Dimensions of Learning: Trainers Manual

Dimensions of Learning Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering with Daisy E. Arredondo Guy J. Blackburn Ronald S. Brand...

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Dimensions of Learning Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering with Daisy E. Arredondo Guy J. Blackburn Ronald S. Brandt Cerylle A. Moffett Diane E. Paynter Jane E. Pollock Jo Sue Whisler

T r a i n e r ’s

M A N U A L nd 2 Edition

Dimensions Trainer TP

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Dimensions of Learning T r a i n e r ’s

nd 2 Edition

M A N U A L

Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering with Daisy E. Arredondo Guy J. Blackburn Ronald S. Brandt Cerylle A. Moffett Diane E. Paynter Jane E. Pollock Jo Sue Whisler

Alexandria, Virginia USA

Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory Aurora, Colorado USA

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Copyright © 1997 McREL (Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory), 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, Colorado 80014, (303) 337-0990, fax (303) 337-3005. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from McREL.

1703 N. Beauregard St. • Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA Telephone: 1-800-933-2723 or 703-578-9600 • Fax: 703-575-5400 Web site: http://www.ascd.org • E-mail: [email protected] Author guidelines: www.ascd.org/write

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning 4601 DTC Boulevard Suite 500 Denver, Colorado 80237 Phone: 303-337-0990 Fax: 303-337-3005 Barbara B. Gaddy, Editor/Project Manager Jeanne Deak, Desktop Publisher

Printed in the United States of America. ASCD publications present a variety of viewpoints. The views expressed or implied in this book should not be interpreted as official positions of the Association.

197134 ASCD stock no. 197134

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Dimensions of Learning Trainer’s Manual Acknowledgements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Introduction for Trainers

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1

How Dimensions of Learning Was Developed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How To Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modeling the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suggested Training Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dimensions of Learning Study Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tips for Trainers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 6 10 12 14 21

OVERVIEW

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29

Dimension 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dimension 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dimension 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dimension 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dimension 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34 37 43 46 49 51

CHAPTER 1. DIMENSION 1: ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS To the Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Exploring Dimension 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Classroom Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Classroom Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Planning for Dimension 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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CHAPTER 2. DIMENSION 2: ACQUIRE AND INTEGRATE KNOWLEDGE To the Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exploring Dimension 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Declarative Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Construct Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning for Dimension 2, Declarative Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71 72 78 78 85 89 94

Procedural Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Construct Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Internalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning for Dimension 2, Procedural Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

100 104 104 106 108

CHAPTER 3. DIMENSION 3: EXTEND AND REFINE KNOWLEDGE To the Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exploring Dimension 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abstracting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inductive Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deductive Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Constructing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Analyzing Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Analyzing Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning for Dimension 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111 113 115 119 125 130 134 144 149 153 158

CHAPTER 4. DIMENSION 4: USE KNOWLEDGE MEANINGFULLY To the Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exploring Dimension 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Invention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Experimental Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Systems Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning for Dimension 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

163 165 168 174 179 183 188 192 197

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CHAPTER 5. DIMENSION 5: HABITS OF MIND To the Trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Exploring Dimension 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Planning for Dimension 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

CHAPTER 6. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Handouts

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Appendix A: Other Examples of Modeling the Model Appendix B: Structured Problems

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

References

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Overheads

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Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincere appreciation to those individuals from the following school districts who contributed ideas and suggestions to this second edition of the Dimensions of Learning Trainer’s Manual: Ashwaubenon School District, Green Bay, Wisconsin Berryessa Union School District, San Jose, California Brisbane Grammar School, Queensland, Australia Brockport Central School District, Brockport, New York Brooklyn School District, Brooklyn, Ohio Broome-Tioga Boces, Binghamton, New York Cherry Creek Public Schools, Aurora, Colorado Colegio International de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela Douglas County Schools, Douglas County, Colorado George School District, George, Iowa Green Bay Area Public Schools, Green Bay, Wisconsin Ingham Intermediate School District, Mason, Michigan Kenosha Unified School District #1, Kenosha, Wisconsin Kingsport City Schools, Kingsport, Tennessee Lakeland Area Education Agency #3, Cylinder, Iowa Lakeview Public Schools, St. Clair Shores, Michigan Loess Hills AEA #13, Council Bluffs, Iowa Lonoke School District, Lonoke, Arkansas Love Elementary School, Houston, Texas Maccray School, Clara City, Minnesota Monroe County ISD, Monroe, Michigan Nicolet Area Consortium, Glendale, Wisconsin Northern Trails AEA #2, Clear Lake, Iowa North Syracuse Central School District, North Syracuse, New York Prince Alfred College, Kent Town, South Australia Redwood Elementary School, Avon Lake, Ohio Regional School District #13, Durham, Connecticut Richland School District, Richland, Washington St. Charles Parish Public Schools, Luling, Louisiana School District of Howard-Suamico, Green Bay, Wisconsin South Washington County Schools, Cottage Grove, Minnesota Webster City Schools, Webster City, Iowa West Morris Regional High School District, Chester, New Jersey

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The following members of the Dimensions of Learning Research and Development Consortium worked together from 1989 to 1991 to advise, consult, and pilot portions of the model as part of the development of Dimensions of Learning. ALABAMA Auburn University Terrance Rucinski CALIFORNIA Los Angeles County Office of Education Richard Sholseth Diane Watanabe Napa Valley Unified School District Mary Ellen Boyet Laurie Rucker Daniel Wolter COLORADO Aurora Public Schools Kent Epperson Phyllis A. Henning Lois Kellenbenz Lindy Lindner Rita Perron Janie Pollock Nora Redding Cherry Creek Public Schools Maria Foseid Patricia Lozier Nancy MacIsaacs Mark Rietema Deena Tarleton ILLINOIS Maine Township High School West Betty Duffey Mary Gienko Betty Heraty Paul Leathem Mary Kay Walsh

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IOWA Dike Community Schools Janice Albrecht Roberta Bodensteiner Ken Cutts Jean Richardson Stan Van Hauen Mason City Community Schools Dudley L. Humphrey MASSACHUSETTS Concord-Carlisle Regional School District Denis Cleary Diana MacLean Concord Public Schools Virginia Barker Laura Cooper Stephen Greene Joe Leone Susan Whitten MICHIGAN Farmington Public Schools Marilyn Carlsen Katherine Nyberg James Shaw Joyce Tomlinson Lakeview Public Schools Joette Kunse Oakland Schools Roxanne Reschke Waterford School District Linda Blust Julie Casteel Bill Gesaman Mary Lynn Kraft Al Monetta Theodora M. Sailer Dick Williams ix

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NEBRASKA Fremont Public Schools, District 001 Mike Aerni Trudy Jo Kluver Fred Robertson NEW MEXICO Gallup-McKinley County Schools Clara Esparza Ethyl Fox Martyn Stowe Linda Valentine Chantal Irvin NEW YORK Frontier Central Schools Janet Brooks Barbara Broomell PENNSYLVANIA Central Bucks School District Jeanann Kahley N. Robert Laws Holly Lomas Rosemarie Montgomery Cheryl Winn Royer Jim Williams

TEXAS Fort Worth Independent School District Carolyne Creel Sherry Harris Midge Rach Nancy Timmons UTAH Salt Lake City Schools Corrine Hill MEXICO ITESO University Ana Christina Amante Laura Figueroa Barba Antonio Ray Bazan Luis Felipe Gomez Patricia Rios de Lopez PROGRAM EVALUATOR Charles Fisher

Philadelphia School District Paul Adorno Shelly Berman Ronald Jenkins John Krause Judy Lechner Betty Richardson SOUTH CAROLINA School District of Greenville County Sharon Benston Dale Dicks Keith Russell Jane Satterfield Ellen Weinberg Mildred Young State Department of Education Susan Smith White

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Introduction for Trainers When the first edition of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual was published in 1991, the authors, led by Dr. Robert Marzano of the Midcontinent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), hoped that it would provide a tool that educators could use as they pursued restructuring and reform efforts in their schools and districts. Specifically, the Dimensions of Learning model was offered as a tool to help educators focus their efforts more on student learning than on the implementation of specific programs and strategies. Since 1991, Dimensions has been used by teachers and administrators in this way. The model has helped them to maintain this focus on learning both as they plan curriculum, instruction, and assessment and as they evaluate the impact of their efforts on student learning. One of the reasons that the vision for Dimensions is being realized is that districts and schools have taken ownership of the model by developing the capacity to offer training and support within their own systems. We hope that the Trainer’s Manual that accompanied the first edition contributed to this local approach to implementation. In order to continue to support this trend, we have revised and updated the Trainer’s Manual so that it is now aligned with the second edition of the Teacher’s Manual. The training scripts and overheads have been significantly modified, and new training activities and overheads have been added. We have maintained elements from the first edition that have been used successfully but also have enhanced the training with additions and modifications. This manual should continue to be a valuable resource for trainers and for other district and school leaders as they work with people who are interested in using the Dimensions of Learning model. Before you read the remainder of this section, we recommend that you turn to the Teacher’s Manual and read (or reread) the Introduction on pages 1-12. Reading this chapter should help to refresh your memory about some important points related to the assumptions from which the Dimensions of

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Learning model was developed, the resources available to you as you study the model, and the ways in which the model has been used in districts, schools, and classrooms. The second edition of the Teacher’s Manual incorporates much of what was contained in the first edition, but those familiar with the first edition will notice significant revisions, deletions, and additions that have been made. If you are providing training for people who are familiar with the first edition, you might want to review these changes with them, which are described briefly below. 1. “Systems analysis” has been added to the list of reasoning processes in Dimension 4. This addition provides a way of helping students use their understanding of systems (e.g., ecosystems, systems of government, and number systems) to engage in tasks that require them to analyze the interactions among parts of a system or to predict what might happen when the parts of a system are altered in some way. Like the other reasoning processes in Dimension 4 (i.e., decision making, problem solving, invention, investigation, and experimental inquiry), systems analysis can be applied across content areas and at any developmental level. 2. There is an increased emphasis on the importance of clearly identifying declarative and procedural knowledge during unit planning. The chapter covering Dimension 2, “Acquire and Integrate Knowledge,” provides direction for identifying and organizing declarative knowledge using common organizational patterns: descriptions (organizing very specific facts and organizing information important to identified vocabulary terms), time sequences, process/cause-effect relationships, episodes, generalizations/principles, and concepts. Although most of these patterns were identified in the first edition of the manual, in the second edition they are used to organize declarative knowledge in the unit planning process. In the planning section for procedural knowledge, we recommend that attention be given to making sure that knowledge is identified clearly during planning and that if very general processes (or macroprocesses) are targeted, that the specific skills that are components of that process be articulated. 3. In addition to the increased emphasis on clearly identifying and organizing knowledge, the planning process for Dimension 2 includes examples of planning both with and without standards and benchmarks. These examples are offered because most states and

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many districts are actively engaged in identifying standards and benchmarks, that is, the knowledge that all students should have an opportunity to learn. Thus, teachers should use these standards and benchmarks as they identify the declarative and procedural knowledge that students should be acquiring and integrating, extending and refining, and using meaningfully. 4. Those educators who have used Dimensions of Learning to plan curriculum have been fairly consistent in their feedback about the need for additional suggestions and recommendations for addressing Dimension 5, habits of mind. In the second edition, the chapter on this dimension has been reorganized and expanded. We offer very specific recommendations for • helping students understand the habits of mind, • helping students identify and develop strategies related to the habits of mind, • creating a culture in the classroom and school that encourages the development and use of the habits of mind, and • providing positive reinforcement to students who exhibit the habits of mind. An additional section has been added that serves as a resource for teachers who are using the specific habits of mind included in the Dimensions of Learning model. For each of the 15 habits, there is a brief explanation, examples of situations in which the habit could be important, and sample strategies used by people who exemplify the habit. 5. Those who use the Dimensions of Learning model have consistently requested additional resources for the reasoning processes in Dimensions 3 and 4. To this end, the new manual includes, for each reasoning process, an expanded explanation, key points to keep in mind when using the process in the classroom, and sample tasks that could be used in K-12 classrooms. 6. At the end of the manual, a chapter entitled “Putting It All Together” (similar to the section in the first edition bearing this title) reviews planning questions for each dimension, explains models for different planning sequences, and reviews the entire sample unit. In this edition there also is an additional assessment section in the chapter, which provides explanations and recommendations related to assessment.

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Instead of adding assessment forms at the end of each dimension, as was done in the first edition, this assessment section walks the reader through the decisions that need to be made about assessment during the planning process. Issues are discussed that are related to the use of conventional and performance assessments, and recommendations for the use of rubrics are provided. Also included is a sample page from a grade book, which has been filled in with grades for hypothetical students in a classroom implementing the sample unit that is developed throughout the manual. This assessment section should be more useful to the reader than the forms provided in the first edition. It synthesizes many of the issues related to assessment and provides a more comprehensive approach to assessment. 7. Although anyone familiar with the first edition of the Teacher’s Manual will notice a number of changes in the format of the second edition, the most obvious is the addition of marginalia, information provided in the outside margins of each page. When appropriate, the text of the manual is supplemented with various types of information in the margins, including • references for books, articles, additional readings, or classroom materials relevant to the topic; • quotes from teachers who have been using Dimensions of Learning in their classrooms; • brief descriptions of school-wide or district-wide efforts to implement various aspects of the model; • relevant “quotable quotes” from well-known people; and • visual representations of important information explained in the text. The second edition of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual attempts to preserve everything that made the first edition useful and to provide additional strategies, ideas, and examples that will help the experienced user as well as the novice. As always, we appreciate feedback from educators in the field and look forward to hearing from those who are using this second generation of Dimensions of Learning materials to enhance student learning.

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How Dimensions of Learning Was Developed As stated in the Teacher’s Manual, Dimensions of Learning is an extension of the comprehensive research-based framework on cognition and learning described in Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction (Marzano et al., 1988), published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Following the publication of Dimensions of Thinking, an initial team of Dimensions of Learning project developers (Robert J. Marzano, Daisy E. Arredondo, Guy J. Blackburn, Robert Ewy, Debra J. Pickering, and Deena Tarleton) began identifying and developing teaching and learning strategies based on the conceptual framework presented in that publication. As that team consciously used the thinking skills, processes, and dispositions described in Dimensions of Thinking in their work with teachers and students, they began to see how a focus on the overall learning process could provide a powerful, integrative model. An underlying premise of this early work was that all learning is thinking. For example, as students first read over a writing assignment or a list of vocabulary words, certain cognitive processes are called into play. The writing assignment may be similar to one that students completed last week or last year, and its similarity may prompt them to immediately begin recalling the procedures they used to generate ideas, find new information, or organize their ideas for that previous assignment. They may focus on planning, generating interest in the task, or even coming up with reasons to delay their work—all of which are types of thinking. This perspective of learning as thinking allowed the initial development team to operationally define the conceptual model first presented in Dimensions of Thinking so that it rigorously described the different types of thinking involved in the learning process and to then categorize the many research-based teaching strategies that foster these types of thinking. Willow Creek Elementary School in Englewood, Colorado, under the leadership of Principal Deena Tarleton agreed to begin developmental testing of the Dimensions of Learning model and strategies. At the same time, ASCD and McREL cosponsored a Dimensions of Learning Research and Development Consortium composed of nearly 90 members representing various schools, districts, institutions of higher education, and state departments of education across the United States and Mexico. (See pages ix-x for a complete list of consortium members.) During 1989 and 1990, consortium members learned the Dimensions of Learning strategies, field-tested them in classrooms, reported results, and suggested revisions to the author team.

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Charles Fisher, the project evaluator, then examined sample uses of the model and compiled formative evaluation data for the first year of the project. The descriptive data in his assessment report include general comments on the model as well as information about the effects of the strategies on teachers and students. Participants’ comments were overwhelmingly positive, with reports of improved student performance, motivation, interest in class work, social behavior, and use of thinking processes. Teacher participants reported that they noticed improvement in their own thinking, a need to slow down and teach “more in-depth,” a rebirth of excitement about teaching, improved interactions with students, and a shift in their role as teachers toward that of “facilitators of learning” and away from “transmitters of information.” During 1990 and 1991, consortium members continued to use the Dimensions of Learning strategies and met in subgroups to assist the author team with the final development of training materials by responding to proposed text, developing examples, writing vignettes, and suggesting various revisions. Dimensions of Learning is undoubtedly stronger and more “classroom friendly” because of the three years of intensive work with the many talented educators involved in the project. Since the introduction of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual, the original authors plus the other members of the McREL training team— Diane Paynter, Janie Pollock, and Jo Sue Whisler—have worked with teachers and in classrooms using the Dimensions of Learning model and collecting feedback on ways to update and strengthen the materials. The result is this revision of the original manual. Again, its strength is the result of the contributions of the many dedicated and talented educators who have worked with the model.

How To Use This Manual This Dimensions of Learning Trainer’s Manual contains very detailed resources for anyone who is conducting training in the Dimensions of Learning model. Following this introduction you will find these resources: • seven, separate, detailed scripts, one containing a script for the Overview of the entire model plus six scripts that are aligned with the six chapters of the Teacher’s Manual for the training; • handouts to be used during the training (included in this section are blank planning guides for each dimension as well as a two-page Planning Reference Guide, which summarizes the key strategies and planning questions related to each dimension);

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• appendices that supplement information presented in this introduction; • bibliographic references; and • overhead transparency masters to use with each of the seven scripts. A brief explanation of certain aspects of the numbering of the overheads is in order. First, each of the chapters that cover Dimensions 1 through 5 has a section that deals with unit planning. The overheads for these sections are keyed with the letter P (e.g., the first planning overhead for Dimension 3 is 3.P1 (see page 158, where the trainer is cued to put up this overhead). Second, in Dimensions 3 and 4, the overheads are numbered to correspond to the order of the reasoning processes in each dimension; each overhead is then followed by a letter. For example, the first overhead introduced in the section on classifying (the second reasoning process covered in Dimension 3) is 3.2A. Similarly, the first overhead introduced in the section on investigation (the fifth reasoning process covered in Dimension 4) is 4.5A. The section of the manual that contains the training scripts has a number of characteristics that also might need some explanation. Before reading about these characteristics, keep in mind the following recommendations: • The training scripts are meant to provide a clear idea of what should take place in the training session. They are not meant to be read aloud word for word. We encourage you to assimilate the substance of the information and create personal scripts that maintain the integrity of the model. • Because the best trainers are those who have used the model, we encourage you to include your own examples and anecdotes so that workshop participants will understand that you have used the parts of the model in the classroom. • It should be noted that the scripts include suggestions for training for virtually all parts of the Teacher’s Manual, more than can be covered in an initial training. You will need to determine which sections of the manual to cover explicitly and which to simply mention during any specific training session. This is especially true for Dimensions 3 and 4. Some subset of the 14 complex reasoning processes should be selected to cover in-depth. We elected to provide in-depth scripts for all of the material in order to allow you to make your own decisions about what to include. With these suggestions in mind, turn to the scripts and leaf through a few pages to get a sense of the content and format. You will notice the following:

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Italicized Text. Interspersed throughout the script are notes to the trainer that are set in italicized type and enclosed in brackets like these: < >. These notes include cues, directions, and suggestions for activities. For instance, they may cue the trainer to use an overhead or explain how to set up a specific small group activity. Other cues appear in the outside margins of the script. These are explained below under “Sidebars.” Sidebars. The main body of the Trainer’s Manual is supported by cues to the trainer in the margin, or sidebar. These cues are designed to alert the trainer to a variety of important elements of the training. One primary sidebar is an icon (e.g., Overhead 5.3 ) that alerts the trainer to the use of a particular overhead. Specific cues for various training activities are explained below. We suggest that you become very familiar with them as you prepare to train. Individual Task. This cue indicates a brief assignment, such as a reading or writing task, at a strategic point in the training. Individual tasks can be used to set up a paired or small group activity or a large group discussion. Think/Pair/Share. This cue signals a quick technique designed to help participants reflect on the information they are receiving by thinking about various issues and then talking through their thoughts. The trainer first asks participants to think about a specified issue and then to share their thoughts on the issue with a partner. He or she might then ask participants to share with the entire group. Small Group Activity. This cue indicates a small group assignment in which two or more participants work together to discuss or clarify an issue or to engage in a structured or unstructured task. Often the results are shared in a large group discussion. Jigsaw. This is a specific type of small group technique borrowed from cooperative learning. Each group member is assigned a section of material and asked to be responsible for teaching it to the small group. The strategy can be strengthened by having participants from the different small groups who are responsible for the same section of material meet together to talk over the material and then go back to their original small groups. This is an efficient and effective way for participants to learn substantial amounts of material that cannot be covered in detail by the trainer. Large Group Discussion. This cue indicates a discussion that is led by the trainer, which is commonly preceded by a question posed by the trainer. You will notice that sometimes these questions are followed by

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notes to the trainer that either provide examples of answers that participants often give to this question or that include a “target answer.” This target answer cues the trainer to an important point that needs to be made during the discussion. Planning Activity. This cue appears at the end of the section on each dimension and signals an activity in which participants practice planning a unit. This activity can be done individually or in small groups. Closure. At the end of major training segments, the trainer is cued to select a method of closure for that segment. Closure gives participants an opportunity to reflect on what they have learned during the training activities. You will notice that in the script we suggest that the trainer select from three different styles of closure: table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs. However, as with any portion of this training, we encourage the trainer to develop his or her own style. Each of the suggested styles of closure might be structured (by providing a specific question or assignment for participants) or unstructured (by giving participants the freedom to talk, think, or write about what they wish). Briefly, the three suggested styles are Table Talk. Encourage participants to verbalize to a partner, or within a small group, specific things that they have learned during the training segment and what those things mean to them. Pause and Reflect. Ask participants to sit quietly for a few minutes to reflect on their experiences in the training. They may want to skim over their notes, review pages of the Teacher’s Manual, or simply sit and think. Learning Logs. Ask participants to dedicate several pages of their notes to a learning log (or provide them with prepared forms). Provide time for them to write down their thoughts about the ideas in the training or about possible uses of the material. Trainers and other decision makers who are planning training should remember an important principle of staff development: Training should be delivered and supported over an extended period of time and not be treated as a one-shot workshop. There are unlimited variations to offering this training. We have provided a brief description of one format: the four-day initial training followed by study team support. Study teams will be explained further in the next section, but we want to highlight that even a four-day training is not sufficient for full implementation of the ideas in this model.

