Transcript BEYOND THE RIGHT ANSWER - Oxford University Press Canada

BEYOND THE
RIGHT ANSWER:
NURTURING CREATIVE AND
CRITICAL THINKERS
Teaching That Works: Learning that Matters
SCDSB , June 2012
Joan Green
Students can hit any target that they can
see and that holds
still for them.
Stiggins
Students who have to perform
or exhibit their knowledge
and skills get learning in
their bones; active learners
become life-long learners.
Rexford Brown
Metacognition is like
“standing outside
one’s head and directing
how one is going about
executing a thinking task.”
Costa, Arthur L.
“A completely different level of
assessment takes place in the
individual student, who is
constantly assessing her own work, deciding what
is right and wrong, what fits and what does not,
what is a ‘good enough’ job. This self-appraisal is
the ultimate locus of all standards.”
Berger
Accurate self-assessment, selfadjustment and self-monitoring are
only possible when students know
what is expected of them and what
‘quality’ looks like.
Research and It’s Implications for
Instruction/Assessment
Research says:
“Knowledge is constructed. Learning is a process
of creating personal meaning from new information
and prior knowledge.”
Implications for Instruction/Assessment
• Encourage discussion of new ideas
• Encourage divergent thinking, multiple links and
solutions, not just one right answer
• Emphasize critical thinking skills: analyze,
compare, generalize, predict, hypothesize
• Relate new information to personal experience,
prior knowledge
• Apply information to a new situation
Research says:
“There is great variety in learning styles, attention
spans, memory, developmental paces and
intelligences.”
Implications for Instruction/Assessment
• Provide choices in tasks
• Provide choices in how to show
mastery/competence
• Provide time to think about and do assignments
• Provide opportunities for reflection
• Recognize and respect multiple ways of doing
things
Research says:
“People perform better when they know the
expectation, see models, know how their
performance compares to the standard.”
Implications for Instruction/Assessment
• Provide a range of samples of student work; discuss
characteristics
• Provide students with opportunities for self-evaluation
and peer review
• Discuss criteria for judging performance
• Direct students to be improvement-focused
• Allow students to clearly define the standard
Research says:
“Motivation, effort and self-esteem affect learning
and performance. Success breeds success.”
Implications for Instruction/Assessment
• Motivate students with real-life tasks and connections to
personal experiences
• Encourage students to see connections between effort
and results
• Encourage students to monitor their own growth and
learning
Invitations to Learn
5 Needs Teachers Must Address to
Make Learning Irresistible
Carol Ann Tomlinson
Educational Leadership, ASCD 2002
Affirmation
• I am accepted and acceptable here just as I am.
• I am safe here – physically, emotionally, and
intellectually
• People here care about me
• People here listen to me
• People know how I’m doing, and it matters to them
that I do well
• People acknowledge my interests and perspectives
and act upon them
Contribution
• I make a difference in this place
• I bring unique and valuable perspectives and
abilities to this place
• I help other students and the entire class to
succeed
• I am connected to others through mutual work o
common goals
Purpose
• I understand what we do here
• I see significance in what we do
• What we do reflects me and my world
• The work we do makes a difference in the world
• The work absorbs me
Power
• What I learn is useful to me now
• I make choices that contribute to my success
• I know what quality looks like and how to create
quality work here
• Dependable support for my journey exists in this
classroom
Challenge
• The work here complements my ability
• The work stretches me
• I work hard in this classroom
• When I work hard, I generally succeed
• I am accountable for my own growth, and I
contribute to the growth of others
• I accomplish things here that I didn’t believe were
possible
A person who has ceased
to learn ought not to be
allowed to wander
around loose in these
dangerous days.