Thesis / Antithesis / Synthesis for essay writing

Posted on August 29, 2016 by admin

While researching Marxist ideology for revision lessons on the Russian Revolution, I came across the idea of thesis/antithesis/synthesis as an argumentative framework.

I have since used it successfully in my classes. I think the notion of Dialectics and thesis/antithesis/synthesis fits in well with my other ideas about essay writing (they are nothing new, I’ve just recast them in my own way: TEAC).

What is dialectics?

Dialectics of any sort is a means of trying to resolve a paradox.

It’s important first of all to understand the difference between a paradox and a contradiction. Two things contradict if they CANNOT co-exist. A person cannot have a broken leg AND not-have a broken leg. That is a contradiction. A paradox is something that SEEMS to contradict but which may possibly have some middle ground. For instance” All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” or “You can save money by spending it”.

That, in a nutshell, is what dialectics does. To learn about something, it considers something that is almost its opposite, and then tries to figure out what the compromise is between the two. So perhaps you’d figure out the meaning of life by comparing it to the meaning of death. But that’s getting off-topic. ^a Continue reading “Thesis / Antithesis / Synthesis for essay writing”

http://askeveryone.ca/.question$6748319 (back)

Cultures of Thinking PD program, with Ron Ritchhart

Posted on February 17, 2016 by admin

I have become part of a semester long professional development project called “Cultures of Thinking”. It is lead by Visible Thinking and Harvard Project Zero researcher Ron Ritchhart. It focusses on creating an environment where “a group’s collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members.” ^a.

One of the key components of this program is class observation – not to evaluate the teacher but to learn and become more aware of your own habits, cultures and teaching strategies. Our first day consisted of two sessions, in the morning we were introduced to the cultures of thinking program and questioning techniques. The second was a plenary session in which teachers from four schools came together to learn about how to objectively and non-judgmentally observe a lesson and how to record data so that it is useful for the person/school being observed.

My notes and relevant resources are below.

Continue reading “Cultures of Thinking PD program, with Ron Ritchhart”

See more at: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/cultures-of-thinking#sthash.Lw4Gagmy.dpuf (back)

Motivation, mindset, students’ efficacy

Posted on December 13, 2013 by admin

Teachers play a vital role in fostering a positive attitude towards learning. John Hattie, Carol Dweck and Daniel Pink have done great work on researching student efficacy, mindset and motivation. In this post, I have collated some of their ideas.

Carol Dweck is the key authority regarding the growth mindset. She makes the following points:

Fixed Mindset self-esteem is about feeling good about yourself, often in relation to the perceived lower achievement of others
Growth Mindset self-esteem is about having the courage & determination to address weaknesses
Confidence & self-efficacy comes from mastery of problems through resilience, not from false self-esteem
Growth Mindset Teacher: “I am not interested in judging how good your work is, I am interested in the quality of your learning”

Hattie suggests that self-efficacy, aspirational, and other psychosocial influences account for considerable variance in academic achievement.
^a Dweck shows how to address this by promoting a Growth Mindset in the classroom. Continue reading “Motivation, mindset, students’ efficacy”

Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement in Australian High School Students: The Mediating Effects of Academic Aspirations and Delinquency. By Annemaree Carroll, Stephen Houghton, Robert Wood, Kerrie Unsworth, John Hattie, Lisa Gordon, and Julie Bower. URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19027942 (back)

Kuhlthau, the research process

Posted on November 6, 2013 by admin

Have you experienced that moment where an academic task or question seemed so big that it made you slightly anxious? I have, and I see my students go through it too. Research essays, the IB Extended Essay and the IB Internal Assessment are all big academic inquiry processes where students are required to research and grapple with a large amount of information that has to be distilled and synthesised into a coherent and sophisticated argument.

Professor Carol Kuhlthau has researched the research process. I find her notion of the “uncertainty principle” very interesting and recognisable. She describes it as follows:

“Uncertainty is a cognitive state that commonly causes symptoms of anxiety and lack of confidence. Uncertainty and anxiety can be expected in the early stages of the information searching process. Uncertainty, confusion, and frustration are associated with vague, unclear thoughts about a topic or problem.

As knowledge states shift to more clearly focused thoughts, a parallel shift occurs in feelings of increased confidence. Uncertainty due to a lack of understanding, a gap in meaning, or a limited construct initiates the process of information seeking”

(Kuhlthau, C. C. (1993). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. Norwood, NJ: Ablex., p. 111)

Below is a visual representation of the uncertainty experienced during a research / inquiry process: Continue reading “Kuhlthau, the research process”

Ron Ritchhart’s Eight Thinking Continua

Posted on May 30, 2013 by admin

Eight thinking continua, By Ron Ritchhart. Cultures of Thinking Project. Harvard Project Zero, 2008. This is a great tool to assess deep thinking. I find it particularly useful for the assessment of essays and written work. I have created a rubric based on Ron Ritchhart’s continua in a Word Doc.

Download the file: Thinking Continua Assessment_Ron Ritchhart

I would like to recommend reading James Wilson’s post on ‘Making Thinking Visible‘. James reviews the book and explains some classroom applications.
Extensive thinking routines on the Harvard Project Zero “Visible Thinking” website here.
Download the file: Thinking Continua Assessment_Ron Ritchhart

Continue reading “Ron Ritchhart’s Eight Thinking Continua”

SOLO Taxonomy

Posted on April 5, 2013 by admin

I have introduced SOLO taxonomy to my Year 7 students when we started the Rome Project. This is a inquiry based unit which encourages students to think like a historian and formulate their own answer to the question: “What caused the break-up of the Roman Empire in 476AD?”

The students really seemed to get it and referred to the different stages during their research. This is one of the resources I used to explain SOLO to the kids:

Continue reading “SOLO Taxonomy”

ThinkEdu Blog

Thinking, Learning, Teaching by @vanweringh

Tag: thinking