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Modeling the Model During training, it is important that the trainer’s behavior reflect the assumptions about learning and the instructional processes presented in the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual and in A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning (Marzano, 1992). There are at least three reasons that modeling the model is important. First, by “practicing what they preach,” trainers demonstrate the very teaching techniques that they advocate. Teachers frequently report that they become disenchanted when trainers propose innovative teaching methods and then violate these methods by spending the majority of their time lecturing. In addition to avoiding negative participant attitudes, modeling the model provides participants with first-hand experiences that give them insight into using Dimensions of Learning strategies in the classroom. Dimensions of Learning is as valid a model for adult learning as it is for student learning. Thus, it follows that an effective adult learning experience must be structured around the five types of thinking inherent in the model. Although the scripts in this manual are designed to help the trainer model the model throughout the training, a number of experiences and practices that we recommend are not described in the scripts. We describe these below as options the trainer might consider while planning the training. (For additional examples of modeling the model, see Appendix A.) These experiences and practices should not be considered inclusive; there are many other things that can be included in a training that will model what is recommended. Of course, the sequencing, timing, and emphasis placed on these experiences may vary according to the disposition and preferences of the trainer. 1. Participants might be encouraged to reflect on their learning by keeping learning logs. Throughout the training, not just during closure, participants might periodically be asked to make entries in personal learning logs to encourage them to reflect on what they are learning. These entries might be both free responses and structured responses. Free responses are unrestricted and unguided comments related to any aspect of the training or the model. A trainer might cue a free response in the learning log by simply saying to participants, “Take a few moments now and write in your learning logs your reactions to what we just did or anything we have done.” Or she might ask, “What insights have you had so far that you would like to record in your learning logs?” Participants can be asked to generate free

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responses at any time during the training. Immediately before lunch or at the end of the day are good times for such summary activities. Structured responses are cued by probes, which are specific questions the trainer asks participants to answer in their learning logs. Throughout the training, the trainer might present at least three types of probes. Probes about content: These probes ask participants to comment on some aspect of the content they are currently experiencing or have experienced, for example, “What interests you most about what we just covered?” or “How could you use what we just did?” Content probes can be used after participants have completed any module. Probes about habits of mind: These probes ask participants to reflect on the extent to which they are using the 15 habits of mind as they learn the Dimensions of Learning model, for example, “What have you noticed about your ability to stay engaged in this training as you experience things that are difficult or as you experience things for which answers and solutions are not immediately apparent?” or “During this training, how have you tried to be accurate and seek accuracy?” Probes about habits of mind are best used after participants have experienced particularly difficult content. They also are fitting or appropriate when participants are solving structured problems (see suggestion 2 below). Probes about tasks requiring the meaningful use of knowledge (projects): These probes ask participants to reflect on the processes involved in the Dimension 4 tasks or the content used in those tasks, for example, “What makes the tasks here different from those in Dimension 2?” or “Which Dimension 4 processes would facilitate students’ meaningful use of the identified important knowledge?” Probes related to the meaningful use of knowledge might be used as participants engage in planning activities. They can also be used after participants have participated in one of the small group activities for Dimension 4. 2. Participants might engage in structured problem-solving activities periodically throughout the training. Throughout the training, participants could be given structured problems (e.g., after returning from a break or whenever participants’

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energy starts to wane). These activities can then be pointed to as models of how structured problem solving can be used to help develop the habits of creative thinking. (See Appendix B for samples of structured problems.) As participants work on these problems, notice and explicitly reinforce any demonstration of the habits of mind, such as persevering or generating new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions. 3. Participants should be acknowledged for their use of the habits of mind. Any time participants discuss difficult or complex issues, the trainer should note specific examples of participants’ use of the habits of mind. These illustrations can then be used as a practical demonstration of the many classroom situations that lend themselves to reinforcing these same mental habits in students. 4. Process observers could be appointed. When participants are engaged in any long-term small group activity, a process observer could be appointed for each group and directed to look for and report on examples of participants exhibiting habits of mind or any of the strategies from the model. The mental habits described in Dimension 5 might be explicitly targeted; for example, the trainer might say, “While working in your groups, I’d like you to look for examples of people trying to be accurate or seek accuracy, and then be prepared to share these examples with the large group.”

Suggested Training Formats Although there are several ways to organize the training for the Dimensions of Learning model, we strongly recommend that the initial training be intensive. We realize that local conditions and resources play an important part in decisions about scheduling. However, we urge those in charge of implementing Dimensions of Learning to carefully consider the long-range potential effects of the model and then to organize training to increase the likelihood that those effects will be realized.

The Four-Day-Plus-Study-Teams Format This format requires an initial four-day immersion training with extended follow-up in study team meetings and periodic reinforcement training

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sessions. The recommended sequence for the four-day training is described below. Ideally, these four days should be split into two 2-day segments. This provides opportunities for participants to reflect on the ideas presented and to try some things in their classrooms. Keep in mind that you may need to modify this recommended sequence, depending on the level of skill and experience present in your training groups and on your participants’ unique learning needs. Day 1 Participants are presented with an overview of the Dimensions of Learning model. Note that the script included in the Overview can be used either as a stand-alone one- to two-hour presentation or as a shorter introduction to extended training. Participants gain an understanding of and practice using • theoretical foundations for the entire Dimensions model, • teaching strategies and planning guidelines for Dimension 1, and • teaching strategies and planning guidelines for Dimension 5. Day 2 Participants gain an understanding of and practice using • important information in the introduction to Dimension 2, and • teaching strategies and planning guidelines for Dimension 2. Day 3 Participants gain an understanding of and practice using • several of the reasoning processes from Dimension 3 (processes selected will vary depending on the grade levels and content areas represented by participants), and • the planning guidelines for Dimension 3. Day 4 Participants gain an understanding of and/or practice using • several of the reasoning processes for Dimension 4 (processes selected will vary depending on the grade levels and content areas represented by participants), • the planning guidelines for Dimension 4, and • the information in Chapter 6, “Putting It All Together” (e.g., conferencing, assessment, record keeping, sequencing instruction).

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By this point, participants will have walked through the planning of a hypothetical unit on Colorado. They might, at this point, be ready to plan another unit on a topic they select. The trainer might model planning a unit with the participants’ input on a topic selected by the group.

Four One-Day Sessions In some situations, it is not possible to conduct an initial immersion training. In such cases, four full days of training spaced at fairly equal intervals might be used if participants have the teaching skills and experience to master the concepts and to practice unit planning independently between training sessions. No matter what format is used, the initial training is only the beginning. The following section discusses one way of providing follow-up experiences for participants in the training.

Dimensions of Learning Study Teams Research on staff development, reinforced by our experience in schools that are using Dimensions of Learning, tells us that the use of study teams is one of the most promising ways for teachers to assimilate Dimensions of Learning into their own practice. Dimensions of Learning study teams provide essential follow-up activities to Dimensions of Learning workshop training: collaborative planning of instructional units with peers, experimentation with new teaching strategies, feedback on teaching, and continued study and discussion of the Teacher’s Manual. Participation in study teams can provide the following benefits: • A place for teachers to assess the extent to which they are already addressing the five dimensions of learning in lesson and unit planning. • An opportunity for teachers to use the Dimensions of Learning model and unit planning guides to design new units of study or refine existing ones. • Structured peer support for teachers as they develop new instructional units and methods of assessment. • An opportunity to explore additional teaching strategies in the Teacher’s Manual and examine learning concepts in A Different Kind of Classroom.

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Educators often ask whether study teams are possible within the present structure of schools. They also wonder how study teams can possibly engage in substantive work, given the present structure of the school day. Although it’s true that in many schools the notion of study teams will run counter to the traditional norm of teachers working alone, in others this picture is slowly changing. The experiences of several schools reveal that the use of study teams can lead to mastery of skills learned in training, the development of a common professional language, the birth of norms of professional interaction, experimentation with new practices, reflection on classroom decisions, and creative problem solving about instruction. In addition, the collaborative work among teachers encouraged by study teams contributes to improved student performance. To help you visualize what a study team structure might look like in a Dimensions of Learning school, we have created a scenario drawn from experiences in several districts that have used study teams.

A Study Team Scenario The faculty of Hillsdale Elementary School participated in four days of intensive training. During the training, they explored the Dimensions of Learning model, looked at how to plan using unit planning guides, and reviewed guidelines for organizing study teams. Following the training, teachers volunteered to work in study teams of four to six individuals to extend and refine their understanding and use of the Dimensions of Learning model. They decided to meet for three hours once every other week during both semesters of the year. Some teams met during the school day on released time, and others met after contract hours. The principal became a member of one of the study teams and participated actively as a learner. He also arranged the school schedule to allow teachers with similar interests to meet during their planning periods. In addition, the district arranged for team members to receive recertification credit upon each member’s successful completion of a paper outlining what he or she had learned by the end of the semester. Team Organization Topics, meeting dates, times, and locations were selected in advance. A team leader was chosen to make sure the meetings began and ended on time; to arrange for meeting rooms, refreshments, and materials; and to complete a summary sheet at the end of each meeting outlining what had been discussed, the goals for the next meeting, and a roster of attendees. This summary sheet was given to the principal and forwarded to the district staff development office. The team leaders from each study group in the

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building had monthly meetings with the principal to exchange information and resources and to coordinate their efforts. The team leaders were teachers who had volunteered or had been selected by the group to handle logistical arrangements and accountability procedures. They were viewed first and foremost as peers, learning together with the team. The district paid the team leaders a stipend in return for the additional responsibilities they assumed. Although team leaders were responsible for logistics and for liaison work between the team and the district, they did not always act as individual meeting facilitators. The group decided in the beginning that the roles of facilitator, recorder, and timekeeper should rotate each meeting. All members received training in meeting management skills from the district staff developer, who had also been trained and done advanced work in the Dimensions of Learning model. The district staff developer analyzed each summary sheet that the team leaders produced, looking for common themes. She provided technical assistance and resource materials, and she sometimes taught demonstration lessons based on the information she read in the summary sheets regarding team members’ questions and concerns. In addition, she periodically met with the teams to present additional concepts from the Dimensions of Learning model and to facilitate the process of teachers’ becoming more familiar with all five dimensions and creating instructional units. Team Focus and Norms Most of the teams selected one or two of the dimensions for in-depth study over several sessions. One team spent four sessions looking at the habits of mind and then integrated the concepts into unit plans. Each team established a set of norms for its meetings that incorporated the habits of mind. For instance, the team members asked themselves, “Are we being clear and seeking clarity? Are we open-minded when considering new ideas? Are we responding appropriately to the feelings and level of knowledge of others?” Other team norms focused on active listening, open and supportive communication, beginning and ending meetings on time, staying focused on each meeting’s objectives, and completing assignments on schedule. Team Activities Teams were encouraged to begin experimenting with the unit planning guides immediately following the initial workshop. Members first tried developing a mock unit together and then began to work in smaller teams and individually following the steps outlined in the planning sections of each dimension. The process they followed included • writing a new curriculum unit or revising an existing one using the Dimensions of Learning unit planning guides; • implementing the unit plans in their classrooms;

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• evaluating as a team how each plan was working and identifying where changes were needed to meet students’ needs; • revising plans, or expanding them, using additional instructional strategies from the Teacher’s Manual; • implementing, reflecting on, evaluating, and revising lessons on a continuing basis; • assessing the effect of their work on students; and • celebrating successes. As the interest and need for a broader repertoire arose, teams also opted to learn additional teaching strategies from the Teacher’s Manual and A Different Kind of Classroom. As trust and rapport developed among the members of each study team, they invited one another to observe their classes. At the suggestion of the Dimensions of Learning trainers and the district staff developer, peer observations were not mandated by the district nor forced on team members by administrators or team leaders. Progress Evaluation Periodically and at the end of the year, each study team evaluated its progress in implementing various aspects of the Dimensions of Learning model. Benefits cited included the opportunity to learn and interact with peers, time to address common instructional problems, and the chance to identify common learning objectives and students’ needs across disciplines. A number of teachers said that their students were more engaged in learning and that discipline problems seemed to be decreasing. They also noted that having the principal involved in the learning process with the teams gave them the sense that their work had high priority and was valued. There were also comments about the downside of the experience. Teachers mentioned the frustration involved in “not being able to learn the Dimensions of Learning framework fast enough,” the extra time it took to consciously plan using the five dimensions, the competing demands on their time, the pressure to “cover the curriculum,” the sense of awkwardness they still felt with various parts of the Dimensions of Learning model, and a general feeling of frustration at “how long it takes to learn something new.” Despite these factors, most teachers believed the benefits of the experience outweighed the costs, and a sense of commitment to the process prevailed. Ten of the twelve teachers involved in study teams volunteered to continue in their study teams the next year. During the summer, they had an opportunity for three days of review and follow-up training that focused on clearing up confusions they had encountered during their study sessions, refining units of study, and developing classroom-based assessment tasks using the Dimensions of Learning model. The district staff developer also addressed

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the teams’ concerns about managing change. She provided time for teams to explore common instructional problems and offered strategies for overcoming some of the difficulties that they faced as they worked to integrate the dimensions of learning into their instructional practices.

Guidelines for Study Team Success In analyzing the experience of the study teams in the pilot school above, we have identified a set of guidelines that can help you form study teams. To function effectively, study teams need • autonomy and accountability; • attention to relationships and attention to task; • designated leadership and shared leadership; • a focus on the joint analysis by study team members of the effects of instructional decisions on students’ work; • group norms; • administrative support; • communication mechanisms within the group and between the group, the school, and the district at large; and • a way to transfer their learning to the classroom. Many staff developers responsible for working with study teams emphasize the importance of bringing classroom “artifacts” to study group meetings. They view artifacts as any form of data that captures the immediacy of the classroom moment—for instance, samples of student work, teacher journal entries describing actual classroom events, observation notes, case studies of individual students or critical incidents, and lesson plans. Artifacts help study team discussions stay focused on real events, rather than on vague generalizations or unsupported inferences about the effect of a planned lesson on students. Barrie Bennett and associates (Bennett, Rolheiser-Bennett, and Stevahn, 1991) have constructed a form that teachers can use to document and analyze the relationship between intended and actual effects of lesson plans on students (see Figure 1). By examining classroom artifacts and discussing the results of lesson plans, participants can turn study team meetings into a valuable forum for structured problem solving and what noted educators Art Costa and Robert Garmston (1991) call “cognitive coaching”—that is, enhancing metacognition and promoting the Dimension of Learning habits of mind.

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FIGURE 1 TEACHING FOLLOW-UP ANALYSIS Name: ____________________________

School: ______________________

Lesson/Subject: ______________________

Date: ______________________

1. Successes experienced

2. Problems encountered

3. Possible revisions

4. Critical or interesting incidents

5. I shared this lesson with . . .

Source: Bennett, Rolheiser-Bennett, and Stevahn (1991)

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Why Are Study Teams Essential? Research on training, as well as plain common sense, suggests that to fully master the information and skills learned in training, individuals must see how the information relates to real-life situations and must use the skills immediately in the workplace—with ongoing support and coaching—or the skills will be lost. Additional support for this perspective can be found in Chapter 2 of the Teacher’s Manual, which discusses Dimension 2 and describes how declarative knowledge is stored (see pages 73-80) and how procedural knowledge is internalized (see pages 101-103). We believe that the best way for teachers initially to practice the skills in the Dimensions of Learning model is to use them to develop instructional units in planning sessions with peers. Through interaction with peers in study teams, participants can extend and refine their declarative knowledge about Dimensions of Learning; construct models for, shape, and practice their skill of writing units; and use all of this knowledge in meaningful, self-directed ways, while further developing their skills in critical, creative, and selfregulated thinking. We recommend that school districts consider the guidelines for study team organization we have offered above and then adapt them to the general needs of their setting and to their specific objectives. We strongly believe that a study team structure bridges the gap between learning skills in the training session and actually implementing and integrating those skills into the classroom. It is also our conviction that any long-term staff development effort involving Dimensions of Learning must model the model; that is, if we want our students to become self-directed learners and critical, creative, and selfregulated thinkers and if we believe that the learning process is most powerful when learners are engaged in using knowledge meaningfully, then it is only reasonable to assume that teachers who are learning the Dimensions of Learning model should structure their own learning as they would their students’. Collegial, professional study teams provide the setting in which this type of adult learning can take place. In using study teams to extend and refine their knowledge of the Dimensions of Learning model and to create integrated units of instruction that stimulate students to use knowledge actively and meaningfully, educators can internalize for themselves the skills they hope will one day transform classrooms.

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Tips for Trainers The following suggestions are presented in the spirit of an ongoing dialogue among trainers. Although there is certainly no list of sure-fire or fail-safe tips or techniques to guarantee success in training, the following practices have been found to be successful in a variety of training situations.

Dealing with Compulsory vs. Volunteer Groups The attitude of participants is often affected by how they were selected to participate in the training. If a group is made up largely of teachers and administrators who are required to attend, there is often a high degree of skepticism about the value of what is being offered in the training. This is best dealt with in a nondefensive manner. We suggest that a trainer note the attitude of the group, perhaps by using humor (e.g., by lightly asking how many people are excited to be in the workshop and how many would rather be anywhere but in the workshop). Be sure to then move quickly into the substance of the training. We have found that the Dimensions of Learning model is sufficiently powerful and engaging to overcome mild skepticism and resistance. If a large segment of the group seems unyielding, however, we suggest that after the introduction to Dimension 1, the trainer use an activity that requires participants to examine their own and the group’s attitude toward the training. Candor and adult-to-adult discussions usually go over better than defensive or power-based statements. There is a delicate balance between overreacting and ignoring an attitude that might be a serious obstacle in a training session. Skilled Dimensions of Learning trainers artfully use the model to help participants overcome such obstacles.

Preparing for Training Sessions 1. Suggest to hosts of the training that they communicate pertinent information about the training in writing to each participant. Each participant should feel respected and welcome. The nature and details of the training times, dates, and places should be explained as should expectations of punctuality and participation. Possible workshop activities also should be communicated. 2. Plan activities to ensure variety. Trainer talk should be balanced with tasks for participants and opportunities for small group activities and large group discussions. 3. Content should be carefully selected and logically organized, and practical application activities should be structured into the training.

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Handling Logistics 1. Have starting times posted or communicated. If coffee or refreshments are to be served, have notice given that this occurs before the starting time. Model punctuality by starting on time. 2. Make sure you have sufficient materials available for participants. Whenever you conduct a training, participants should receive name tags and an agenda for the training sessions. If you are doing more than a brief overview of the model, participants might also need the following: • The second edition of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. • Handouts. In addition to the handouts provided in the back of this manual, these might include copies of selected overheads, at your discretion, and, if participants are going to engage in planning activities, a copy of selected pages from the Colorado Unit, which can be found in the back of the Teacher’s Manual. Collating materials beforehand saves time and models good materials management. You may want to color-code handouts to help people locate specific items more quickly. At various points in a training session that includes all dimensions, participants might also need the following: • • • • • •

8 1/2” x 11” paper Paper clips Rubber bands Transparent tape Markers Notepads or notebooks

In addition to the Dimensions of Learning Trainer’s Manual and Teacher’s Manual, the trainer will need the following: • • • •

Overhead transparencies Markers for overheads A large flipchart Copies of any handouts that will be given to participants (e.g., blank unit planning guides)

3. Carefully plan table and seating arrangements. If tables are long, seven or eight participants can be seated at each. If round tables are used, remove any chairs that are not facing the screen. The seating arrangement should make it possible for everyone to see the screen and the trainer. 4. Place paper and extra pencils for taking notes in the center of each table.

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5. Post a schedule of starting times, ending times, breaks, and lunch. Also list the agenda items, either on the schedule or separately. Many trainers have found that listing agenda items separately allows them to respond more flexibly to participants’ interests. 6. Check the overhead projector for clarity and intensity, and have materials organized for each segment of the presentation. 7. Large wall charts showing the major components of the training are helpful and provide a visual framework for the conceptual structure of the workshop.

Managing the Minutes Before Training Begins 1. Greet and chat with as many people as possible. Strive to establish interpersonal rapport and to associate names with faces. 2. Mentally take note of people’s attitudes toward being at the training session, but do not act prematurely on your inferences about individuals; some people appear negative early on and later become enthusiastic—or at least more open-minded. Having a sense of the group will help you determine the pace to set and which areas to emphasize first.

Creating a Professional Appearance 1. Clothing should be clean and attractive but not distractingly flashy. Of course, some trainers can get away with more extravagant styles because they feel most comfortable dressed that way. Don’t risk it unless it truly reflects your style. Even in informal settings, it is more effective for the trainer to be dressed professionally. A professional appearance sets the trainer a bit apart and subtly communicates that he or she is in charge. 2. Knowing your emotional tendencies and level of anxiety is the key to effectively controlling your behavior. Some important elements to monitor include tone of voice, pace of speech, eye contact, smoothness of hand gestures, and overall variety of presentation. The appropriate amount of anxiety will help keep you moving and energized. Too much will cause you to block your thoughts. Shaking hands and a trembling voice reduce participants’ confidence in the trainer. Talking to yourself and doing silent or oral cognitive rehearsals will help you control your behavior. If you are in the midst of a presentation and feel you are “losing it,” think of a question or a quick discussion activity that will engage the group and give you time to recoup.

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It is generally not a good idea to share your feelings of anxiety or nervousness with the group. Some groups may be very sympathetic, but if participants focus on concern for the trainer (either positively or negatively), they often will miss the point of the training segment. At times trainers just have to take a deep breath and go on. 3. It pays to help every person believe that he or she is an important part of the training. The trainer can accomplish this through informal personal contact, eye contact, use of names, references to participants’ ideas and comments, and by allowing time for verbal participation by everyone. 4. As a trainer, you should give yourself credit when you deserve it. If you have prepared and delivered a training segment to the best of your ability, you can leave the session with your integrity intact. Negative participants have the right to disagree with or reject the content, but they do not have the right to impugn your personal or professional integrity. 5. At the same time, you should engage in constructive self-criticism based on your sense of the effectiveness of a presentation, combined with formal and informal feedback from participants. 6. General deportment of oneself as a trainer is difficult to assess, but holding yourself up against the following list of descriptors of successful trainers may provide some insight. Successful trainers • are generally positive about and supportive of participants without being gushy; • are enthusiastic and energetic without being hyperactive; • are reasonably assertive without being overbearing or hostile; • acknowledge when they are expressing beliefs or biases as opposed to when they are communicating information; • use humor as an instrument, not as a detractor or filler; are able to laugh at themselves; avoid sarcasm and put-downs; • are genuine; • are well prepared; • listen to participants; • make eye contact with all participants; and • frequently assess participants’ nonverbal cues.

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7. Occasionally viewing your performance on videotape will help provide substantive feedback on your presence as a trainer. Most people’s first reaction to video playback is so overwhelming that they must view the tape several times before they can really see pertinent information. A note of caution, then, is not to overreact to the first self-viewing. Spend time analyzing not just how you looked and sounded but how the group responded and how effectively the content was presented. 8. Model the teaching skills you are presenting. Nothing is more disturbing to participants than watching trainers violate the very concepts they are advocating.

