning visible (1), I learned how to move students beyond collaboration into collective knowledge building (2). I noted dramatic improvements in my students’ skills in communicating, socially interacting…