Dealing with Difficult Participant Behavior We preface this section with the statement that we have the highest regard for the thousands of teachers with whom we have worked over the years and that our goal is to have all participants leave Dimensions of Learning training sessions feeling renewed, refreshed, and respected. From time to time, however, a participant will exhibit untoward behavior, and you will have to find a way to deal with that behavior. Here are a few of the “problem participants” you may encounter and some solutions for dealing with them. The passive-aggressive resister is clearly not involved in the training. He is usually engaged in silent nontask behavior, such as reading outside material, checking papers, or writing for other purposes (doodling may or may not be an example). The message being sent is, “I’m not going to do this ‘stuff’, but you can’t ‘get’ me because I’m not doing anything wrong.” The solution? First, don’t overreact. Give the person a chance to get involved. This can be facilitated by a small group activity or discussion. If the passive resistance persists, you might try moving in the participant’s direction. At times, close proximity is enough to trigger attention and engagement. If the problem persists, a quick and quiet counseling session may be necessary and useful. For example, during a break you might say, “I noticed that you don’t seem involved in what we are doing. Is there a problem I should know about?” Conversely, it sometimes may be expedient, for the sake of the group, to ignore the passive-aggressive participant. Adults are responsible for their own behavior, and we do not encourage the trainer to take on the role of enforcer. The hostile resister is rare but is immediately recognizable when she is present. She usually translates her hostility into verbal challenges or overt refusals to participate in specific tasks. Sometimes there is more than one hostile participant, and they join together and conspire to undermine the training. Dealing with active aggression and hostility requires an ability to

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remain detached from the apparent attacks directed toward you and react to the situation in a reasonable manner. Often the simple act of not getting “hooked” by the hostile resister gradually defuses the situation. The dominator talks incessantly to the whole group. He often wants attention and has little sense of himself in a group context. If the dominator is impulsive and not mean spirited, a trainer can allow for the needed attention until it distracts from the presentation or overwhelms others in the group. Some techniques for dealing with the dominator include not calling on him or saying quickly after an assertion he has made, “Good point, but I have to move on,” or “Thank you. Now let’s hear from someone else.” If these suggestions don’t work, it may be time for quick counseling at the break. The I-know-more-than-you-do participant seems to want to take over the group. Actually, she is a type of dominator who needs recognition for what she knows. Giving a reasonable amount of recognition may be effective, but at times trainers must use some of the techniques suggested for dealing with dominators. Small group discussion is one way to let people have their say and get recognition without taking over the group. The I-gotcha questioner asks rhetorical questions or questions designed to “trap” the trainer. This participant often simply transforms statements into questions in an effort to undermine a point in the training. Obviously, genuine questions should be encouraged, but when someone asks, “Isn’t it true that. . . ?” he is actually saying, “I believe it is true that. . . .” One of the quickest ways to handle such challenges is to say, “It sounds like your question is really a statement of ______. Let’s talk about the issue you raised.” This response is effective because the trainer remains in control and demonstrates careful listening and responding. The bulldog with a tiny bone focuses on a minute point and won’t let go. A trainer can easily be drawn into a tedious debate with this one participant, while most of the group mentally withdraws. It is best to say something like, “I can see this is important to you, so perhaps we can discuss it during the break. Right now we really must move on.” Of course, be sure to follow up during the break. The joker uses wit or sarcasm to interrupt and to draw attention to herself. A playful joker can sometimes be a delightful addition to a group, even if she pokes fun at the trainer. Here again, it’s a matter of balance; it’s only a problem if the joking gets out of hand. Moving on quickly and ignoring jokes will often extinguish the behavior. If not, catch the person at break and ask her to restrain herself a bit.

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On the other hand, a sarcastic joker who throws many hurtful comments at either the trainer or others in the group should not be ignored. The trainer should either publicly or privately tell this person that her comments are not helpful and that she should keep her sarcasm to herself and let the group proceed. The trainer should be careful not to engage in sarcastic repartee in front of the whole group. Such behavior merely reinforces the participant’s sarcastic behavior. The chatterbox just can’t stop talking to his neighbors. All trainers have at times ignored such behavior, thinking it will go away, only to have other participants request that something be done. If moving closer to the talker doesn’t succeed in stopping the chatter, falling silent and looking in the direction of the talker usually will. If that doesn’t work, talk to the person during the break. Try to avoid a public reprimand, if possible. The I’m-with-you-200-percent participant is overly enthusiastic and distracts the trainer and the group with an excessive number of comments and examples. Obviously, it is not desirable to thwart genuine enthusiasm. Accepting such support and moving on is usually sufficient, but a trainer must be careful not to continually play to the one or two visibly supportive participants. Participants who support the concepts less obviously can be put off by what appears to be trainer favoritism. The late arriver-early leaver has so many “important” issues to deal with outside of the training that she is distracted and often distracts others with her comings and goings. Commonly, the late arriver-early leaver does not realize that her actions are disruptive. Again, the best way to handle this problem is one-to-one. The trainer’s first action should be to find out the facts. There may be a health problem or some other emergency for which allowances should be made. At other times, the trainer may need to insist that the person either go or stay but not continue the in-and-out behavior. Remember that administrators are frequently called out of sessions. The best way to solve this problem is to acknowledge to the group that some people may be called out of the session periodically and to request that this be done as unobtrusively as possible. There are no sure-fire or pat solutions that will take care of all of the difficulties listed above. One very general way of avoiding problems is to avoid compulsory participation. When compulsory participation is a problem, however, it should be dealt with in a direct manner. This can be done by announcing, “We are aware that all or some of you feel uncomfortable or upset about being required to be here. We are not responsible for the decisions that led to this workshop, but we are responsible for doing the best we can as we work with you. If anyone wishes to express feelings about this at this time, please do so; then we will move on.” Allow some discussion, and then move on to the next topic.

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Setting Up Groups Grouping for activities in Dimensions of Learning training sessions should be driven by the training objectives. Both quickly formed unstructured groups for brief discussions and carefully structured groups for more complex tasks should be used. The following advice is offered to assist trainers in forming groups. Unstructured Groups We suggest that the trainer periodically pause during the presentation of information to allow time for reflection and discussion. Discussion can be triggered by asking participants to simply turn to a neighbor and talk about a particular point or issue. Structured Groups Two types of relatively formal, structured groups are useful. The first is a group or team of people who came to the session together and who will be working together to implement Dimensions of Learning. The training experience can be seen as a team-building experience for them. Sometimes these groups are referred to as “home teams.” The second structured type of group is the “training task group,” which is formed to work on a specific small group activity. These groups encourage participants to share with others who are not part of their home team. By randomly selecting members for these groups, diversity is increased. Below are some suggestions for putting people into training task groups. Count off: Determine the size of the groups you want, and divide that number into the number of participants. Then count off repeatedly using that number. For instance, if there are 32 people in the large group and you want 4 people in each small group, start at one side of the room and number off through 8 until everyone has a number. Next, designate a spot for each numbered group to meet and work. This can also be done with letters. Another approach is to number name tags or handouts. The advantage to this approach is that the trainer can structure the composition of each group to represent a cross section of the workshop. The trainer can ensure gender, ethnic, and racial balance or even make sure there is a mix of administrators and teachers in each group, if that is desired. Self-selection: Another less-structured approach is to ask participants to find three or four people with whom they have not worked and form a small group. This takes a little more time but varies the forming of groups.

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Overview This section of the training is an overview of the Dimensions of Learning model. This Overview can be a stand-alone presentation or an introduction to an extended training. In either case, participants are gaining a familiarity with each of the five dimensions as they develop an initial understanding of the theoretical foundations of the model, examine sample classroom activities, and consider potential uses of Dimensions of Learning. Before we get started on the specifics of the Dimensions of Learning model, let’s try a little warm-up activity. <Write the following question on a blank overhead: “If the day before the day before yesterday was Tuesday, what is the day after the day after tomorrow?” Or, you may use another problem or puzzle.>

Individual Task

Take a minute to see if you can come up with the answer to this puzzle.

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DB = day before DA = day after Tuesday DB DB Yesterday

Wednesday Thursday DB Yesterday

Yesterday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Today

Tomorrow

DA Tomorrow

DA DA Tomorrow

Given that Dimensions of Learning is about thinking, I wanted you to get into the proper mode for this workshop by engaging in a specific type of thinking that was needed to solve this little problem. Notice that as people shared how they got their answers, they used strategies. Some drew diagrams, some talked through their answers, some simply thought about their answers for a couple of minutes. The point is that when we engage in any particular type of thinking—problem solving, decision making, comprehending, etc.—we commonly use strategies. The ability to engage in such thinking is not magical or doled out randomly to people at birth. This ability results from developing strategies, some of which we are unaware that we use. As we explore the Dimensions of Learning model, you should gain an understanding of the type of thinking represented in each dimension and become familiar with strategies that people use who have developed the ability to engage in that type of thinking. How does Dimensions of Learning relate to thinking? Dimensions of Learning is a comprehensive model of learning, based on research in cognitive psychology, that identifies the kinds of thinking involved in the learning process. People sometimes ask if Dimensions is another thinking skills model. The answer is that any time we discuss learning, we must discuss thinking. All aspects of learning involve thinking. In this way, I suppose the answer to the question is that because Dimensions is about learning, it certainly is a thinking skills model. Small Group Activity

Before we look at the model, think for a minute about your students. Form groups of three or four with those immediately around you. In your groups, discuss these questions: What kind of thinking do you wish you would see evidence of more frequently in students? In other words, what thinking abilities do your students lack, and why does this concern you? Be ready to report back on some of the things that you have identified.

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We are going to be talking about teaching students strategies for the different types of thinking represented in the dimensions. Before we do, in your small groups consider another question that looks at the issue from the other side: “What are some good reasons for not teaching thinking?” After all, some would argue, “Nobody taught us how to think when we were in school, and we did just fine.” Consider for a few moments why we should not teach students various types of thinking. Be ready to report back to the large group.

Small Group Activity

<Participants’ answers usually include, “There really isn’t time to teach thinking,” “Standardized tests don’t evaluate thinking,” “Our job is not to teach students to think,” and “We need to teach content.”> The reason I asked you to discuss the first question—“What kind of thinking do you wish you would see evidence of more frequently in students?”—is to emphasize the broad range of needs in any student population. One motivation for the development of Dimensions of Learning was to help people clarify what they mean when they say, “We want our students to improve their thinking skills.” The diversity in your answers to the first question highlights the fact that when discussing “thinking skills,” different people refer to very different behaviors. Dimensions of Learning clearly puts the emphasis on thinking that facilitates learning. As we begin to better understand the relationship between thinking and learning, we can set clearer goals for improving both. The second question—“What are some good reasons for not teaching thinking?”—was designed to emphasize some important issues that will naturally arise as we get further into the model. The Dimensions of Learning model has strong implications for curriculum planning, instruction, teacherstudent interactions, classroom structures, and assessment. Many educators would agree that these areas can always be improved. Change comes with a price, however. Improving how we teach the types of thinking that are identified in this model might require changing how we use resources such as time, money, and people. If it becomes necessary to significantly change how we are presently using these resources, the challenges that come with trying to effect these changes will quickly provide us with additional reasons for not teaching these types of thinking. We have to ask ourselves if we are ready to commit to overcoming these challenges. Actually, it is an exciting time to be in education because there are many effective and useful innovations available to us. Some of these innovations are a result of using the research in cognition and learning and translating it into practical classroom strategies.

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In your small groups, identify some of the programs, techniques, and strategies that you have experienced as participants in training sessions or as workshop leaders. See how many innovations you can list in the next few minutes.

Large Group Discussion

Innovations like those you have listed make it exciting to be in education. But what is the downside of having so much available? <Elicit answers. Some common answers include, “There is too much to choose from” and “People jump on bandwagons; that is, they embrace an innovation, but before they implement that idea they are attracted to the next innovation that becomes available.”> The many diverse innovations and programs you have listed are often perceived as being quite separate and sometimes even pitted against one another. For example, teachers might say that they can’t implement cooperative learning because their schools are focused on standards. Or, teachers sometimes feel pressured to use specific strategies, even when those strategies do not fit well with their style of teaching or with what they are trying to accomplish. Although it is probably an unintentional outcome, sometimes teaching is evaluated as to whether particular instructional strategies and programs exist, rather than on the effect that these strategies and programs have on students’ thinking and learning. If we were to graphically depict education when it has this emphasis, it might look like this.

Overhead

O.1

Instructional Strategies and Programs

Students’ Thinking and Learning




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In the center, or the target, of this graphic are instructional strategies and programs. Students’ thinking and learning sometimes gets lost or exists only on the periphery. Of course, the goal of the strategies and programs is to influence students’ thinking and learning, but sometimes students get lost or deemphasized. Ideally, instructional strategies and programs should not be in the center. They are not the end; they are the means to the end. The success of any strategy or program should be measured only in terms of the effect it has on students’ thinking and learning. When education is focused on students, we might depict it like this.

Overhead

O.2

Overhead

O.3

As stated earlier, the success of any innovation in education should be measured in terms of its influence on students’ learning. When a new innovation is explored, this should not mean that a successful technique is dropped. For example, teachers should not stop using cooperative learning when a district pursues the implementation of standards. In fact, many believe that using cooperative learning in the classroom will enhance students’ attitudes and, therefore, help more students achieve high standards. In order to achieve the goal of maintaining an emphasis on students’ learning, we recommend that educators in a school or district share a common understanding and language related to learning. As you will see, Dimensions of Learning is a model that can help provide this common understanding and language. Dimensions is a model of learning that identifies five interrelated types of thinking. As we examine this model, keep in mind that it is a model that was invented, not discovered. It is offered not as truth, but as a useful tool. Models are valuable because they help us to organize and study complex topics. Dimensions of Learning is way of organizing and studying the vast amount of information related to human learning. The five types of thinking—the five dimensions—identified in the Dimensions of Learning model are • • • • •

Attitudes and Perceptions Acquire and Integrate Knowledge Extend and Refine Knowledge Use Knowledge Meaningfully Habits of Mind

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Thus, if we are interested in promoting successful learning on the part of our students, it makes good sense to elicit, address, and teach to the thinking related to each of these five dimensions.

Overhead

O.3

The relationship among these five dimensions of learning is not linear and sequential. This is illustrated in the graphic representation shown on this overhead. As we discuss each of the dimensions, it should become clear that they interact and overlap. This model does not set up a hierarchy. Specifically, there is no implication that one dimension is on a higher level than another. It is also not a taxonomy, creating neat categories into which each part of the learning process fits. It is a model that represents the learning process. As we examine the dimensions, you will see that each of them has distinctive characteristics but that the boundaries among the dimensions are blurred. Again, although there really is not a sequence to the dimensions, they are numbered, primarily because it makes it easier to discuss them. Let’s begin our exploration, then, with Dimension 1, Attitudes and Perceptions.

Dimension 1 Overhead

O.4


Dimension 1 is based on the principle that students’ attitudes and perceptions influence learning. This is not a surprise to anyone. What are some of the attitudes that affect students’ thinking and learning? In other words, what might students be saying to themselves that will influence how much they learn? <Elicit a few responses.> When you think about some of these attitudes, you might say that in any learning situation, learners are asking themselves a number of questions:

Overhead

O.5

• Do I feel accepted? • Am I comfortable? • Am I safe?

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• Is this information useful or interesting to me? • Can I do this? • Do I know what is expected? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” students probably will turn much of their attention to the issue implied by the question. As a result, learning is interrupted because learners are now expending much of their mental energy trying to resolve the issue. Try to think of a situation when you were a learner and your attitudes and perceptions influenced your learning, either positively or negatively. Share your experience with a partner.

Think/Pair/Share

Overhead

O.6

Notice that this dimension has been divided into two general categories: attitudes and perceptions about classroom climate and attitudes and perceptions about classroom tasks. As we have seen, your personal anecdotes exemplify parts of this outline. If you were given enough time, you probably could think of personal anecdotes for each part of this outline. In other words, you could think of times that your learning was influenced by your positive or negative attitudes and perceptions related to teachers, peers, comfort and order, your interest in the topic, your belief in your ability, and how clear you were about what you were learning. Given that these attitudes and perceptions influence learning, what does this imply about instruction?


Although teachers should help students to develop positive attitudes and perceptions, it is also important for students to take responsibility for their own attitudes and perceptions. The Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual includes many strategies that will help teachers influence students’ thinking related to attitudes and perception. It also includes strategies to share with students so that they can increasingly take responsibility for their own attitudes and perceptions.

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You will notice as you explore the model that whenever possible and appropriate, there is an emphasis on students increasingly taking responsibility for the types of thinking related to each of the dimensions. Overhead

O.5

Think/Pair/Share

Before we move on, stop for a few moments and think about how you, as a participant in this training, would answer one or more of the questions related to Dimension 1. Then turn to someone near you and share your thoughts. Some people would say that the best way to influence attitudes and perceptions is to work on helping students acquire knowledge. Students become more confident and interested learners, these people would argue, if they are actually gaining knowledge. Although the Dimensions of Learning model does not contradict this perspective, it does imply that sometimes you have to do things that directly influence attitudes and perceptions. Other times, however, attitudes are dramatically affected by what happens in Dimension 2, Acquire and Integrate Knowledge.

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Dimension 2

Overhead

O.7

Dimension 2 focuses on the thinking needed to acquire and integrate knowledge. Before considering the processes involved in acquiring and integrating new knowledge, it is necessary to make an important distinction between the two primary types of knowledge. How many of you drive a car? How many of you hold a valid driver’s license? How many of you have never had a traffic ticket? Never mind. Just joking (although I have decided who I’m going to ask for a ride). What specific knowledge did you need in order to get your driver’s license?


What are the attributes of the kinds of knowledge in each of the two columns that I created? You have identified the attributes of the two basic types of knowledge that we teach every day: declarative and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge includes what we want students to know or understand: facts, concepts, and principles. Procedural knowledge is what we want students to be able to do: processes and skills.

Overhead

O.8

It is important to understand these two types of knowledge because we learn them differently. The process of acquiring and integrating declarative knowledge involves constructing meaning for, organizing, and storing the facts, concepts, and principles. Acquiring procedural knowledge requires learners to construct models for, shape, and internalize the skills and processes. Because we learn these two types of knowledge differently,

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educators should select different instructional strategies for each. Let’s look at these two types of knowledge a little more closely. As stated earlier, acquiring declarative knowledge involves constructing meaning, organizing, and storing. Although there is much more to each phase, briefly, constructing meaning involves linking new information with prior knowledge; organizing is seeing the patterns of relationships within information; and storing is a process of consciously and deliberately placing information into memory. Think/Pair/Share

Overhead

O.9

The first phase highlights the fact that learning declarative knowledge is a constructive process in that learners must “make meaning” from the information they are receiving. This is what you quite naturally do when you receive information—when you pick up the newspaper in the morning or even as you sit and attend to what I am saying right now. To illustrate, read this passage, and be ready to summarize it for your partner. Be aware of what you are doing to construct meaning. You probably notice that you are having trouble. Before you discuss the passage, I want you to read it again. This time, however, I am going to give it a title. Notice what is happening inside your head as you read this time.


<Write “Doing Laundry” at the top of the passage, and allow time for participants to read it again. Ask a couple of people to describe the difference between reading it the first time and reading it the second time. Have them identify what exactly was going on inside their head each time.> This passage was written to highlight what happens when the process of constructing meaning breaks down. You could decode the passage—that is, you could read the words—but it was difficult for you to elicit any prior knowledge, and, therefore, it was difficult for you to understand. By providing a title for the passage, I was able to help you elicit the appropriate prior knowledge. As a result, you could understand the information. Good teachers, even if they are not familiar with this process of constructing meaning, use strategies to help students understand the information they are receiving. They know that if students don’t make connections in the information, they will not understand what they are reading or hearing. If

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students are reading a chapter in a biology book, for example, and they have an experience like the one you had as you read the “Doing Laundry” passage without the title, they might become frustrated and confused and might even give up trying to understand the information. Although textbooks are not written to intentionally break down the process of constructing meaning, students still might only decode the words and fail to construct meaning. Therefore, we should consciously and intentionally use strategies that help students to construct meaning. Has anyone used or seen someone use the strategy called K-W-L or a technique that requires students to create mental images? These are strategies that are particularly powerful in helping students to construct meaning. The Teacher’s Manual includes these strategies as well as a number of other suggested strategies for helping students to construct meaning for declarative knowledge.

Overhead

O.8

Another important phase in acquiring and integrating declarative knowledge is organizing information. This is the phase in which learners see patterns of relationships among pieces of information. It is critical that students see information in patterns, as opposed to seeing pieces of information in isolation, sometimes referred to as “infobits.” If students see the information in patterns, they are more likely to retain and use that information. Keep in mind, however, that different learners working with the same piece of information will organize or put ideas together very differently. This picture may help you better understand this idea.

Overhead O.10

Some of you probably can see the old lady very easily but have trouble seeing the young lady; others probably have the opposite problem. The same is true when learning information: Some students can clearly see certain key ideas and will therefore see different patterns of relationships than others will. It can be frustrating when students don’t see patterns that you think are obvious. For example, students might read a passage that you believe clearly explains the causes of the American Revolution. Some students however, do not see a cause-effect pattern at all. To your dismay, they simply see facts about Paul Revere. However, it does no good to become dismayed when students don’t see patterns that are clear to you. Remember, some of you can see the pattern of the old lady and the pattern of the young lady in this picture; some of you

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cannot see either of them. The message is that if we want students to see patterns in information, we should use strategies that help them. Many of you are familiar with strategies that help students organize information, strategies like graphic organizers or graphs and charts. Again, the Teacher’s Manual offers explanations of these and other strategies to help students in this critical phase of acquiring declarative knowledge. Overhead

O.8

Once you have constructed meaning for and organized your knowledge, you still have one more step to consider. Do you need to use storing strategies to ensure that you will remember any specific pieces of knowledge? Some educators become uncomfortable when this topic is raised. They might be thinking, “Surely, you are not emphasizing memorizing in this model. It is important for students to learn to access information, not memorize it.” The Dimensions of Learning model highlights the importance of remembering what you have learned. Certainly, accessing information is critical, but in classrooms and in the workplace it is also important to have a great deal of information “in your head” ready to use at any time. The good news is that by attending to constructing meaning for and organizing information, you have already influenced what will be remembered. However, there are times when there is a need to commit to memory very specific pieces of information. This is when storing strategies should be used. Prior to the invention of the printing press, the mark of scholars was their ability to recall information by chapter and verse (e.g., from The Iliad, The Odyssey, or the Bible). Current education practice sometimes does not make use of strategies that have been around for hundreds of years. As with the other phases, you can provide students with strategies that, when used efficiently, can reduce the amount of time needed for storing information. Let’s try one strategy right now.

Individual Task

Create a picture in your head of a Jersey cow (which is brown). Name this Jersey cow “Georgette.” See her standing up on one hind leg, balancing on top of the Empire State Building. She is wearing yellow underwear. She is singing Christmas carols. Hear them. Under what is now her right arm is a Virginia ham. Smell and taste it. In her left hand is a pen. With this pen she is connecting dots in the air.

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Now the picture formed by the dots is becoming clear. It’s a long winding road. On the road is Marilyn Monroe going to Mass, so see a big cathedral at the end of the road. Here is the situation. You are my fifth graders. We are studying the 13 original colonies. I want you to be able to list them, but I don’t want you to spend a lot of time memorizing them. What we just did was use a memory strategy to achieve this goal. Remember that with actual fifth graders, they would know what they are memorizing. I didn’t tell you at the beginning because it is kind of fun to find out after you have done it. The strategy I used is called the link strategy. You simply generate a symbol or substitute (a word that sounds like the target word) for each item you are memorizing and then link them together. Let’s check to see what symbols and substitutes I used. Some people might say that this is just a gimmick or a trick. Actually it is a very powerful strategy that is used effectively by students to remember lists. Because memory strategies are highly engaging, they can convince students that other kinds of thinking—such as comprehension and problem solving—also involve strategies that they can use. To see if I have been clear, before we move on, take a few minutes to jot down the key ideas we just covered in our discussion of acquiring and integrating declarative knowledge.

Individual Task

Based on what you wrote down, are there any questions you would like to ask? Is there any information that needs to be clarified before we move on?

Overhead

O.8

To review, acquiring and integrating declarative knowledge involves three phases: constructing meaning, organizing, and storing. Acquiring and

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integrating procedural knowledge also involves three phases: constructing models, shaping, and internalizing. Constructing a model means identifying the steps involved in the procedure. The learner should have a sense of each step and actually be able to perform each step, although the performance will be rough at this point. Shaping means identifying problem areas, changing steps to improve them, or analyzing how the steps are affected when the procedure is used in different contexts. This all helps to make the procedure more “your own.” Internalizing is achieved through practice. When the learner has internalized a skill or process, he or she is able to perform the procedure fluently and automatically. Think/Pair/Share

In order to begin to understand these three phases, let’s apply them to a learning experience we all have had. Try to recall learning the procedures involved in driving. How did you learn the steps? (Did your dad patiently give you instructions?) How did you shape the procedures? (Do you still drive with your hands at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock or drive only in that parking lot where you learned?) When did you know that you had internalized it? (When you were driving with your arm around your girlfriend?) Discuss your experiences with a partner. We are not going to review strategies at this time for each of these phases of acquiring procedural knowledge, but it is important to note that they are quite different from those used to help students acquire declarative knowledge. One of the purposes of the Dimensions training is to understand each type of knowledge well enough to select appropriate strategies for the type of knowledge students are acquiring. Further, as teachers understand these two types of knowledge, they are more likely to evaluate the success of any strategy by determining if, in fact, it enhanced students’ acquisition of the targeted knowledge. For example, the fact that K-W-L is a powerful, research-based strategy does not imply that teachers who use it are doing a good job. It should be used if the goal is to help students construct meaning for declarative knowledge, and its success should be measured in terms of the extent to which students construct meaning. Another reason for understanding the distinction between the process of learning declarative knowledge and the process of learning procedural knowledge is that classrooms focused on content areas containing a great deal of declarative knowledge will look very different from those focused on content areas containing a great deal of procedural knowledge. In classes in which declarative knowledge is emphasized, the greatest amount of time is spent constructing meaning, then organizing it; the least amount of time is spent storing it. In classes in which procedural knowledge dominates, even if

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just for a particular unit, the majority of time is spent practicing and shaping; the time required for the learner to construct models is relatively short. This illustrates that not all classrooms will look—nor should look—the same. In general, which subject areas are heavy in procedural knowledge? Which are heavy in declarative knowledge?


Dimension 3

Overhead O.11

Learning, of course, involves more than just acquiring and integrating declarative and procedural knowledge. In truly effective situations, learners engage in mental processes that help them gain new insights about information, see new connections, and make new discoveries. In short, learners extend and refine their knowledge. Few would deny that teaching students to use processes that help them to extend and refine knowledge is a desirable educational goal. That goal, however, sometimes gets lost.

Overhead O.12

Consider the list on this overhead for a moment. Students need instruction in how to perform these processes, as well as specific opportunities to apply them to content. Keep in mind that the goal is not just to “do” these processes periodically or on a particular day of the week. (One school designated a thinking day, which was called “Thinking Thursdays.”) The goal is for students to use the processes to extend and refine their knowledge.

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To illustrate what is meant by using these processes to extend and refine knowledge, let’s use one of the processes: comparing. At your tables, I want you to compare two words that you know fairly well, that is, that you have already “acquired”: fun and enjoyment. <Write the following on a blank overhead. Fun and enjoyment are similar because they both ________________________. Fun and enjoyment are different because fun is _________ but enjoyment is _______. Ask participants to use these sentence stems to try to generate three similarities and three differences for the words “fun” and “enjoyment.” Give them time to work, and then elicit several examples from the groups.> As I walked around while you were working, I was trying to determine if this activity helped you to extend and refine your knowledge. I was looking to see if anyone seemed to be thinking hard in order to come up with examples of things that they enjoy and things that are fun. I was looking to see if anyone was saying anything like, “Hmm. Is everything that is fun also enjoyable?” or “That’s a good idea. I’ve never thought about it like that.” These are signs that tell a teacher that students are making connections, seeing new distinctions, experiencing an “aha.” These are signs that by using the process of comparing, students are extending and refining their understanding of the targeted knowledge. Each of the extending and refining processes can be used to achieve this goal with targeted content knowledge. <Examples of each extending and refining process are provided below. In general, it is not a good idea to cover all eight processes. If time permits, go over four or five. If time is short, go over two or three.>


In a moment, I will briefly go over the extending and refining processes identified in Dimension 3 and give you an example of how each process can be used by students to extend and refine knowledge. As I do, rate each process in terms of how frequently you use it. If you use the process a great deal, assign a 3 to it. If you use it very little, assign a 1. Assign a 2 if your use of the process is somewhere between a 1 and a 3. Comparing is the process of identifying and articulating similarities and differences among items. For example, during a vocabulary lesson, students compare words that they think they know well (e.g., invention and discovery; fun and enjoyment) and, as a result, discover connotations and distinctions that they had not previously considered.

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Classifying is the process of grouping things into definable categories on the basis of their attributes. For example, during a history unit, students classify all of the 20th-century wars by cause: (1) economics, (2) human rights issues, (3) expansionist motivations, and (4) other causes. Students often find that they had never considered how many wars were economically motivated. Abstracting is the process of identifying and articulating the underlying theme or general pattern of information. For example, during a unit on Romeo and Juliet, students abstract the general theme of forbidden love and teenage rebellion. They suddenly see Shakespeare as “a pretty cool guy.” Inductive reasoning is the process of inferring unknown generalizations or principles from information or observations. For example, after reading part of a story, students describe the physical appearance of the characters, even though the characters have not been described in the story. They then identify the specific information or observations they used to help them decide what the characters looked like. The students quickly realize how an author can develop characters through dialogue and events in the story. Deductive reasoning is the process of using generalizations and principles to infer unstated conclusions about specific information or situations. For example, students have previously learned that hot air rises. During a new experiment involving this concept, they successfully predict what must occur versus what might occur. They also explain the deductive reasoning that led them to conclude what must occur. Constructing support is the process of building systems of support for assertions. For example, during a unit on civil disobedience, students try to construct support for or against the claim that flag burning should be protected under the free speech clause of the First Amendment. As a result, they discover how complex many free speech issues can be. Analyzing errors is the process of identifying and articulating errors in thinking. For example, during a science unit, students analyze a proposal for establishing a nuclear power plant near a city. They discover errors in the logic supporting the proposal. They begin to rethink their own positions on the issue. Analyzing perspectives is the process of identifying multiple perspectives on an issue and examining the reasons or logic behind each. For example, during a unit on types of government, students identify reasons behind the perspective that democracy is the best form of government and reasons behind the perspective held by people in certain other countries that socialism is the best type of government. Students still think that democracy is better but understand why others sometimes choose socialism.

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Which of the complex reasoning processes do you use a lot in the classroom? Which do you use sometimes? Which do you rarely, if ever, use? Which might you consider using, and how? <Elicit responses.>

Dimension 4 Overhead O.13

We are now going to shift our attention to Dimension 4. As we explore Dimension 4, you will see that Dimensions 3 and 4 have similarities and differences.

Overhead O.14 Large Group Discussion

Now, look at the processes included in Dimension 4. How do you think they are similar to and different from the processes in Dimension 3? If learning stopped at Dimension 3 (extending and refining knowledge), students might not get the opportunity to apply what they have learned in ways and contexts that are meaningful to them. When they have to use, or apply, knowledge, they not only demonstrate what they know but increase their knowledge as they are in the process of using it. For example, you use and increase your knowledge about stereos when you are making a decision about buying an expensive system; you learn a great

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deal about solar energy when you are inventing an energy-efficient house; you use and increase your knowledge about discipline when you are solving a problem like trying to raise your children without spanking them. As I go over the processes in this dimension, identify those that are most applicable to your class or classes, and be ready to explain why.

Individual Task

Decision making is the process of generating and applying criteria to select from among seemingly equal alternatives. For example, several students are in the process of selecting a musical to be produced by the drama department. They are using knowledge about all of the things they know must be considered: audience, resources, personnel, production capabilities, specific knowledge of each play being considered, and so on. Problem solving is the process of overcoming constraints or limiting conditions that are in the way of pursuing goals. For example, students decide to produce a play using only lighting effects for scenery. Invention is the process of developing unique products or processes that fulfill perceived needs. For example, students in a physical education class decide they are going to invent a new form of baseball that depends less on the skills of the pitcher. Experimental inquiry is the process of generating and testing explanations of observed phenomena. For example, a student studying the effects of exercise on health hypothesizes that many people do not exercise regularly because they do not understand its effects. He constructs a quiz and a survey to test his hypothesis. Investigation is the process of identifying and resolving issues about which there are confusions or contradictions. For example, a student is trying to explore all of the theories about where Columbus actually landed when he discovered the New World. She hopes to use what she is learning in order to construct the most likely scenario. Systems analysis is the process of analyzing the parts of a system and the manner in which they interact. For example, students studying ecosystems might select several specific ecosystems and try to determine what would happen if particular parts of each ecosystem were altered in some way as a result of human activity.

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In the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual it is explained that the processes in Dimension 4 are used to design meaningful, long-term tasks that require students to use what they have learned. The reason for this emphasis on the reasoning processes is to ensure that students are focused on using their knowledge rather than on producing an attractive product. Too often students (or their parents!) spend a great deal of time making something that is bigger or prettier or that uses more technology than anyone else’s. Of course, using technology and making a quality product are positive goals, but the emphasis in this dimension is on the use of knowledge. Students who have limited access to art materials or technology might be able to show that they, in fact, did think rigorously about the knowledge as they completed their task. We must be careful not to let impressive products overshadow impressive thinking. In addition, many projects and products require students simply to reproduce knowledge. By structuring projects around Dimension 4 reasoning processes, we are requiring students to generate knowledge. In other words, we are requiring them to make decisions, to find solutions, and to offer clarifications. Tasks that involve using knowledge meaningfully frequently are long term in nature. It is unlikely that students could complete any of these tasks in one or two class periods. It might take days (or, for older students, weeks) to complete these complex tasks. This means that students must be provided with class time for these long-term projects and that the teacher’s role in the classroom must support these projects.

Overheads O.12 O.14 Think/Pair/Share

Take a look again at the list of reasoning processes in Dimensions 3 and 4. Remember that attending to these two dimensions means directly teaching these processes and holding students accountable for extending and refining knowledge or using knowledge meaningfully. Think about the extent to which processes like these are directly taught now in your classrooms. Turn to a partner and discuss the following questions: Should they be taught more frequently? When? By whom?

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Dimension 5

Overhead O.15

We have discussed the types of thinking required for establishing positive attitudes and perceptions (Dimension 1), for acquiring and integrating knowledge (Dimension 2), for extending and refining knowledge (Dimension 3), and for using knowledge meaningfully (Dimension 4). Now we’re going to discuss Dimension 5, Habits of Mind. The most effective learning is done when the learner is operating at a higher level of thinking. But what is “higher level thinking”? Some researchers assert that thinking and learning is “higher level” when learners are exhibiting certain habits of mind. This suggests that the phrase “higher level thinking” is not something that is demanded from specific types of tasks; it is a phrase that describes what a learner exhibits, or does not exhibit, when engaged in any type of task. For example, from a Dimensions of Learning perspective, it is not accurate to say that someone who is solving a problem is engaged in thinking that is “higher level” than a person who is trying to comprehend something; problem solving can be done rather mindlessly, whereas comprehending can demand rigorous concentration. Again, as defined in Dimensions of Learning, higher level thinking does not describe what a task demands; it describes what the learner brings to the task.

Overhead O.16

In the Dimensions of Learning model, the fifth dimension, Habits of Mind, offers a list of specific mental habits that characterize higher level thinking. Let’s examine this list with a technique frequently used by teachers to encourage students to self-assess their own use of these mental habits. Imagine a classroom of students working hard on a long-term Dimension 4 task. Periodically, the teacher asks them to stop their work and respond to one or more of the following questions. Consider what effect being presented with these questions might have on students.

Individual Task

Overhead O.17 O.18

O.19

Then put up Overhead O.16 again.> Overhead O.16

The sets of questions you just saw are simply these productive habits of mind turned into questions with a rating scale. No matter what the task, learners are engaged in higher level thinking to the extent to which they are

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exhibiting appropriate mental habits like those listed here under the three categories of habits of mind: critical thinking, creative thinking, and selfregulated thinking. Large Group Discussion

Some would argue that these habits, sometimes referred to as dispositions, are what students need to succeed in the 21st century. Assume that you agree. How can we communicate to students that these habits of mind are important? <Elicit responses. Examples: We help students learn how to develop the habits; we model them; we tell students that the habits of mind are important; we point out instances that demonstrate that such habits are integral to the success of some of their heroes.> Some would argue that although there are many ways of communicating the importance of mental habits, the message we give students is that what is graded is what’s important. I’m going to paint a scenario that asks you to explore this assertion and that also asks you to generate a new way of viewing a situation that is outside the boundaries of standard conventions.

Think/Pair/Share

Suppose there is a school in which the report card students take home includes only these 15 habits of mind. These are the only things for which students receive actual grades; the curriculum stays the same. Students are given assignments and feedback on how well they are doing, but grades are limited to these 15 habits of mind. Would you want to work at this school? Why or why not? Think about this, and then buddy up with someone and share your thoughts.


You are highlighting the issues that consistently surround the habits of mind. Most people believe they are important. But they disagree about the role of the school and the possibility of assessing them. We are not suggesting that schools grade these habits. This activity simply highlights the issues that sometimes surface. It is important to not let disagreements related to these issues distract from addressing this dimension in the classroom. Remember that in the Dimensions of Learning model this dimension, habits of mind, is part of the backdrop of the graphic representation of the model. This implies that these habits influence the learning of the knowledge that is the focus in Dimensions 2, 3, and 4. These habits of mind are important

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because they can dramatically influence learning. Even if a school has a very “back-to-basics” curriculum, if students are also developing these mental habits, their learning will be enhanced. How, then, might you communicate to students that these habits are important, and how might you help students develop them? The Teacher’s Manual suggests a number of ways to do this, including suggestions for assessing these habits. However, the manual defines assessment very broadly. Student self-assessment, as modeled with the selfassessment questions we examined a few minutes ago on the overhead, is a useful and effective method for maintaining students’ awareness of the importance of mental habits.

Wrap-Up We have now examined all five of the dimensions of learning. Each represents a type of thinking distinct from the others, and yet, as the graphic implies, each interacts and overlaps with the others. For example, when students engage in activities that are designed to extend and refine their knowledge, they have not stopped acquiring and integrating knowledge. In fact, they continue to acquire and integrate knowledge as they work on tasks in which they use knowledge meaningfully. The Dimensions of Learning model can be used in a number of ways. There are four major ways described in the introduction to the Teacher’s Manual, pages 8-11. Turn to those pages now.

Overhead O.20

First, it has been used as a resource for instructional strategies that are keyed to the effect that those strategies should have on the learning process. Take a minute to read the section on page 8 that describes this use.

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Second, Dimensions of Learning is used to plan staff development. No one wants staff development opportunities to be perceived as one-shot inservice workshops focused on “hot topics” that are here today and gone tomorrow. The reason that schools and districts plan staff development opportunities is to help teachers learn so that they can help students learn. The Dimensions model can provide a way to focus staff development efforts so that it is clear how selected programs and strategies will affect students’ learning. Take a look at the matrix on page 10. Overhead O.21

Down the left-hand side of the matrix is an outline of the Dimensions of Learning model. This indicates that the person using this matrix has decided that Dimensions represents what he or she believes to be important in the learning process. The first step in using this matrix to plan staff development is to determine what part of the learning process you are trying to improve. This means that you should first identify your “learning goals.” Do you, for instance, want to improve students’ acquisition of procedural knowledge? Do you want to improve students’ attitudes toward learning? Perhaps you want to help students extend and refine knowledge through the use of specific reasoning processes. You might decide that you have several of these goals in mind. Once you have decided what part or parts of the learning process you would like to affect, you would move to the top of the matrix and begin to identify “resources for improvement,” that is, programs, strategies, techniques, experts, or any other type of resource that would help you to achieve the learning goal you have set. Notice that you do not have to identify only one resource; there are multiple resources that can help you to achieve your goals. As you identify resources, you also will discover that a resource identified for one specific learning goal will influence other parts of the learning process as well. Cooperative learning approaches, for example, might be selected as a resource for enhancing students’ attitudes toward each other. However, depending on how these approaches are used in the classroom, they also can potentially influence many aspects of the learning process. Of course, you do not have to use a matrix like this to use the Dimensions model as a framework for planning staff development. The point is that staff development opportunities should always be focused on a clear learning goal and that Dimensions provides a framework for setting these goals.

Overhead O.20

The third use of the model is as a structure for planning curriculum and assessment. The planning guide that accompanies each dimension provides a structure that encourages teachers to ask themselves key questions related to each dimension as they plan curriculum units. The practice of asking questions in each dimension is more important than filling out the planning guide itself. However, the guide provides a place for teachers to answer each of the questions. Using a model of learning to plan curriculum units communicates that students’ thinking and learning is more important than the activities that students experience or the strategies and techniques that will be used. As people use the model to plan curriculum, they also realize that their planning for assessment is influenced. They discover, for example, that the tasks generated in Dimensions 3 and 4 can be used for assessment as well as for instruction. Further, because the planning in Dimension 2 encourages them to clearly identify the declarative and procedural knowledge that students will be learning, teachers have found that it is easier to design conventional forced-choice assessments that clearly assess the knowledge that is important in the unit.

Overhead O.20

Finally, the most ambitious use of the model is as a focus for systemic reform. Some district administrators have concluded that so much is going on in schools and classrooms that at times the focus on students’ learning gets lost. They do not want to stop people from using diverse resources or stifle the enthusiasm people have for what they are doing, but they believe they must focus efforts and energies on ensuring that enhancing students’ learning is always the goal. As stated in the Teacher’s Manual (page 11), “Just as curriculum planners ask questions in reference to each dimension during planning, people in every part of the school system ask similar questions as they create schedules, select textbooks, create job descriptions, and evaluate the effectiveness of programs.”

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Think/Pair/Share

To conclude this overview, I’d like to see if you can briefly summarize some of the main points. Here’s how we will do it. Get a partner. One of you will be A, and one of you will be B. After you have had a little time to reflect, A’s, see if you can identify and briefly describe each of the five dimensions of learning. After each dimension, B’s, identify one thing that was clear, or validating, and one thing that was perhaps confusing, or of concern. I will ask several pairs to share to the whole group when you are finished.

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DIMENSION 1

Dimension 1

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1 Dimension 1 Attitudes and Perceptions

To The Trainer This portion of the training covers Chapter 1 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. The goal is to help participants understand the importance of attitudes and perceptions to the learning process, to reinforce what they already are doing in the classroom, and to introduce some strategies that can help teachers and students enhance attitudes and perceptions. Dimension 1 is divided into two major areas: I. Helping Students Develop Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Classroom Climate • Feel accepted by teachers and peers • Experience a sense of comfort and order II. Helping Students Develop Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Classroom Tasks • Perceive tasks as valuable and interesting • Believe they have the ability and resources to complete tasks • Understand and be clear about tasks

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Dimension 1 Attitudes & Perceptions

During this training, participants will be in the process of learning •

that attitudes and perceptions influence learning,

•

that teachers can foster positive attitudes and perceptions through their own everyday behavior and through specific activities,

•

that students can learn how to take responsibility for establishing and maintaining positive attitudes and perceptions about learning,

•

how to use various strategies and techniques to help students establish and maintain positive attitudes and perceptions,

•

how to teach students to establish and maintain positive attitudes and perceptions, and

•

how to plan for this dimension of learning.

Exploring Dimension 1 Overhead

O.4

As we discussed in the Overview, attitudes and perceptions affect learning. In fact, they influence everything the learner does. Effective teachers are aware of how dramatically attitudes and perceptions affect learning and, therefore, continually monitor the class and use strategies to help themselves and students establish and maintain positive attitudes and perceptions. Consciously attending to attitudes and perceptions has positive effects on students’ learning of content as addressed in Dimensions 2, 3, and 4. Dimension 1 focuses on the specific things that effective teachers do to influence students’ attitudes and perceptions related to classroom climate and to classroom tasks.

Overhead

O.6

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Recall a time you were a student, and identify a teacher who you knew accepted and respected you. After you have that person in mind, identify how you knew he or she accepted and respected you and what difference that made in your learning. Then recall a time you were a student and a teacher did not accept or respect you. What effect did his or her feelings have on you as a learner? Share your examples with a neighbor.

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Now, recall a time you were a student and you consciously did something to improve your attitude in some way. For example, you may have done something to improve your relationship with your instructor or with your peers or to improve your attitude about your abilities. Determine how taking this action enhanced your learning. Share this example with a neighbor.

Think/Pair/Share

Both of these experiences illustrate that many teachers and students are aware of the influence that attitudes and perceptions have on the learning process. However, although a number of examples were just generated in this group, we also know that many times teachers, even master teachers, may be unaware of specific strategies that help students enhance or maintain positive attitudes and perceptions or may forget to use what they know works. Even when teachers use a variety of strategies, they cannot always meet the needs of all students. Therefore, the responsibility for establishing positive attitudes and perceptions should be shared; that is, students should be taught strategies to cultivate their own positive attitudes and perceptions about learning. Successful students may consciously or unconsciously use strategies to establish and maintain positive attitudes and perceptions, but too many students are not knowledgeable about how to take responsibility for this type of thinking. Although the role of positive attitudes and perceptions is widely known and acknowledged, viewing attitudes and perceptions as a type of thinking—in fact, a thinking skill—may be a different perspective for some people. This is a useful perspective because it emphasizes that we can have an impact on our own attitudes and perceptions; that is, we can change negative ones and cultivate positive ones. In addition, understanding that people can become skilled at enhancing and maintaining positive attitudes means that we as teachers can teach students how to develop this skill. This skill helps empower students as they learn important content knowledge. For example, a middle school student might learn to say to herself, “One of the reasons that I have been doing poorly in one class is that I know the teacher does not like me. That affects how well I do in her class. I don’t try as hard in that class as I do in others. I’ve decided to consciously go out of my way to interact with the teacher in a positive way and put forth the same—if not more—effort in her class as I do in others.” Many students do not realize that they can take responsibility for their thinking. However, as they begin to do so, they often discover just how strongly they can motivate themselves.

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Overhead

1.1

Working with one or two other people, look again at the two basic categories of attitudes and perceptions on page 14 of your Teacher’s Manual: those related to classroom climate and those related to classroom tasks. On this overhead is a list of teacher and student behaviors. For each behavior, try to determine if the goal is to affect attitudes and perceptions about classroom climate or about classroom tasks. Then go a little further, and identify the specific aspect of classroom climate or tasks that the behavior affects. For example, if you think a behavior affects students’ attitudes and perceptions about classroom tasks, determine if it influences their perceptions of the value and interest of the tasks, their attitudes and perceptions about their ability to complete the tasks, and/or their understanding of and clarity about the tasks. An activity like this illustrates how a simple behavior can influence students’ attitudes and perceptions about multiple aspects of climate and tasks. There are many strategies and activities that have been specifically designed for each part of Dimension 1. The Teacher’s Manual describes a number of these in some detail on pages 40-41.

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Classroom Climate Let’s spend some time now looking at a few of these more closely. Turn to page 15 in the Teacher’s Manual. Note that the first strategy describes how to help students understand that attitudes and perceptions related to classroom climate influence learning. Take a couple of minutes to read over this strategy and to think about why it might be important. Let’s address the second point under this strategy and create a hypothetical situation right now. How many of you had a negative experience today? Did anyone oversleep? Did anyone wake up to a car that would not start? Did anyone not want to come to the training this morning? Any of these situations could lead to someone in this workshop having a negative attitude. Working with one or two other people, create a hypothetical situation in which a participant could have a negative attitude. Then identify several things that he or she could do, given this hypothetical situation, to create a more positive attitude. Then, using the same situation, identify some things that an instructor could do to help this participant have a more positive attitude about the workshop.


The next section includes strategies (2-10, pages 16-22) for helping students feel accepted by teachers and peers. Let’s look at strategy 2: Establish a relationship with each student in the class. Please read this. The suggestions under strategy 2 are similar to the things you mentioned when you described the teacher from your past who you knew accepted and respected you. Think about how you feel when someone remembers your name. All of us perhaps would agree that when someone makes an effort to get to know us, it has a positive effect. For example, I might be so impressed that the manager at the dry cleaner calls me by name that I am motivated to keep giving him my business. Now remember, if you go out to lunch today and someone calls you by name, it is because you forgot to take off your nametag. <Just a joke.>

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Think/Pair/Share

For the next few minutes, try to remember a number of situations in which someone paid particular attention to you and it made a difference in your attitudes and perceptions. Then transfer that to your classroom or school. What could you do to make the same difference for your students? Share with a neighbor the situations that you remembered and your thoughts about how you might make this same difference with your students. Now let’s read strategy 3 about monitoring and attending to your own attitudes. A famous teacher/writer, Wallace Fowlie, wrote a book entitled Journal of Rehearsals: A Memoir in which he shares his strategy of “rehearsing” much of what he does as a teacher. He imagines his class, the discussions that he will engage in, and even how he will respond if he finds himself in certain situations. This is a powerful strategy for educators to use. Considering how you might respond to potentially negative situations before they happen can keep you from having a knee-jerk reaction that might damage your relationship with a student or create a negative classroom environment. With a partner, share a past experience in which you reacted too hastily, one that would have had an entirely different outcome had you rehearsed the situation. The next two strategies, 4 and 5, both deal with different aspects of personalizing instruction. Take a few minutes to read them before we discuss them.


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For strategy 4, I’d like you to work with one or two other people to consider a real-life situation in which the extent to which someone exhibits “equitable and positive” behavior can have an effect on those involved. Think about a waiter in an expensive restaurant, for example. Describe two different scenarios to your partner or partners. In one, the waiter is very attentive to each person at your table. In the second, he is attentive and interacts positively with everyone at the table except you. What kinds of specific behaviors might you see in each scenario? Discuss how you might feel as the patron. How might you react? Would you simply not go back to the restaurant, or would you react in a different way? Or, think of your own

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example in which “equitable and positive behavior” might have an effect on the people involved. Just like a waiter who attends personally to each of his customers, being aware of our attitudes and trying to engage in “equitable and positive behaviors” in a classroom is important. We probably all agree about that, but it’s easy to forget. None of these strategies in Dimension 1 is new. The challenge is to regularly use what we know to be effective instructional practices. The references in the margin next to strategy 4 are good resources for suggestions on meeting this challenge. They can be particularly useful on those frustrating days when you walk into the building and go straight to the calendar on the wall to count the number of days until your next vacation. Strategy 5 is similar to 4 because of the nature of individualizing or personalizing behaviors. This strategy addresses the multicultural and multifaceted nature of our society. There was a story in a newspaper about an international summit being conducted in a particular city. The article was a “how-to” on etiquette for “summit behavior.” Many of you have travelled widely and have had experiences with students from diverse cultures. Find a partner, and pretend for a moment that you are volunteering to host an international group of teachers this summer as part of a government summit. The two of you are in charge of part of the orientation. Make a list of five do’s and five don’ts that would help people to show respect for and sensitivity to people’s diverse customs, perspectives, and backgrounds. Then share your ideas with another pair.


Have you ever been in a situation in which someone did not recognize your individual or cultural needs? How did that feel to you? How might you transfer these ideas to your classroom teaching and learning? Every day, teachers host students from all kinds of backgrounds. What are some of the strategies that teachers might use in addition to those listed on page 18?

Individual Task

Strategy 6, “Respond positively to students’ incorrect responses or lack of response,” also emphasizes the importance of exhibiting respect for students. It takes time and practice to learn how to respond to students’ incorrect answers in a way that maintains the dignity of the students yet holds them accountable for correct responses. Even when the teacher tries to be kind— “Can someone help Johnny?”—students very quickly pick up on subtle cues

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from the teacher that their answers were wrong. They often react by giving up, tuning out, or acting out. There are, of course, many effective ways of responding to incorrect responses that communicate respect and help maintain students’ dignity. It is useful to build a repertoire of responses. A few are offered in the bulleted items on page 19. Take a minute to skim these. However, simply knowing these approaches is not enough. It takes practice to make sure that your body language and tone of voice communicate that you believe that students can correct or improve their responses. Let’s practice. Small Group Activity

Overhead

Overhead

1.4

1.5


Get a partner. One of you turn your back to the screen. The person facing the screen is the “teacher.” The teacher is to begin asking the “student” some of the questions from the list on the screen. Think of it as playing “Trivial Pursuit” without the competition. The teacher should try to use a number of different ways of responding when the student fails to provide the correct answer. Did you notice that in general you were consciously looking for positive ways to help each other give the correct answer? What is difficult about responding positively to incorrect responses in the classroom? How do students react to different kinds of responses? There is nothing new about these strategies. The difficult part is to remember to use them, especially on a day when you are frustrated by students’ answers. Some faculties have made a commitment to play this little “Trivial Pursuit” game periodically at faculty meetings just to remind themselves to use these strategies.

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Now let’s look together at strategy 7, which recommends varying the positive reinforcement offered when students give a correct response. Sometimes certain types of positive reinforcement, such as praise, can have little or no effect on particular students. Take a couple of minutes to read through the bulleted items on page 20. Now let’s practice using these different ways of responding. Keep your partner from the last activity. Again, one of you be the “teacher,” and one be the “student.” I will put another set of questions on the overhead for the teacher to ask. These are more open ended and allow for many types of correct responses. The teacher in your pair should ask several of these questions to the student. The teacher should try to use a number of these different ways of responding to the student’s correct answer.


Overhead

1.6

Which ways of responding were comfortable and natural for you as the “teacher”? Which did you like as the “student”? The next two sections directly address how students can work with their peers in appropriate ways. Anyone who has taught knows that students love to work together; they just don’t always do it in appropriate ways! Also, some teachers have had the experience of assigning “group work” and afterwards vowing never to do it again. In fact, one teacher remarked that she loves to have her students use cooperative learning techniques but her only rule is NO TALKING! <Just a joke.> On a piece of paper, make a list of things you like to do.

Individual Task

Next to each example, indicate whether you like to do those things alone or with others. For several items that you enjoy doing alone, list next to them why you prefer doing them alone. Likewise, for some of the items that you enjoy doing with others, list some of the reasons that you prefer doing the activity with others.

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Now compare your list with several other people. Pay attention to the reasons given for liking to do things alone and with others. You probably discovered that people have different preferences in terms of the degree to which they like to do things alone or with others. You probably also discovered that people have different reasons for their preferences. Notice that strategy 8 suggests that teachers structure opportunities for students to work with peers. Keep in mind that this is suggested as a way of enhancing positive attitudes among peers. Just as participants in this workshop vary in the degree to which they like to interact with others, remember that students in your classroom will also differ greatly. To ensure that working together enhances attitudes towards peers, you need to make sure you understand how to make cooperation and collaboration work. Although some teachers feel less in control when students are working in groups, students can benefit from experiences that help them get along and work with others. There are some valuable suggestions offered in the bulleted items on page 20, but much more is needed to become skilled in this area. Many teachers have received extensive training in cooperative learning models and strategies. For those of you who would like to learn more about this area, some of the notable authors and researchers are listed in the margins of your Teacher’s Manual. Although students work, play, and interact with their peers, they may not have had opportunities to learn to work well together. For some of your students, it will come naturally, just as it does for some of you. For others, it will be important for you to be experienced at setting up and facilitating group interactions. One way of preparing students to work together is to use the suggestions listed under strategy 9 to help them get to know and accept each other. Take a couple of minutes to review these suggestions. The last strategy in this section—strategy 10, “Help students to develop their ability to use their own strategies for gaining acceptance”—highlights an important issue about students taking control of their own thinking and learning. An underlying theme throughout this manual is the importance of students taking more responsibility for the thinking addressed in each dimension. This means that students must increasingly use many of these strategies on their own and that they must develop their own strategies as they become independent learners. Strategy 10 describes how you can help students learn to accept increasing responsibility for gaining acceptance from teachers and peers.

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Read the suggested strategies for students to use in gaining acceptance from teachers and peers. Then make two lists. Entitle one, “What positive things do I do to be accepted by others?” Entitle the other, “What positive things do I see other people do to gain acceptance from others?” Tailor the lists to your particular grade level. Then try to create an activity that you might use in your classroom to help students generate their own lists of strategies for gaining acceptance. You might start with an event or a piece of literature to prompt the activity. How would you follow through and monitor whether students actually used one of their strategies in an attempt to gain acceptance?

Individual Task

Overhead

O.6

The second main subsection under classroom climate refers to attitudes and perceptions related to experiencing a sense of comfort and order. If students perceive the classroom as comfortable and orderly, they learn more efficiently because they do not have to put much effort into thinking about their discomfort or about creating a sense of order for themselves in what they perceive as a chaotic situation. The challenge is that different people have different criteria for what is comfortable and orderly. Therefore, it is important for teachers and students to work together to achieve positive results for everyone. You probably have noticed that we take regular breaks during this workshop. Why do you think we do that? Actually this is a rhetorical “why?”. We all know that it can be difficult to sit still for long periods of time. The first strategy on page 23—”Frequently and systematically use activities that involve physical movement”—addresses this reality. Many educators have noticed that the higher the grade level, the less physical movement there is in the classroom. What has been your experience? If you agree that there is less physical movement in classrooms as students get older and older, discuss why this is the case and whether you believe this is appropriate. Be ready to share aloud after you have discussed this with your partner.

Think/Pair/Share

The second strategy is pulled directly from the Tactics for Thinking program, which is referenced in the margin on page 24. Bracketing is a term used to describe what people do to help them focus their thinking on the task at

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hand, even when multiple things are going on in their mind. Take a minute to read the description of the strategy and the suggestions for introducing this to students. One suggestion is to identify for students examples of people who use bracketing successfully or who could benefit by using it. Let’s see if we can generate some examples together. Name some people or some fictional characters—people students relate to or admire—who are probably good at bracketing and have been successful, at least in part, because of this ability. The point is that if students understand that the uses of bracketing go far beyond paying attention in the classroom, they might be more interested in using it. The next two strategies for helping students to experience a sense of comfort and order are fairly common. Establishing rules and attending to malicious teasing are topics with which you are probably familiar. Think/Pair/Share

Just as in the previous section on helping students to feel accepted, suggestions are offered under strategy 15—“Have students develop their own standards for comfort and order”—for helping students take more responsibility for this aspect of classroom climate. Take a couple of minutes to read the first classroom example on page 27 in which Mrs. Frost is reminded of the benefits of involving students in establishing order. Share with a partner experiences in which, either as a learner or a teacher, you experienced the teacher and students working together to set and achieve standards of comfort and order.

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Classroom Tasks The next major section of Dimension 1 in the Teacher’s Manual offers powerful strategies for developing positive attitudes and perceptions toward classroom tasks.

Overhead

O.6

Notice that, as with each section of the manual, the first strategy (on page 29) suggests ways of helping students to understand the importance of maintaining positive attitudes toward classroom tasks. The remaining strategies address the goal of helping students to perceive tasks as valuable and interesting, to believe that they have the ability and resources to complete tasks, and to understand and be clear about tasks. To become more familiar with these strategies, as well as with the classroom examples provided at the end of this section, we’re going to use a jigsaw activity. Get into groups of three, and assign an A, a B, and a C. Each person will be assigned several strategies and a classroom example to read. That person will then share the key ideas with the other two members of the group. That way everyone does not need to read every section. The assignments are as follows:

Jigsaw

Overhead

1.7

A. Under the heading “Perceive Tasks as Valuable and Interesting,” read strategies 2-5 on pages 30-32. Then read the first classroom example on page 37 (the Mr. Snow example). B. Under the heading “Believe They Have the Ability and Resources to Complete Tasks,” read strategies 6-9 on pages 33-34. Then read the second classroom example on page 37 (the Mrs. Fitzsimmons example). C. Under the heading “Understand and Be Clear About Tasks,” read strategies 10-12 on pages 35-36. Then read the third classroom example on pages 37 and 38 (the Mr. Young example). As you read, highlight what you consider to be the most important suggestions. Be ready to share those ideas with the other members of your group. You do not need to discuss the strategies in detail when sharing. Your goal is to familiarize other participants with the strategies they may want to look at in greater depth at another time. To prepare for this sharing, after you finish reading, find another person with the same assignment and discuss your reactions.

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Think/Pair/Share

You are now familiar with the strategies included in the Teacher’s Manual and with the classroom examples that are offered to stimulate reflection on how to apply the ideas highlighted in Dimension 1 in your classroom. I’d like each of you to pick one of the classroom examples and identify the strategy that the teacher used to improve the learning situation. What other solutions might the teacher have tried? Share with your partner examples from your experiences of the ways that teachers help students improve their attitudes and perceptions about learning. Clearly, many of the strategies described in the manual are used regularly by classroom teachers. However, the suggestion here and throughout this training is to consciously plan which strategies, if any, you are going to use, considering each of the five dimensions of learning as you do so.


Before we go on to planning for Dimension 1, does anyone have any questions, need anything clarified, or want to share an idea?

Planning for Dimension 1 <Participants should have a blank planning guide for Dimension 1 in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.> In the Teacher’s Manual, the discussion of each dimension concludes with a section on planning for that dimension. Included in these sections are specific suggestions that facilitate effective planning. By the end of this training, you will be familiar with the essential elements of planning for the inclusion of the five dimensions of learning in a unit of study. Let’s turn to pages 39-42 in the Teacher’s Manual. This section, which is called “Unit Planning: Dimension 1,” contains an example of a completed planning guide for Dimension 1. Planning may be something that you typically do “in your head” or, as some teachers have said, in a planning book that has a place to make notes about the activities for each day. Whether you do most of your planning in your head or write out your plans, the planning process recommended with Dimensions of Learning emphasizes the importance of asking yourself powerful questions as you plan. This process also emphasizes the importance of planning overtly for each of the dimensions of learning that the teacher

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determines is important to address in any particular unit of study. Predictably, there are planning questions associated with each dimension. The planning section at the end of each chapter is designed to walk you through each of these questions. The planning guide is offered as a place to write down your answers to these questions. Some people prefer not to write down as much detail as that shown on the sample in the Teacher’s Manual. However, we recommend that each step of the planning process be addressed. Further, our experience shows that when teachers write down their goals for student learning, it increases the likelihood that those goals will be achieved.

Overhead 1.P1

Planning for Dimension 1 requires asking and answering the following question: What will be done to help students develop positive attitudes and perceptions? There are two steps in the process of answering this question. The first step (see page 39) is to identify general or specific goals or concerns related to students’ attitudes and perceptions about learning. The second step is to identify the particular things that you plan to do to address these goals or concerns. There are two parts to this second step: (a) specifying what aspect of Dimension 1 will be used to address the goals and concerns and (b) describing, in a brief narrative, what exactly will be done. As an aid to completing this step, the strategies suggested earlier in the chapter are summarized on pages 40 and 41.

Overhead 1.P2

As you examine the sample planning guide on page 42, keep in mind that your responses to the key questions in this dimension will vary greatly as a function of a number of things including the specific unit you are planning, the time of year, and your own observations in the classroom. You may decide, for example, to try a new strategy, to simply remind yourself to do things you have been forgetting, or even to do nothing specific in the unit you are planning. Look at the planner that is completed (see page 42). Share your observations with a partner.

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Although some people might infer that they should begin their planning with Dimension 1 because it is the first dimension, remember that there is no sequence implied by the numbers of the dimensions. Many people plan for Dimension 1 after they have planned for Dimensions 2, 3, and 4. Why do you suppose they do this?

Planning Activity

Now I want you to operate as if you are planning a unit of study, perhaps one you have taught recently. Consider your students (real or hypothetical) and decide what you might plan to do for Dimension 1. You might just want to jot down a reminder to do something on a more regular basis (e.g., “Greet students at the door.”) or to engage in a specific activity (e.g., “When introducing this unit, spend time explaining the value of the content.”).

Closure

70

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented about Dimension 1. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Planning

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Dimension 2 DIMENSION 2

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Dimension 2 Acquire & Integrate Knowledge

2 Dimension 2 Acquire and Integrate Knowledge

To the Trainer This portion of the training covers Chapter 2 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual, “Acquire and Integrate Knowledge,” pages 43 to 112. The goal is to help participants understand declarative and procedural knowledge and the three phases involved in acquiring and integrating each type of knowledge. Participants should recognize that they already use many effective strategies but that an increased understanding of how knowledge is acquired and integrated will help them to make more conscious, informed decisions about what to continue using and what kinds of additional strategies might be used to improve students’ learning. During this training, participants will be in the process of learning •

that students acquire and integrate two types of knowledge: declarative and procedural;

•

that declarative knowledge refers to the information that students know or understand, and procedural knowledge refers to the skills and processes that students know how to use;

•

that declarative and procedural knowledge each have distinctive characteristics yet are interdependent;

•

that acquiring declarative knowledge requires students to construct meaning for, organize, and store information, whereas procedural knowledge requires students to construct models for, shape, and internalize the skills and processes;

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•

how to help students acquire and integrate both declarative and procedural knowledge; and

•

how to plan a unit by clearly identifying and organizing the declarative and procedural knowledge and by specifying strategies for ensuring that students acquire and integrate this identified knowledge.

Exploring Dimension 2 Overhead

O.7

A key word in the title of this dimension, as well as in the titles of Dimensions 3 and 4, is knowledge. It is important, as we proceed with this training, to share an understanding of the characteristics of two types of knowledge: declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Understanding these types of knowledge will influence the decisions you make related to Dimensions 2, 3, and 4. The introduction to Dimension 2 (beginning on page 43 of your manual) provides an explanation of some of the characteristics of these two types of knowledge.

Overhead

O.8

Take a look at the two lists on page 43. In the paragraphs following the lists are definitions of procedural and declarative knowledge. Take a couple of minutes to read these definitions.


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Here’s a test that will require you to use what you just read. Many learning situations necessitate the acquisition of both declarative and procedural knowledge. For example, any time you are learning something related to technology—how to use a new software program, how to use your new lawn mower, or how to access the Internet—you must acquire both declarative and procedural knowledge. You must develop an understanding of information, such as terms, names of pieces of equipment, and uses of the technology; and you probably need to learn a skill, such as turning on a machine, activating a program, and searching for information. At your tables, identify a learning

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situation related to the use of technology, either in the home or on the job. Then generate a list of declarative knowledge (what you must know or understand) and procedural knowledge (what skills or abilities you must develop). Be ready to share your lists. In many learning situations you could do this same thing, that is, you could identify what you need to know or understand and what skills you need to develop. We will soon see that people learn these two types of knowledge differently and, therefore, that we must teach them differently. However, first let’s look in more depth at declarative and procedural knowledge. Please read about the relationships between declarative and procedural knowledge on page 45. Now, here’s a mini-quiz I’d like you to take. With a partner, answer the following questions.


Hopefully, it is evident that both declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge are important. We are now going to look at each type of knowledge in more depth. Declarative knowledge, as we have seen, includes the information that we want students to know or understand. This does not imply that students simply should know long lists of facts. Declarative knowledge includes facts, but it also refers to concepts, generalizations, and principles. It might be useful at this point to understand how to organize information in ways that highlight the distinctions among facts, concepts, and generalizations and principles. Turn to page 46 in your manual. Overhead

2.2

This section, entitled “Levels of Generality and the Organization of Knowledge,” identifies and describes six common organizational patterns. Take a few minutes to read the descriptions. If you are more of a visual learner, after reading these descriptions turn to pages 63-65 and examine the graphic organizer associated with each pattern.

Overheads

2.3

2.4

These common organizational patterns help us to make sense of large amounts of information. For example, think of something about which you know a great deal: something you enjoy doing, such as cooking, sewing, or playing golf; or a topic you love to learn about, such as stamps or birds. Now, pretend that you are selecting some information about this topic to teach to students. In a few minutes, I am going to ask you to use the organizational patterns to help you decide which information to include and which patterns you would want your students to see. But first, I will model this for you. Suppose I want to teach students information about quilting.

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Overhead

2.2

I might start by asking myself if there are any terms or descriptions of specific things related to quilting that might be important for students to know. I might decide that there are several names of quilting patterns that I want them to know, such as the “double wedding ring” and the “log cabin” design. Would there be any time sequences? Probably not. How about process/cause-effect relationships? Yes. I might want them to be familiar with the major steps of the process of making a patchwork quilt, from designing the pattern to finishing the edges. My list might end up looking something like this. <Write these examples, or the examples from your selected topic, on Overhead 2.2. 1. Descriptions Vocabulary Terms Facts

Patterns: Double Wedding Ring, Log Cabin

2. Time Sequences 3. Process/Cause-Effect Relationships

Process of making a patchwork quilt

4. Episodes 5. Generalizations/Principles

Many crafts developed as a result of scarcity. The arts and crafts of an era reflect the culture of the time.

6. Concepts

Scarcity, arts, crafts>

Notice the examples of concepts and generalizations/principles on my list. Sometimes people are somewhat confused about the difference between a concept and a generalization/principle. This is because the word concept is often used loosely in everyday language to refer to any general idea. Here you can see, however, that we are referring to a concept as a word (or sometimes two words like artificial intelligence) that represents a general class or category of things or ideas. A generalization or principle is a statement about a general class or category.

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Individual Task

Now I’d like you to try using these organizational patterns to plan for teaching information to someone. At first, I’d like you to work alone on this assignment. You will be sharing your work later. Select a topic that is of interest to you, and use these organizational patterns to identify and organize the information that you might teach to someone. Keep in mind that you are using the patterns to organize a list of information—declarative knowledge—that you might teach someone. At this point you are not making final decisions about what you would actually teach. Now turn back to page 48 in your manual. The last paragraph on that page explains that these organizational patterns represent a hierarchy, from the most specific to the most general. As explained, it is important to understand that both concept patterns and generalization/principle patterns contain information that is at a higher level of generality than the information in the other patterns. As the first example in the paragraph on page 48 explains, learning about the concept of culture will be much more useful to someone than simply learning about the culture of a specific country. Using my quilting example, I might learn about specific quilting patterns and understand how these patterns symbolize aspects of the lives of pioneers. Although this is interesting specific information, it would be more useful if I learned the generalization “Arts and crafts of any era reflect the culture of that era.” This generalization is at a higher level of generality and thus could be applied to many different situations.

Overhead

2.5

Examine for a minute the examples on this overhead of potential goals for units or study. Notice that the specific information is paired with more general concepts and generalizations/principles.


Now look at the list of information you generated earlier about your topic of interest. Did you identify any generalizations/principles or concepts that would transfer to other topics? If not, could you? Reexamine your list, and share the results at your tables. To review, declarative knowledge can be organized into patterns so that students see the relationships among the pieces of information. There are six common organizational patterns that can be used to organize the information. Some of these patterns organize very specific factual information; others

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organize information that is more general. We will revisit these patterns when we explore how to help students organize and see patterns and when we practice planning. Procedural knowledge is somewhat easier to organize. Take a minute to read the section about procedural knowledge on page 49 of your manual. Procedural knowledge, then, is not organized into patterns. It can be organized as a continuum, from very specific skills to more general processes. Go back to page 43, and look at the list of procedural knowledge. Notice that some of the procedural knowledge identified is at the very general process level. Some items on the list are more specific skills. With one or two other people, try to identify some specific skills that would need to be taught in order for students to learn the items that are more general processes. Be ready to share.


<Participants should be able to identify a variety of skills. For example, the process of setting up an experiment would include skills like controlling variables and analyzing data. You might find that some of the skills identified by participants are actually examples of the declarative knowledge that is needed to use a skill or process. For example, if someone states that in order to read music a person must understand what the musical symbols represent, point out that recognizing symbols is an example of declarative knowledge. This is a good time to reiterate the following point.> You probably noticed once again that for all procedural knowledge, you can identify important declarative knowledge that is associated with it. For example, setting up an experiment is included on the list of procedural knowledge on page 43. You would not be able to set up an experiment if you did not know what a variable was or if you did not understand the concepts related to the subject of your experiment. As we study the remainder of Dimension 2, we will see that when teaching skills and processes, it is important to make sure that students understand the related declarative knowledge. At this point, some of you may be wondering why we are spending this time trying to understand the distinctive characteristics of declarative and procedural knowledge. A primary reason for pursuing this understanding is that people learn these two types of knowledge differently. Let’s look at the phases of learning both declarative and procedural knowledge. These are explained briefly on pages 49-50.

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Overhead

2.6

Take a look at the two figures on page 50. Notice that to learn declarative knowledge, the learner needs to construct meaning, organize, and store. Learning procedural knowledge requires the learner to construct models, shape, and internalize. These figures highlight that the relationship among the phases is different for each type of knowledge. For declarative knowledge we will see, for example, that when we are constructing meaning for information, we might already be organizing it and that when we are constructing meaning for and organizing information, we are more likely to store, or retain, that information. However, for procedural knowledge, we tend to move through the phases in a more linear fashion, although we may move back and forth among the phases, as needed. For example, if we begin to practice the procedural knowledge in order to internalize it, we may discover that we need to go back and do some work on shaping it. The relationships among the phases for each type of knowledge will be clearer to you as we study each. We will now look more closely at declarative knowledge.

Declarative Knowledge There is a great deal of declarative knowledge that students are expected to acquire and integrate in school. Although some educators and noneducators alike resist emphasizing the acquisition of information in an age of technology, others suggest that we cannot function and progress as a society unless we share a common body of knowledge that includes information that we all know and understand. As the debate rages on, it continues to be our responsibility as educators to identify important declarative knowledge and to make every effort to provide students with multiple opportunities to acquire and integrate that knowledge. This section of the Teacher’s Manual provides suggestions for helping to achieve that goal. Overhead

2.7

Construct Meaning As explained in the introduction to Chapter 2 (pages 49-50), acquiring declarative knowledge requires three overlapping phases. The first phase we will consider in learning declarative knowledge is constructing meaning. This is facilitated when learners are able to connect new knowledge to what they already know. During any learning situation, however, students may not consciously and explicitly make these connections. The result may be similar to your experience of reading the “Doing Laundry” passage during the Overview.

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There are a number of strategies and approaches that teachers can use, and that they can teach to students, to ensure that students are constructing meaning as they are learning declarative knowledge. The first strategy, described in your manual on page 52, provides suggestions for helping students understand the process of constructing meaning. The “Doing Laundry” passage is included in this section as an example to use with students just as it was used with you during the overview of the Dimensions of Learning model. The reason this is the first suggestion under constructing meaning is that students have a greater chance of successfully using all of the other strategies for constructing meaning if they understand the purpose of the strategies. Take a minute to read the suggestions for building this understanding. The next strategy, strategy 2, describes the use of the three-minute pause. Please read this section in your manual. We just used the three-minute pause while you were reading. This is one of the simplest strategies for constructing meaning. As students are exposed to new information when, for example, reading a book, watching a film, or listening to someone presenting information, they periodically are asked to pause and turn to a partner to summarize, discuss interesting ideas, and identify and resolve any areas of confusion. This pause may last three minutes, or it may be shorter. Students are then asked to turn their attention back to the learning experience. Why would this strategy help students to construct meaning? How can it provide you with an indication of how well students are constructing meaning?


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A very different strategy for constructing meaning is for learners to use all of their senses as they are exposed to information. This strategy (strategy 3) is described on pages 53 and 54 of the Teacher’s Manual. Please read this section. Although many of you probably have used this strategy in the classroom, it is worth reviewing. Teachers have reported that when students become proficient at using this strategy, their understanding and retention of information is positively affected. However, to get these results, students must practice generating mental images. It is relatively easy to do this when a passage of information contains rich language that helps them to create images, but it is much more difficult when the information is presented in a traditional academic style. Let me illustrate. Individual Task

Overhead

2.8

In a moment I’m going to put up a passage taken from National Geographic. I’d like you to read this passage. As you read, consciously try to create a mental image, using all of your senses. Be ready to share your images, to describe what was going on in your mind. In other words, be ready to describe what it was like to think about the information. When we are stimulated by writing that is rich with images, it is relatively easy to engage all of our senses. We construct pictures almost unconsciously and, as you just experienced, use our senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. As a result, we understand and retain the information fairly well. Content knowledge presented in textbooks or lectures, however, sometimes does not have the rich language you just experienced. In such cases, learners have to consciously work to engage all of their senses in order to help themselves construct meaning. The more abstract the information, the more challenging it is to create mental images and the more teachers must help students to create them.

Overhead

2.9

Now I want you to read this passage. Be prepared to answer: What can you see? Hear? Smell? Taste? Touch? What mental pictures and sensations did you create?

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This passage is written in “textbook style” and describes a process. Both of these characteristics make it more challenging for readers to engage all of their senses because the language is straightforward, dry, and abstract. How might you help students to engage all of their senses when they are presented with passages like this? <Make the point that you were demonstrating several techniques as you tried to elicit more and more details about their mental pictures. Discuss other ways for helping students to refine this skill, such as describing your own mental pictures and sensations to students, asking students to describe their pictures and sensations to each other, and using a think-aloud to model the strategy.> Turn to page 81, and read the second classroom example, the Mrs. Garron example. It shows how a teacher might use the mental imagery strategy to engage students in the process of learning specific declarative knowledge in the classroom, in this case a fifth-grade classroom. Even if you don’t teach at this level, the example might help you think of ways to use this strategy with your students. Strategy 4 (Help students to construct meaning for vocabulary terms) also encourages the development of the ability to create images, but it applies the strategy specifically to vocabulary development. You will recall that when identifying the declarative knowledge that is important in a unit of study, you might identify key vocabulary terms. The section in the Teacher’s Manual that deals with Strategy 4 highlights the point that if students are simply memorizing definitions of vocabulary terms, especially when they don’t really understand the definitions, they are not constructing meaning. As a result, the memorized definitions are virtually useless. The five-step process described under Strategy 4 (see page 55) emphasizes the importance of students developing an understanding of the terms they are learning. With this approach, students do not memorize definitions from the dictionary but, instead, use them as a resource for information that helps them to understand the words well enough to create mental images. If they are unable to create images, students learn that they must seek out other resources—another dictionary, a dictionary on software, a parent, a teacher—

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to get the information necessary to understand the terms well enough to create images of them. Helping students to construct meaning can also be facilitated with a strategy called K-W-L, which was developed by educator/researcher Donna Ogle. It is described on page 55 of the Teacher’s Manual. Overhead 2.10

The first step in the K-W-L strategy is to ask students what they already know (K) about the topic of the lesson. As students give their ideas (whether right or wrong), write them in the first column of a K-W-L chart. The second step is to ask students what they want (W) to know about the topic. Write their responses in the second column. The third step is to present the information so that students can read, hear, or experience it in some other way. It is important to remind students to keep in mind what was recorded in the K and W columns. Finally, after you have presented the information to students, ask them what they learned (L). As you record their responses, draw arrows to make explicit connections to items listed under K and W. Some of what students learned may validate or correct information listed under K or answer questions under W. As explained on page 56, there are some additional things you can do to make this strategy work for your students: • Under K (what I know) it is sometimes helpful to ask, “What do you think you know?” Then it’s okay if students find out later that they were wrong. • Under W (what I want to know) a related question might be, “What do I think I’m going to find out?” Model for students how scanning materials before they read can help them in this step. • Some teachers add another W (what I want to know now) to reinforce the idea that learning is ongoing; it does not stop at the end of the lesson. Teachers who have used the K-W-L strategy report that they see evidence that students are constructing meaning when they use this strategy. They also report some predictable glitches: When students are asked, “What do you want to know?”, they sometimes reply, “Nothing” or “I don’t know enough to know what I want to know.” It helps to model strategies— scanning materials, predicting from pictures, talking to others—that help them to anticipate the information that they will receive.

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Many teachers feel that it is best for students to discover or figure out the meaning of information. This approach, sometimes referred to as an “inductive” or “inquiry” model, can be used very successfully to help students construct meaning. There are many specific instructional strategies that fall into this category; the Teacher’s Manual provides a step-by-step description of one such strategy: concept attainment. This strategy takes students through a process that helps them discover the important attributes of a concept they are learning. In this process of discovery, students construct meaning for the concept by using the clues provided to them. Let’s walk through the version of the concept attainment strategy that is described in the Teacher’s Manual. The first step in this strategy is to present students with several examples and nonexamples of the concept they are learning. Students then try to identify what the examples have in common (and, conversely, what the nonexamples lack); that is, they try to identify the attributes of the concept. Usually, the teacher does not give the name of the concept at first. Instead, he provides more and more examples and nonexamples as students try to figure out the important attributes of the concept by identifying what the examples have in common. When students think they know the important attributes, they do not give these answers aloud because that would immediately cut off the critical thinking processes of the other students. Instead, if they think they know the attributes, students simply give other examples and nonexamples. In this way, they can test their own ideas and provide additional examples for other students to consider. Now I want you to try to figure out the attributes of the concept illustrated by these examples and nonexamples.


Overhead 2.11

I’m sure you will quickly recognize that the concept is compound word. However, pretend that you do not know. What do you think are the major attributes of the examples? Can anyone think of any additional examples and nonexamples to add to the lists?

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Let’s try another example of this concept attainment strategy. Overhead 2.12

<Use Overhead 2.12 to take participants through the process for the concept “rhombus.” Attributes: figure with four equal sides; opposite sides must be parallel. Show examples and nonexamples one at a time. Ask participants to list attributes.> Presenting new concepts in this way is a very powerful technique because it requires students to construct the defining attributes of a concept. Students must retrieve their prior knowledge about the examples and nonexamples in order to try to identify characteristics that the examples share and that the nonexamples lack. When using the strategy, it is important to reinforce students’ thinking, and not just the right answers, as they try to figure out the attributes of the concept.

Individual Task

Take a look now at the italicized lists of examples and nonexamples in the middle of page 58 of the Teacher’s Manual. Quickly put your hand over the paragraph under the two lists so that you cannot see the answer. As you try to identify the attributes of this slightly more complex concept, notice how much prior information you must use to construct the meaning of the concept. Finally, Strategy 7 suggests that teachers use instructional techniques that provide students with strategies to use before, during, and after they receive information. These strategies can be used by learners during the entire reading process. Two instructional techniques that follow the before, during, and after structure are described in the Teacher’s Manual: Reciprocal teaching and SQ3R.

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Read through the description of reciprocal teaching on pages 59 and 60, and then read the information in the margin on page 59. Explain to a partner why you think this technique produces such dramatic results with students.

Think/Pair/Share

The strategies included in this section of the manual are all examples of things that teachers and students can do to ensure that information is being learned, not just taught. No matter how rich the activity, learners will successfully acquire knowledge to the degree to which they actively engage in constructing meaning, whether they are reading, listening to, observing, or doing something with the information.

Organize I am going to show you a picture of something fairly familiar to you. Although this is a simple task, don’t say aloud what you see. People will recognize it at different times.

Overhead 2.13

The point of doing this is to help you experience what it is like when something that is clear to some people is, at best, fuzzy to others. For those who had trouble seeing the dog, how did it feel when others could see it? For those who saw it before it was outlined, what feelings did you have when you knew you could see it and others couldn’t? For those who quite clearly saw something other than a dog, how did you feel when you found out you were wrong? As information is being presented in the classroom, students may or may not recognize the patterns of ideas in that information, just as many of you had trouble recognizing the pattern of the dog. Of course, patterns in information are not intentionally distorted as the picture of the dog was, but what students see in even well-organized blocks of information still will vary. The key to seeing the dog was being able to organize all of the lines and shadows in order to recognize the pattern of a dog embedded in the picture. Likewise, when trying to acquire information, the key is to organize the ideas in order to recognize the patterns of relationships embedded in the

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block of information. Just as there were distracting lines hiding the picture of the dog, there are often words and ideas that, for many students, seem to distract them from the organizational patterns in the information. Overhead

2.7

Organizing declarative information is a critical part of acquiring declarative knowledge. The strategies on pages 61-72 describe a variety of methods for helping students to see patterns in the information they see and hear. Perhaps the most common strategy used to organize information is the formal outline. For some people, outlining is an effective way of understanding the relationships among key ideas; for others, it is difficult and not very helpful. However, there are many other strategies for helping students to see the patterns of relationships in information. The first strategy on page 61 reminds us that it often helps for students to understand the purpose of the strategies in this section: to organize declarative knowledge. The activities at the bottom of page 61 and the top of page 62 suggest a sequence of experiences that might help students to become aware of their ability to see patterns all around them and then to use this ability to recognize patterns in information. In the introduction to Dimension 2 we examined the most common organizational patterns in information. You’ll recall that these patterns were concepts, generalizations/principles, episodes, processes/cause-effect relationships, time sequences, and descriptions. Students who are familiar with these commonly used patterns can become skilled at using them to organize information that they read or hear. To see and understand these patterns more clearly, students can learn to use graphic organizers. Read the sections on pages 62-65, which again describe the most common organizational patterns and provide a graphic organizer for each.

Overheads 2.14

2.15

2.3

2.4

Overheads

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Let’s use these patterns. Take a few minutes to read the passage on page 66 entitled “Dictators Rise to Power.” When you finish, do not look ahead to page 67.

Individual Task

Now, use one of the graphic organizers you just read about to organize important information into one of the six common organizational patterns. Go ahead and draw the organizer, and begin to put in the key information. For this first part of the activity, work alone. Now, compare what you have done with at least two other people. Look at pages 67 and 68, and compare what you created with the organizers you find there. As you look them over, notice that as each organizational pattern is used, different information from the passage is highlighted. Although many teachers have used graphic organizers with students, they commonly use a web-like organizer similar to that used here under descriptive pattern. However, it is important to remember that the graphic organizer that is used should visually depict the relationship you want students to see. The use of patterns to organize the information can be either teacher directed or student directed. The teacher may decide that there are specific ideas and relationships among ideas that students must clearly see; in this case, he or she should select the patterns to organize information. The other option is to ask students to organize information on their own. Of course, this approach makes students more active learners. If pattern recognition is truly student directed, the teacher needs to accept what students see, as long as the information is well organized. Another method of communicating specific organizational patterns is to provide students with questions to help them use a specific pattern and to see the relationships among the ideas being organized. As you can see from the examples on pages 68 and 69, there are specific questions to ask when you want to emphasize a particular organizational pattern.

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Once students become familiar with the common organizational patterns, you can encourage them to take notes using graphic representations. Examine Figure 2.8 on page 70, which shows one way of organizing notes using graphic representations. One teacher explains that she periodically requires students to use this method. Her students prepare their note-taking paper with two columns. Then periodically during the learning experience, she cues them to pause and construct a graphic organizer for their written notes. She also encourages them to use pictographic representations. Look at page 71 for an explanation and an example of a pictograph. Small Group Activity

Working with a couple of other people, select one of the graphic organizers for the dictator passage that you were working on a few minutes ago, and create a pictographic representation instead. You do not have to be an artist to make this work. Think of it as playing the game of “Pictionary” in which you use stick figures and crude drawings to communicate meaning. Building pictographs engages students in representing linguistic information nonlinguistically. As suggested, physical models also might be used. Both of these types of representations require students to select important information that should be included in their pictographs or models. Thus, the strategy encourages students to focus on key ideas and the relationships among them.


In groups of three, select a current event with which you are fairly familiar. Represent the key ideas and the relationships among those ideas using a pictograph. When you are finished, I will ask you to share your product. As you share your pictographs, describe how you decided what to include and why you represented it the way you did. <Sharing can be with the whole group, among small groups, or both.>

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Think about the explanations just given for the pictographs. What evidence is there that creating these representations helps students to organize information? Teachers who have taught students to take notes using pictures and graphic organizers have reported that many students get excited about the possibilities. “You mean we can draw what we are learning?,” they ask. Of course, many students still need guidance in building useful pictographs and organizers, but for some students note taking begins to mean more than the busy work of copying what’s on the blackboard or writing down every word the teacher says. Finally, it is recommended that you use graphs or charts to organize information. This approach is commonly used to organize quantitative information, but the example on page 72 shows a way of depicting conceptual ideas as well. There are, of course, variations of all of these strategies. Turn to page 82, and read the classroom example in the middle of the page. It begins, “A team of health education. . . .” This example does not include a pictograph or a graphic organizer as described in the manual, but you will see the graphic as a variation designed to help students organize information.

Store

Overhead

2.7

When students use strategies that help them to construct meaning and organize information, they are more likely to remember that information. However, there are times when specific memorization techniques are necessary. Discussing memory makes some people uncomfortable. How many of you think you have a good memory? A bad memory? A so-so memory? How many of you have already forgotten the question? The characterizations associated with the labels “good memory,” “poor memory,” and so on are one reason people feel uncomfortable with the topic. Another is that many people believe memorization has no place in schools. The reality, however, is that sometimes there is information that students are expected to memorize. As explained in the introduction to the section on

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storing declarative knowledge (page 73 in the Teacher’s Manual), we as educators need to make good decisions about what students should memorize. We then should provide them with effective strategies so that it will not take them long to memorize necessary information. The most common method of memorizing is mental rehearsal, repeatedly going over information. This is also the least efficient way of storing new knowledge. There are better strategies for enhancing long-term memory. How many people have used mnemonic devices to help students memorize information (for example, ROY G. BIV to remember the colors of the rainbow or HOMES to remember the Great Lakes)? <Elicit other examples.> Creating mnemonic devices can be a very efficient way of storing specific content knowledge. Unfortunately, they are somewhat limited in their use. It is difficult to generate mnemonics for everything we want to memorize. There are, however, a number of other strategies students can use. First, help students understand that storing information can be facilitated by using strategies for constructing meaning and organizing. There are several suggestions on page 74 for helping to build this understanding with students. Next, introduce students to one of the most common principles related to how human beings store and recall information: Memorizing often relies on creating mental images, and these images rely on our ability to use symbols and substitutions. Think/Pair/Share

To illustrate this principle, think about something significant that has happened to you within the last year (such as a wedding or graduation you attended or a hike you took in the Grand Canyon). Try to recall that incident in detail. Turn and tell your neighbor about it. Now, describe what was happening in your head as you recalled and described the event. Were you seeing things? Smelling? Tasting? Hearing? Touching? When we remember something really well, like the event you just recalled, our senses are usually involved. In the section of this model on constructing meaning, one strategy was to have students use all of their senses. The suggestion was to help students create mental pictures and physical sensations so that they can attach what they know to what they are

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experiencing. When the instructional goal is to store information, images that include both mental pictures and physical sensations are used in a more systematic and structured way. Take a moment to read the second strategy for helping students to store declarative knowledge (pages 74 and 75). This section suggests helping students use symbols and substitutes to create mental pictures and physical sensations for information. A symbol is a concrete image that stands for or represents abstract information. The clenched fist is a symbol for power. The dollar is a symbol for money. If I were trying to remember the phrase “Money is power,” I might use these symbols. I would create a mental picture of a clenched fist and a dollar sign. I would also try to put touch, taste, smell, and so on in the picture. A substitute is a word that sounds like or looks like abstract content but is familiar and concrete enough to picture mentally. For example, if I were trying to remember that Topeka is the capital of Kansas, I might picture a top (Topeka) spinning on a can (Kansas). Note the example on page 75 that shows a picture that might be created to remember that water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Turn to page 82, and read the last classroom example. It explains the creative result of a group of students using substitutions to recall information.

Overhead 2.16

In small groups, see if you can generate a symbol or a substitute for the seven continents. Form these groups with the people around you in whatever way feels comfortable.


Becoming skilled at creating mental pictures and physical sensations for all types of concrete or abstract information will allow students to use a number of memory strategies. One of the most widely used strategies is the link strategy, which is described on page 75. It involves telling yourself a little story that “links” together the mental pictures and physical sensations you have created for the information. “Georgette, the Jersey Cow,” the system you learned in the Overview session, is an example of the link method. The mental pictures in this system were combinations of symbols and substitutes.

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See if you can remember the pictures that were linked (during the Georgette, the Jersey Cow/thirteen original colonies example) and then determine which ones are symbols and which are substitutes. Now, with a partner take the symbols and substitutes you generated for the seven continents and try to link them together into a story or picture. There are a number of other highly structured systems that use mental pictures. Four of these systems are described on pages 76-80. I just demonstrated the rhyming pegword system. It is relatively simple to use. Now I’ll teach you how to use it.

Overhead 2.17

Repeat this list of words to yourself. One is a bun, two is a shoe. Get a distinct mental picture of the items (bun, shoe, tree, etc.). Now I will give you a grocery list, and you will be able to list the items in the order I give them to you. Recall the pegword for the number I give you. I’ll start with the number one. Get a picture of the bun. Now put into that slot a carton of milk. Make sure the picture of the pegword (i.e., bun) and the picture of the grocery item (i.e., milk) interact in some way (e.g., milk is pouring over the hot dog bun making it soggy. Ick!). Also remember to try to hear, smell, taste, and touch something. Focus on the picture of the two items (the pegword and the grocery item), then let the picture go.

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Many students can use the rhyming pegword system the first time they are exposed to it or after a little practice. Whether they use it for content is not necessarily important. They can just have fun with it. Often students will discover that memorization, just like other thinking skills, is not a “gift” that you have or that you lack. Anyone can get better at any type of thinking when he or she has strategies for doing so. Take a moment to read a more content-related use of the rhyming pegword system on pages 76 and 77. Then read about the number/key word, the number/picture, and the familiar place systems, which are variations of the pegword system. Now, with a partner, try to think of content that you teach that requires students to memorize. Discuss whether you think any of these strategies would help students to be successful.

Think/Pair/Share

The final strategy for helping students to store declarative knowledge, strategy 5, reminds us that mnemonic devices are also very powerful ways of helping students to recall information. As we have seen, there are many strategies that can be presented to students to help them store important information. However, once again, please remember that when students spend time constructing meaning and organizing, they will be more likely to retain the information.

Overhead

2.7

We have examined strategies for helping students to construct meaning for, organize, and store declarative knowledge. There is no guarantee that these strategies will work, but they all have been used effectively with students who are acquiring declarative knowledge. We will see that when planning for declarative knowledge, it is important to identify which strategies will be used during the unit to ensure that as students engage in various activities, they are constructing meaning for, organizing, and storing the information.

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Closure

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to this section of Dimension 2. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Planning for Dimension 2, Declarative Knowledge <Participants should have a blank planning guide for declarative knowledge in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.> We have been discussing the types of thinking needed to efficiently acquire and integrate declarative knowledge and have examined strategies that will stimulate these thinking processes. It is important to carefully plan instruction related to Dimension 2. Like each of the dimensions, planning for Dimension 2 requires a process that includes steps designed to answer a primary question, in this case, “What will be done to help students acquire and integrate declarative knowledge?” This process is described on page 83 of your manual. Overhead 2.P1

As you follow these steps and make decisions, record your ideas and plans on a planning guide, as shown on page 92.

Overhead 2.P2

The planning process for Dimension 2 is perhaps the most difficult and time consuming of any of the dimensions. This is because in Dimension 2 you are identifying the knowledge that you want students to acquire and integrate, extend and refine, and use meaningfully. Notice that Step 1 asks the question, “What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating?” Accompanying this question, a sentence stem begins the answer, “As a result of this unit, students will know or understand . . .”. This part of the planning process is covered beginning on page 84. There are several steps within Step 1. These steps vary depending on the extent to which you use standards and benchmarks. Frequently, unit planning begins with developing a title for the unit. As described in Step 1a, that title might be a topic, a theme, a concept, a generalization, or any other unifying idea that brings meaning to the unit. A unit title simply gives us a way of talking about the unit. The title of the example in the Teacher’s Manual is the Colorado Unit. Step 1b suggests brainstorming a list of information that should be included in the unit. This is just a way of getting started. A list from this part of planning the Colorado Unit might have looked something like this.

Overhead 2.P3

Step 1c asks you to start making some decisions. You can’t teach everything there is to know about Colorado or about any topic. To help you make decisions about what to teach, it is suggested that you use the organizational patterns identified in the introduction to Dimension 2 and reinforced in the section of the manual on organizing declarative knowledge. If, in addition, you use standards and benchmarks, at this point you should let the benchmarks for your grade level drive your decisions. With or without benchmarks, you need to spend some concentrated time identifying and organizing the declarative knowledge that it is important for students to learn. Take a couple of minutes to read through the identification process explained on page 85. (This includes a process to use with and without standards and benchmarks.) Then examine the accompanying sample worksheets and unit planning graphics on the following pages.

Overheads 2.P4 2.P5 2.P6 2.P7

Notice that not all of the information on the brainstormed list was identified as important. Notice also that much of the specific factual information was selected because it supports the more general concept patterns and generalization/principle patterns. Let’s look at these two patterns more closely.

Overhead 2.P3

When you are identifying concepts and generalizations/principles, you are identifying knowledge that will help students understand information other

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Declarative: Planning

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than that included in this unit. Both factual information (which is more specific) and concepts or generalizations/principles (which are more general) are important. However, factual information is what students should know, whereas concepts and generalizations/principles are information that students should understand. We will see in other dimensions that general knowledge (that is, concepts and generalizations/principles that students need to understand) is the knowledge that is worth extending, refining, and using meaningfully. If only factual information is identified, we suggest that you ask yourself if there is also general knowledge that students should be acquiring and integrating during the unit. During planning, then, you are identifying the important declarative knowledge and organizing it into patterns. The worksheets on pages 86 and 88 are only samples that represent the process of making these decisions. The unit planning graphics on pages 87 and 89 represent the final decisions for this unit. As explained in the manual, the graphic format is shown as an alternative way of depicting the final decisions; this is a visual and less linear way of showing your planning decisions than the ideas roughed out on the sample worksheets. Either the worksheet, the graphic format, or both may be used to identify the declarative knowledge that will be the focus of the unit. Planning Activity

Before going any further with the planning process, let’s practice this very important step of identifying the declarative knowledge for the unit. You may work alone or with others. Start by selecting a unit that you are going to plan. It makes sense to select a unit that you actually teach. If you are not presently a teacher in the classroom, select a unit that you have taught or that you know is taught. First, brainstorm a list of the declarative knowledge that you want students to acquire and integrate. It might be useful to think of the accompanying sentence stem that begins the answer to the question in Step 1, “As a result of this unit, students will know or understand….”

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If you are using benchmarks, this is a good time to specify which benchmarks will be addressed in this unit. Depending on where you begin in your planning, the brainstormed list of declarative knowledge might lead you to the identification of appropriate benchmarks, or your selected benchmarks might suggest appropriate declarative knowledge that should be included in your brainstormed list. <Model this for participants, and give them time to generate their lists.> Next, set up a worksheet format (as shown on pages 86 and 88) or a unit graphic format (as shown on pages 87 and 89), and begin identifying and organizing the important declarative knowledge. If you plan using benchmarks, organize the information under each benchmark that is being taught, as shown in the Colorado Unit examples. Identify any concepts, generalizations/principles, etc., that are important in the unit, and write the pattern in the first column. Identify the knowledge that is organized into those patterns in the second column. If there are concept patterns and generalization/principle patterns in the unit, consider if you need to identify any important specific facts that will support these more general patterns. You can see how these are identified in the Colorado Unit worksheets and unit graphics. <Model this step for participants, and/or refer again to the Colorado Unit examples.> Keep in mind that planning rarely is a linear process. Although we are identifying the declarative knowledge in Dimension 2 before we look at Dimensions 3 and 4, the knowledge we identify may be revised after decisions are made in the other dimensions. In fact, some people plan by beginning with Dimension 4 and then identifying the declarative knowledge for the unit. We will look more closely at these different planning sequences in Chapter 6, “Putting It All Together.” Now that you have identified the declarative knowledge that you want students to acquire, you need to move on to Step 2 and answer the next question, “What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?”

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Overhead 2.P1

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These experiences may include direct, active experiences or indirect experiences such as reading, listening, or viewing. Look at the sample list of experiences and activities on page 90. The sample page from the planning guide for the Colorado Unit, page 92, includes both direct and indirect experiences. For many teachers, identifying experiences and activities has been the focus of their planning efforts. Rich, engaging activities are, of course, important, but you will notice that when planning with the Dimensions of Learning model, the emphasis is on first identifying important knowledge and then designing experiences and activities that will provide students with opportunities to acquire that knowledge. The activities and experiences are not the end; they are the means to the end. When selecting and designing activities and experiences, the planner must consider the diversity that exists in the classroom. Some learners are most comfortable with active, hands-on activities; others prefer quiet, reflective experiences. Some students learn best when they hear the information; others will want to hear and see the information. The key is to vary the types of activities and experiences so that all students at times will be learning in the mode that is most comfortable for them. Step 3 of the planning process asks you to now answer, “What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning for, organize, and/or store this knowledge?” As explained, we know that even wonderful activities and experiences do not guarantee that students will acquire the identified knowledge. During planning, it is important to identify the strategies that you might use to increase the likelihood that students will learn from the activities and experiences that you have planned. The strategies reviewed in this chapter are listed together on page 91 as a handy reference to use as you are planning. As just explained in Step 2, all classrooms have students with diverse styles of learning. In addition to varying the types of activities and experiences that you select, you need to vary the strategies that you use in conjunction with these activities and experiences. Some students will prefer discovery or inquiry strategies; others will find that they learn best when information is presented using a didactic strategy such as K-W-L. Again, the key is to vary your choices in order to appeal to diverse styles of learning. Finally, Step 4 asks you to describe what will be done. This part of the planning guide for the Colorado unit, as seen on page 92, shows a brief description, written by the teacher planning the unit, of what will happen in the classroom. This space does not have to be filled out as it is in this

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example; that’s up to you. Use the space in any way that will help you, or others reading your unit, to understand exactly what you plan to do. The entire unit plan for the Colorado Unit is included in the back of your manual (pages 329-339). You will quickly notice that there are multiple pages for the planning of declarative knowledge in this unit. There are three reasons for this: 1. We wanted to provide you with a number of different examples during this training. 2. This is a long unit (four weeks) with a heavy emphasis on declarative knowledge. 3. The planning guides have been filled out in the kind of detail that is needed if the unit is to make sense to others who may want to use it. Units can be planned with much less detail, especially if they are only for your personal use, or they can be planned with much more detail if you include individual lesson plans. The amount of detail included, again, depends on who will be using the unit plan. It is important to remember that in addition to planning units of study, there are other uses of the Dimensions of Learning model. For example, it might be used to better understand the learning process or to increase your repertoire of strategies for the classroom. Understanding this section, and the next one on procedural knowledge, is critical to using the Dimensions of Learning model for any of these purposes. <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to this section of Dimension 2. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Procedural Knowledge Overhead

O.8

So that we can refer to a common experience as we study procedural knowledge, I am going to teach you to use chopsticks. Let’s pretend that you are planning to visit China and that you must learn this skill in order to avoid insulting your host. If you are already proficient at using chopsticks, use your other hand (your nondominant hand).

Overhead 2.19

First, I am going to help you construct a model for this skill; that is, I am going to teach you a set of steps for using chopsticks. This is a critical phase any time you are learning to do something. Think of another time you learned a skill of some sort, such as how to swing a golf club or how to log-on to the Internet. Try to remember how you learned the steps involved. Did someone demonstrate them? Did you read them in an instruction manual? Did you figure them out on your own? As you recall how you “constructed the model” for the skill, share your experience with your partner.

Think/Pair/Share

One way of helping learners to construct a model is to provide them with a set of written steps. I am going to use this approach now.

Overhead 2.20

As you read through these steps, I will demonstrate each step and talk through what I am thinking as I do each step. Now, pick up your chopsticks, and try to perform each step. Let me stop you for a minute. Some people around you who already use chopsticks may use a different method, such as holding the first chopstick

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between the second and third fingers. Feel free to adjust your style of holding chopsticks to use any suggestions your experienced colleagues might offer. Also, try to pick up various things on your table and notice how your grip needs to change as a function of the size and shape of the object. Go ahead now and try to figure out the best way to alter or change the steps you have been given so that you begin to become comfortable using the chopsticks. This phase of learning a skill is called shaping. Overhead 2.19

Now I’d like you to increase your skill level so that you might eventually use chopsticks to eat yet still be able to have a dinner conversation with your friends. In general, what must you do in order to get better at something?

Overhead 2.19

I am going to help you begin to internalize this skill by having you practice for a few minutes. I’d like you to see how many items you can pick up, move about a foot, and then set back down in 30 seconds. I’ll then give you several additional 30-second periods to see if you can improve. You could record your progress on a sheet like this one.

Overhead 2.21

Ready? Begin.

Overhead 2.19

You have now experienced the three phases of learning procedural knowledge. To review, in the first phase learners construct a model, or learn a set of steps, for performing the skill. They are able to perform the skill, but their performance is usually a bit rough. Remember when you first

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learned to drive a car? If you were driving a stick shift, the step that required you to push down the accelerator pedal and release the clutch at the same time was probably a bit rough the first time. Shaping is the phase during which you “make the procedure your own.” You learn how to use it in different situations and you change, add, or delete steps, as needed. You probably remember that when you learned to drive a car you began to realize that you really did not have to hold your hands on the steering wheel exactly as your instructor advised. You could drive the car with your hands in a number of different positions. You also learned that driving is a bit different on wet pavement than on dry pavement. Each time you changed the process of driving or performed variations of the process, you were shaping your procedural knowledge. The final step of learning procedural knowledge is to internalize the procedure. The term internalize is used in everyday language to mean many different things. Here we use the term only to refer to the phase of learning that is characterized by being able to use the procedural knowledge without having to think about the steps. (For example, you can now drive a car from point A to point B without much conscious thought about driving, perhaps without enough conscious thought. Have you ever driven from point A to point B and, upon arriving, realized that you could not remember anything that happened between the two points?) We are now going to look at each phase more carefully. To prepare for this, form groups of three with those around you. Assign each person a letter: A, B, or C.


Now, I’d like each of you to study the strategies associated with each phase. As we proceed through these phases together, you each will be the leader of the group when we discuss the phase you have been assigned. For now, read your assigned section and think about the strategies. Try to determine which, if any, of those strategies I used when I taught you to use chopsticks.

Overhead 2.22

As we discuss each phase, you will be the leader when we focus on the strategies you were assigned.

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Construct Models Overhead 2.19

The first step in learning a procedure is to construct a model, that is, to know the set of steps involved in performing the skill or process. Sometimes all a teacher has to do is demonstrate, or model, a skill or process to help students clearly envision the steps that are involved. However, it is important to understand that sometimes it is necessary to do more than demonstrate the steps. Some students, because of the way they learn, consistently need more than the experience of watching someone else use the skill or process. In addition, some procedures have such a complex set of steps that all students need to do more than watch a demonstration. There are a number of techniques that can be used to help students construct models for procedural knowledge. Several are described in the Teacher’s Manual.

Overhead 2.23 Small Group Activity

The person in each group of three who was assigned to read this section (the construct models section) should now briefly describe these strategies to the group. When you describe each strategy, indicate which, if any, were used during our shared learning experience with the chopsticks. In addition, in your groups describe what exactly I would have done if I had used the strategy.


Keeping in mind what you’ve learned so far and how you teach procedures, what additional strategies might you use to help students construct models?

Shape Overhead 2.19

The next step in effectively learning a procedure is to shape it. Once you start to use a skill or process, you usually begin to modify or alter it in some way. Thus, shaping can involve modifications like adjusting your approach, adding some steps and dropping others, becoming aware of variations in using the process, discovering potential problem areas, and using the process in different contexts. This step is often left out of the learning process and yet is critical to learning the procedure and using it effectively. If students begin to make errors early in the learning process and then practice and internalize the procedure while still making these errors, it is difficult for them to correct the errors later.

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Shaping also includes helping students to develop the conceptual understanding that is necessary to becoming competent in the use and application of the skill or process. Many students cannot use mathematical computations to solve word problems, for example, because they do not understand the mathematical processes nor the circumstances under which one is used as opposed to another. As stated earlier, although we know that shaping is critical, it is the phase that is often left out of the teaching process. What are some reasons that this phase is often left out?


The Teacher’s Manual suggests four strategies for helping students to shape procedures.

Overhead 2.24

At this time, have the person in your group who was assigned this section (the shaping section) briefly explain these four strategies, which are used to help students shape procedural knowledge. Remember to identify the strategies I used when I taught you to use chopsticks and, for the strategies that I did not use, to describe what it might have looked like if I had.


Let’s take a few minutes to study in more depth the four strategies for helping students shape procedural knowledge. Specifically, let’s see if we can describe how these strategies might be used to help shape a specific procedure: long division with whole numbers. Just to review, long division refers to the process signified by the following <write on chart or overhead>: 3794 divided by 27. In your groups see if you can identify


1. the variations in the process of long division that you might want to make students aware of, 2. the common errors or pitfalls that you might want to make students aware of, 3. various situations in which long division can be used that you might want to make students aware of, and 4. important concepts or principles related to the process of long division.

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Internalize Overhead 2.19

The last phase in learning a procedure is internalizing. Through practice, we learn a process or skill well enough to perform it proficiently and accurately without consciously thinking about every step. The procedure becomes a means to an end.

Overhead 2.25

Last, but not least, the person assigned to this phase of learning procedural knowledge should now briefly explain these strategies to the group. Be sure to identify the strategies I used and, for each strategy that I did not use, describe what it might have looked like if I had. Practice is time consuming, but if students are going to be expected to use a process or skill, opportunities to practice must be provided. Thus it is important to ask yourself whether the skill is one that is critical to internalize. In other words, is it one that students will still need to be able to perform in a month, a semester, or a year? It is sometimes appropriate to simply introduce a skill and give students time to practice it a little but not to internalize it. However, for skills that are to be internalized, massed practice, or frequent trials, should occur first. Then, over time, students should engage in distributed practice, that is, periodic practice sessions at

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increasing intervals (for example, once a day, then once a month, then once every three months). Remember that the Teacher’s Manual suggests that students keep a chart or some other record of their speed or accuracy as they seek to master a procedure. As educators begin to better understand the process of acquiring and integrating procedural knowledge, they begin to see why teachers sometimes accuse their students’ previous teachers of not doing their jobs. You may have heard accusations like, “Didn’t they teach them anything in_____?” Often the reason that students cannot do what they have been taught to do is that they learned it only well only enough to pass a test. If educators expect students to perform a procedure proficiently and accurately, they must set aside time for students to practice so that they internalize the procedure. On pages 104-105, you will find some classroom examples that deal with acquiring and integrating procedural knowledge. With a partner, read and discuss the examples provided. As you discuss these examples, answer the following questions: What do you think of how the teacher in your example responded in the situation portrayed? What might you do or recommend that someone do in that situation? Then identify a process or skill that your students have had difficulty learning. How might you strengthen how you teach that process, given what you now know about acquiring and integrating procedural knowledge?

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Planning for Dimension 2, Procedural Knowledge <Participants should have a blank planning guide for procedural knowledge in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.> Overhead 2.P8

Planning for the acquisition and integration of procedural knowledge involves asking and answering the following question: What will be done to help students acquire and integrate procedural knowledge? If you look at page 106, you will find that there are three basic steps involved in answering this question. The three columns on the planning guide (page 112) correspond to the three steps for planning for procedural knowledge.

Overhead 2.P9

Step 1: What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to…. Step 2: What strategies will be used to help students construct models for, shape, and/or internalize this knowledge? Step 3: Describe what will be done. Now let’s look at the sample Colorado Unit to see how each of the steps is addressed on the planning guide and accompanying worksheets. Step 1, again, asks what procedural knowledge students will be in the process of acquiring and integrating. The answers to this question will vary depending on the specific school or district. Some teachers have a great deal of latitude in determining what knowledge students should acquire. Others are in schools or districts that have identified standards and benchmarks, which articulate what students should learn. Examples and worksheets are provided in the Teacher’s Manual for each of these situations.

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Take a few minutes to examine the two worksheets with their accompanying planning graphics on pages 109 and 110 in the Teachers’ Manual. One is for planning without standards and benchmarks.

Overhead 2.P10

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The other is for planning with standards and benchmarks.

Overhead 2.P11

How are they alike? How are they different? Identify any questions you have about these worksheets, and then talk these questions over with a partner. When identifying the procedural knowledge that students will learn in the unit, it is important to identify specific skills or processes, not general macroprocesses (which are discussed in the introduction to Dimension 2 on page 49). When procedural knowledge is too general, such as “students will be able to read well,” it is difficult to generate a single set of steps and then to help students shape and internalize the process. During planning, it is important to specify exactly what skill or process students will be learning to do.>

Overhead 2.P9

Let’s look at the planning guide again. Step 2 (column 2) asks, “What strategies will be used to help students construct models for, shape, and internalize the procedural knowledge?” Step 3 (column 3) asks you to describe what will be done. In order to complete the second step, you must decide whether the skill needs to be internalized; in other words, should students learn it well enough to use it with relative ease and then practice it enough to be able to use it in six months or a year? Some skills may simply need to be introduced so that students construct a model, do some shaping, and then perhaps practice the skill to a very limited extent. This somewhat cursory introduction to a skill would result in students knowing about the skill. However, in six months or a year students would need to extensively review the skill before they could use it. On the other hand, when the knowledge is to be internalized, students must spend more time in each phase of the learning process. They must construct a model, spend concentrated time shaping the procedure, and have many opportunities for massed and distributed practice. Refer to the planning guide for the Colorado Unit (page 112), specifically steps 2 and 3. In your groups, discuss the following questions: What do you think of the strategies the teacher selected to help students acquire the map reading and interpreting skills? What other strategy or strategies might she have selected?

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What other procedural knowledge might be taught as part of this unit? Planning Activity

Let’s practice using these steps with the planning guide. Identify a procedure you have taught or would teach as part of a unit you are planning. Once you have identified a process or skill, select the strategy or strategies you would use to help students construct models. For example, would you use a thinkaloud demonstration? Would you provide students with a written set of steps? Next, identify the strategy or strategies you would use to help students shape the process. Would you focus on variations in the procedure? If so, what variations? Would you point out common errors in the procedure? If so, what errors? What conceptual understandings would be important for students to achieve competency with the process? Finally, if the skill is to be internalized, identify the practice schedule that you would set up. As you look at the pages of the Dimension 2 planning guides for acquiring and integrating declarative and procedural knowledge, it should be clear that they guide you through the process of making decisions related to the essential knowledge in a unit. Of course, students will be exposed to a great deal of information in any unit you plan, but it is futile to expect them to acquire and integrate everything that might be important. The important knowledge that you identify on these planning guides is actually only a portion of the knowledge to which students will be exposed during the activities and experiences—films, field trips, readings—in the unit.

Overhead 2.P12

Illustrating this point graphically, the large circle represents the total body of content knowledge to which students will be exposed during a unit; the small circle represents the portion that is planned for, taught, and assessed. We will soon see that during the planning process for Dimensions 3 and 4, it is this knowledge, represented in the small circle, that will be considered when we are identifying what knowledge will be extended, refined, and used meaningfully.

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Dimension 3

DIMENSION 3

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3 Dimension 3 Extend and Refine Knowledge

To the Trainer This portion of the training covers Chapter 3 of the Teacher’s Manual, which addresses the eight complex reasoning processes in Dimension 3. It is important for participants to understand that acquiring and integrating knowledge is not the end of learning. The most effective learning takes place when students extend and refine the knowledge they acquire in order to develop an in-depth understanding of that knowledge. By making new connections, restructuring the knowledge, experiencing new insights, and correcting misconceptions, students understand the knowledge they are learning at a deeper level and thereby extend and refine that knowledge. To this end, teachers should plan and explicitly teach processes that, when applied to knowledge, cause such connections and insights to happen. These processes include the eight highlighted in Dimension 3: •

Comparing: Identifying and articulating similarities and differences among items.

•

Classifying: Grouping things into definable categories on the basis of their attributes.

•

Abstracting: Identifying and articulating the underlying theme or general pattern of information.

•

Inductive reasoning: Inferring unknown generalizations or principles from information or observations.

•

Deductive reasoning: Using generalizations and principles to infer unstated conclusions about specific information or situations.

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Dimension 3 Extend & Refine Knowledge

•

Constructing support: Building systems of support for assertions.

•

Analyzing errors: Identifying and articulating errors in thinking.

•

Analyzing perspectives: Identifying multiple perspectives on an issue and examining the reasons or logic behind each.

During this training, participants will be in the process of learning •

that the process of learning should go beyond acquiring and integrating knowledge to include extending and refining important knowledge;

•

that students can learn specific complex reasoning processes that extend and refine knowledge. As a result of using these processes, students should see knowledge in new ways and be able to express insights, understandings, ideas, or discoveries related to that knowledge;

•

that these processes must be taught explicitly so that they can be rigorously applied to important content;

•

how to use the eight complex reasoning processes to help students extend and refine knowledge;

•

how to teach students to use each of the eight processes to extend and refine knowledge; and

•


When you cover the Dimension 3 complex reasoning processes, it is sometimes helpful to cluster them into groups and then show how the processes within each cluster are interrelated. Specifically, we recommend presenting comparing, classifying, and abstracting together because they all focus on similarities and differences; inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning can be presented together because although there are other important differences between these two processes, inductive reasoning is essentially the inverse of deductive reasoning; the processes in the third cluster—constructing support, analyzing errors, and analyzing perspectives—all deal with examining issues and their related claims and supporting arguments.

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Exploring Dimension 3

Overhead O.11

A basic principle of learning is that once acquired, knowledge changes. When we encounter new information, we may learn something about it and achieve a certain level of understanding. But then as a result of having additional experiences that encourage us to think again about the information, we may change our understanding because we learn more, clear up misconceptions, make new connections, and so on. In Dimension 3, these changes in knowledge are referred to as “extending and refining” the knowledge. As a result of the experiences we have every day, we are constantly extending and refining knowledge. This is fortunate because another principle of learning suggests that when we first learn something, we usually learn it at a surface level, and we sometimes learn it inaccurately; thus, we may unknowingly walk away from a learning experience with incomplete understandings, misconceptions, or misunderstandings. For this reason, whether it happens naturally or is carefully planned as part of students’ learning experiences, knowledge should be constantly extended and refined. Symbolically, the process of extending and refining knowledge might be represented in this way.

Overhead 3.0A

• This top graphic represents the knowledge students might have about the Civil War after an initial period of study. • As a result of reexamining that knowledge by explicitly applying one of the complex reasoning processes, that knowledge might look like this bottom graphic. It is expanded and reorganized, and new connections are made. As we explore the eight complex reasoning processes in this dimension, keep in mind that the purpose of engaging students in these types of thinking is to help them extend and refine their knowledge: to make new connections, to have insights, to restructure their knowledge, and to clarify misunderstandings. It is important for students to understand this so that they not only deepen their understanding of content but also increase their understanding of learning as a process.

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Overhead 3.0B

John Dewey reminds us, “We learn by doing, if we reflect on what we have done.” This quote reminds us that it is important to build enough time into instruction for students to learn how to use a reasoning process, for them to apply it to important content in order to extend and refine their knowledge of that content, and for them to reflect on what they have learned as a result.

Overhead O.12

Read over the list and description of the eight reasoning processes included in Dimension 3, which can be found on page 114 of your manual. Some of these reasoning processes are probably very familiar to you, and some may be fairly new to you. We will look at several of them in-depth as we proceed through this part of the training. It is important to note that many teachers use questioning techniques to engage students in the types of thinking listed in Dimension 3. Teachers might already be asking questions such as, “How are these items alike?” or “How could you group these items?” These types of questions are especially common in classrooms in which the teacher uses Bloom’s Taxonomy to construct questions. Although such questions can potentially stimulate students to engage in “higher level” thinking, frequently they do not have this effect. Instead, students give answers that reflect lower-order, or surfacelevel, understanding. This might be because although students may have a sense of what it means to synthesize or to analyze, they often don’t know exactly how to do these types of thinking. The bias here, therefore, is to explicitly teach the reasoning processes and to have students rigorously apply them to important content. Students must know how to use the processes if they are to adequately perform the kinds of analyses the processes require. It is unfair to students, and presumptuous on the part of teachers, to assume that students understand what they are supposed to do when asked to use comparing or inductive reasoning, for example. Remember, these processes are procedural knowledge and, therefore, take quite a lot of practice before they become internalized. And because the processes are procedural knowledge, they should be taught as any other skill or process, by helping students construct models for, shape, and internalize them.

Jigsaw

114

There are some general principles of implementation that are useful to consider as teachers, schools, and districts plan for teaching the Dimension 3 processes. Get into groups of three with those around you. I’d like each person in the group to read one of the bulleted items on pages 114-115.

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Then share the general principle of implementation with your group, and discuss each point briefly. Before we explore the individual reasoning processes in Dimension 3, it might help you to understand that a similar organizational format is used for each reasoning process.

Overhead 3.0C

In addition, on pages 115-116, there is a brief explanation of the five sections that have suggestions for teaching each process. I’d like to point out that section 2 under each reasoning process includes a set of steps (which we sometimes refer to as “regular” or “original” steps) as well as a set of steps in simplified language, which is often used with younger students or with students who are just beginning to learn the process.

Comparing Comparing is the process of identifying similarities and differences among items. We all regularly compare things in daily life: We might compare books written by a favorite author, we might compare with our spouse or a friend how we spend our time at work, and so on. As a result of comparing things in this way, we gain new insights or change our perceptions about them. These benefits of the process of comparing are also available to us as we are exposed to comparisons made by others, for example, through the media or in conversation. For example, Consumer Reports organizes much of its

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information about products into comparison matrices that influence buyers’ perceptions of these products. Similarly, television news-magazine programs often compare current and historical events to help us understand both. Large Group Discussion

What other kinds of comparisons are we regularly exposed to in life? In what other instances do we regularly use the process of comparing? Try to think of a time you compared two or more things that you thought you knew well but about which you discovered something new as a result of the comparison. Or, try to think of a time you were influenced by a comparison made by someone else. In other words, think about a comparison that extended and refined your knowledge. <Elicit several examples. Emphasize how comparing extended and refined participants’ knowledge. Allow participants to discuss and then to share some examples.> It is important to communicate to students that comparing—and all of the other complex reasoning processes that are part of Dimensions 3 and 4—are used frequently in everyday life. To this end, the first strategy for teaching comparing—in fact, the first strategy for teaching all eight of the extending and refining processes—provides suggestions for helping students understand the process so that they see its importance and usefulness in many places besides the classroom. Considering that most people compare things many times each day, it is somewhat surprising that students often perform poorly on tests that require them to do comparison tasks. For example, a number of years ago, the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) included in its national assessment a comparison task that asked students to compare the diet of the pioneers with the typical diet of today (see Mullis et al., 1990). Even though a description of the diet of the pioneers was provided, only 27% of all 17-year-olds completing the task received a score indicating adequate or better performance. This is a perplexing result because teachers report that students are frequently asked to engage in comparison tasks in the classroom. Why did students perform so poorly on this test? One possible explanation is that although students are frequently asked to compare, they may not have been taught how to compare. Another possible explanation is that students may have learned how to compare in one or two classes during their schooling but never internalized the process. Remember, learning how to compare—in fact, learning how to engage in each of the reasoning processes that are part of Dimensions 3 and 4—requires students to learn a skill, that is, to learn procedural knowledge. To truly learn a skill, students need to construct a model for, shape, and internalize the procedure. Thus, to become proficient at using the process of comparing, students need to

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learn the steps and have opportunities to practice using the steps over a fairly extended period of time. If, instead, students simply are asked from time to time to compare and are not taught the steps in a careful manner or given a chance to practice using them, they will not really learn to use the process. This might help explain students’ poor performance on the NAEP task. To provide support for directly teaching complex reasoning, the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual includes a step-by-step model for using each of the eight processes. Let’s look at the steps for the process of comparing.

Overheads 3.1A 3.1B

If I were introducing these steps to students using a think-aloud process, I might say, “Let’s see. I want to compare pizza, fried chicken, and tossed salads. Now, what specific characteristics should I use in my comparison? How about nutritional value, calories, price, and the amount of fun you can have eating them?”

Overhead 3.1C

I might construct a matrix using the items and characteristics I have identified and then fill out the information in each cell. Now, how are the items similar and different in terms of each characteristic? Looking at this information, what have I learned? It seems that the more fun things are, the more expensive and the less nutritional they are. That figures. Strategy 3 for each of the eight complex reasoning processes identifies the critical steps and difficult aspects of the reasoning process and gives suggestions for dealing with them. Teaching the process of comparing can seem deceptively simple. There are several key points offered to help you avoid possible pitfalls. Take a minute or two to read the key points on page 119.

Overhead 3.1D

As emphasized in these key points, it is important to ask yourself what knowledge students are extending and refining as they engage in comparison tasks. Careful thought needs to be given to the items that students are comparing and, especially, to the quality of the characteristics that are being used in the comparison. Selecting characteristics is a critical step if meaningful conclusions are to be drawn from the comparison.

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Overhead 3.1E

Notice the difference in the kinds of conclusions that can be drawn when characteristics are changed. Different characteristics require the learner to examine very different attributes of each item. Notice in Key Point 2 that although there are a couple of suggestions for helping students generate meaningful characteristics (i.e., brainstorm ideas as a class and use an expanded comparison), we recommend that teachers model the process of generating good characteristics and give students extensive feedback as they are learning to compare. Let’s practice.


Suppose you were asked to compare these cities: New York, Denver, Houston, and ____. With a partner, generate characteristics on which to compare the cities that might produce interesting insights or conclusions.


Identify one or two comparison tasks you have used in your classroom. With a partner or with those around you, discuss the purposes of these tasks. What knowledge did you expect students to extend and refine—that is, to understand better—by engaging in these tasks? How could you use the information in the key points from the Teacher’s Manual to strengthen or alter what you have done?


Overhead 3.1F

Now take a minute to look at the graphic organizers presented in strategy 4. (See pages 120-121.) These are organizers that you can use to help students understand and use the process of comparing. Consider the steps in the comparing process as you look at the Venn diagram organizers. Sometimes teachers use a single diagram in which similarities are written in the overlapping portions of the circles and differences are written in the respective outer portions of the circles. How is this use of Venn diagrams different from the way Venn diagrams are used in the graphic on page 120 (or on this overhead)? How does it reflect the steps of the process?

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As explained in the introduction to Dimension 3, strategy 5 offers suggestions for using both teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. Please take a minute to read strategy 5 on page 121. The degree to which the teacher or students structure tasks is a function of the purpose of the task. Generally, however, the goal is to increase the amount of input that students have in structuring tasks. Turn to page 122, and read the third classroom example. This is a task that is fairly teacher structured. After you read it, be ready to describe how you could make it more student structured. Remember that comparing is a reasoning process that we all use. During any learning experience, it can be helpful to consciously compare things—cities, food, books, movies, etc.—to understand them more in-depth or in new ways. When asking students to compare, we must teach them how to compare and then encourage them to reflect on the results. <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of comparing. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Closure

Classifying

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Classifying is the mental process of grouping items according to common characteristics. Because it often requires a careful analysis of the items being classified, it helps us to extend and refine knowledge. People make sense of their world by classifying information and using classification systems that they take for granted. The way we classify things and the ways things are classified by others influences our perceptions and our behaviors. It can be fun to make this point with students by asking them to consider what might happen if certain classification systems changed. For example: • What might be different if items in a grocery store were classified into three price ranges: 1¢ to $1.00, $1.01 to $5.00, and $5.00 and higher? • What might be the consequences of classifying middle school students by their height? Large Group Discussion

What other classification systems might be fun to change?

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The point is that classifying information or accepting given classifications can influence how we view information. As with the other extending and refining processes, we regularly and naturally use this one in our everyday lives. Likewise, in the classroom we ask students to classify things. However, as we spend time now learning about the process of classifying, we will try to distinguish between classifying as it is most commonly used in the classroom and classifying as it is used to help students extend and refine knowledge. The most common type of classifying assignment asks students to place items into predetermined categories: animals into species, literature into genres, wars into time periods. Although interesting connections certainly can be made, this type of assignment is really only asking students to find out or recall the correct answer. Conversely, when students are asked to create and define their own categories and then to justify the placement of items into those categories, they might analyze information in new ways and thereby extend and refine their understanding of the information (i.e., gain insights, make new connections, and clarify confusions).

Overhead 3.2A

Let’s do an activity that requires you to analyze the categories and the information that is being classified. With two or three people around you, take a few minutes to classify the items on the left into the three categories: living, dead, or other (the column with the question mark). Feel free to define items or categories as you work together.


Let’s go over each item and see what you did in your groups. If you have an answer that differs from one given by another group, please raise your hand, give your answer, and explain that answer. The important part of the activity was not where the checkmarks were placed but the discussions that went on at your tables. The process of classifying, when used in the spirit of Dimension 3, is about extending and refining information. Some of you may have used the traditional scientific definition of living; others of you may have generated your own definitions. In either situation, whenever you stopped to discuss and reconsider attributes of the items or the meanings of the category labels, you were engaged in extending and refining your understanding of the information.

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Many teachers use the process of classifying as a Dimension 2 activity. When they use the process like this, the purpose is for students to get the item in the right column, to reproduce knowledge. Although there is nothing wrong with using the process in this way, students might then be asked to reclassify the items using different categories in order to extend and refine their knowledge. For example, students might first be asked to classify insects the way a scientist might classify them. This would assess how well they know the scientific classifications. Then, to help them look at different attributes of insects (to help them extend and refine their knowledge) they might then be asked to classify the insects as if they were exterminators and then as if they were frogs looking for dinner. Small Group Activity

Overhead 3.2B

Now I’m going to give you another assignment to do in your small groups. Here are the categories I want you to use. Here are the items I want you to classify.

Overhead 3.2C

The reason I gave you vague category labels was to see how you dealt with the categories. Most of you were bothered by these ambiguous category labels, and, therefore, early on in the activity you stopped and defined your categories. Before hearing how you grouped the items, turn to the step-bystep process on pages 124-125.

Overheads 3.2D 3.2E

Although you may not have finished, try to determine if you followed each of these steps as you worked on your assignment.

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Often when we do this activity in workshops, some participants begin to categorize the titles right away without defining the categories. As a result, in some cases items might be placed into a category for different reasons. In other words, the category changes each time an item is placed into it. For example, we might place The Scarlet Letter in the Red category because scarlet is red but also place Hamlet in the Red category because the story is bloody. What is the point? The category labels you were given were intentionally ambiguous. You probably discovered that if you had not first carefully defined the categories, the process of classifying the items would have simply been an exercise in putting items into columns. The purpose of this activity was to help you remember that students often do what some of you started to do: place items into categories before they understand the attributes necessary for category membership. The bad news is that they might do this even when the category labels are quite clear. The very bad news is that sometimes when they realize that they don’t really understand the categories, they go right ahead and continue to classify the items. They are “getting the assignment done.” The task you just did highlights another challenge in using the process of classifying. When students are creating their own categories, as you eventually had to do, they may clearly identify the attributes of the category, but the categories they select may do little to extend and refine their knowledge. For example, the Red category could be defined as “books with red bindings,” Blue as “books with blue bindings,” and so on. Or, Red could be defined as “books with five or fewer words in their titles,” Purple as “books with 5-10 words in their titles,” etc. Students will need modeling, as well as practice and feedback, to become proficient in identifying meaningful, relevant categories. Finally, students might define categories that are totally unrelated to one another. For example, it would be difficult to classify items if Red were defined as “books with powerful emotional scenes,” and Blue as “books that have predominantly female characters.” It is more meaningful to create a “classification system,” that is, to use categories that are related. For example, along with “books with powerful emotional scenes” students might create categories like “books that maintain a lighthearted tone” and “books that move back and forth between intense emotion and lightheartedness.”

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In summary, the purpose of this activity was to emphasize the first three key points in the process of classifying, as explained on pages 125-126. Overhead 3.2F

The final key point is important to keep in mind when you are designing classifying tasks. Some of the more interesting insights into knowledge come when students classify the items more than once. Each time they reclassify items, they are (at least potentially) examining different attributes of the items. This is what leads to extending and refining the knowledge.

Overhead 3.2G

For example, one teacher used classifying to deepen students’ knowledge of the vocabulary terms in a geography unit. After students gained a fundamental understanding of the words, she asked them to classify the words into categories they created. They classified the terms in predictable ways. Although their work indicated that they had some understanding of the terms, she then asked them to reclassify the terms two additional times using less conventional categories. The teacher was pleased with the conversations among students as they did this task in groups.


You try it. In your small groups, use this list of terms (or you may use the list of titles of books), and figure out two additional ways of classifying them. Notice how you extend and refine your knowledge of the terms (or books) as you reclassify them into additional classification systems.

Overhead 3.2H

Strategy 4 presents two graphic organizers that may be used to help with the process of classifying. Take a look at these organizers, which can also be found on page 127, Figure 3.3. One of these graphics is simply columns created to represent each category. The other one is more hierarchic and is most appropriate when some categories need to be divided further.


124

Now take a few minutes to read the classroom examples on pages 128-129. In your small groups, select one example, and discuss what knowledge the students are extending and refining as a result of the classifying task. In addition, discuss the following questions: What is a strength of the task? What potential problems might arise as students attempt to complete the task? What suggestions might you make to deal with these problems? Are there any general suggestions you might make for redesigning the task?

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<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of classifying. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Closure

Abstracting Now we’re going to look at the process of abstracting. First, let’s read this passage.

Overhead 3.3A

Find a partner, and try to identify another sequence of events that follows the same general pattern as the sequence of events in the QWERT passage but that has nothing to do with typewriters.


What you have done is move from the concrete to the abstract to the concrete (or from the literal to the general to the literal). You read a passage, identified key ideas, transformed the specific key ideas into a general pattern, and matched the general pattern to a new situation. It is a relatively easy and natural process that helps us to make connections between seemingly different situations. In the Dimensions of Learning model, we call this procedure abstracting. Although it sounds academic, we use this process almost every day. We identify and use general patterns when, for example, we recognize that two people who seem to have very different styles of

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communicating actually share certain general characteristics, or when we are watching a movie and we think to ourselves, “This is one of those movies in which the person least likely to be guilty is the one who did it.” In the classroom, we frequently give assignments that, although unstated, ask students to abstract. For example, we might ask them to read a fairy tale and then write their own. Often, however, students simply rewrite the same fairy tale and change the characters’ names. These disappointing results can be addressed by teaching students the process of abstracting. Strategy 1 on page 131 of the Teacher’s Manual suggests ways of helping students understand this process and includes additional examples of abstracting from everyday life. Take a couple of minutes to read this section. Once students are familiar with the nature of abstracting and how people often unconsciously use it, you can present them with a set of steps to use when applying the process to content. Overheads 3.3B 3.3C

3.3D

Overhead 3.3E

Let me walk you through these steps with the QWERT passage. Step 1 asks you to identify what seems to be important or basic in the information. This simply means to identify the main ideas. For this passage, the result might look like this. The next step is to rewrite the basic information in a more general form. Notice the words that are changed in the general pattern on this overhead. (Although it is not the case on this overhead, often as you rewrite you can condense the general pattern into fewer steps.) <Show the right-hand side (General/Abstract) of the overhead one item at a time so that participants can see how the general pattern was created.> Finally, examine the general pattern, and decide what other information might follow that same pattern. Now, begin to think about other things that follow this pattern. We already generated examples of information that seemed to follow this same pattern. Let’s see how closely the examples we generated earlier—before we learned the process—match the general pattern of the QWERT passage.

Overhead 3.3E

Notice that when we closely followed the steps of the process, we could compare the original and the new information in much more detail than we could when we did it loosely. Abstracting is a way for us to identify similarities and differences between and among large blocks of information. Because it can seem intimidating at first, the process of abstracting probably should be introduced to students in a very methodical way with simple examples. For instance, you might give students the specific pattern from a simple passage, and then either provide them with the general pattern or help them to generate it. They should then be able to apply the general pattern to new information. To help students understand the process, you might share examples with them of situations in which abstracting has been used (e.g., West Side Story was abstracted from Romeo and Juliet), then ask them to identify other examples of situations in which abstracting was used or instances in which they used abstracting in their own lives. You might also help them to understand that metaphors and analogies are forms of abstractions. For example, “love is like a rose” is a metaphor based on a basic pattern: Love and a rose are both beautiful and enjoyable, but they are not without their painful aspects. Once students have seen examples of abstracting and have practiced using the process, hopefully they will see it as a way of connecting two pieces of information that appear to be unrelated. Point out that rigorously using the abstracting process can help them to extend and refine their understanding of information as they make connections that are more subtle and that they otherwise might miss.

Overhead 3.3F

Let’s spend a little time practicing the process of abstracting. Read this passage and perform each of the steps in the abstracting process. You may work in pairs or in small groups. Refer to the steps of the process. Be sure to use each of them. Be ready to share with the large group.


Overhead 3.3G

What was most difficult about doing this? What was most interesting?

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A number of English teachers have reported that the abstracting process has greatly improved students’ creative writing. Frequently when students are asked to write stories that have the same theme as one they are studying, the stories they write are almost identical to the one they are studying (with the exception of name changes). However, when they learn the abstracting process, they carefully identify the literal series of events in the story they are studying, then, event by event, create a general pattern. Then, by focusing only on the general pattern they have created (teachers often have students put away the paper on which they recorded the literal series of events), they write new stories. Teachers have been very impressed with the results because of the interesting stories that students write that follow the general pattern but that are quite different from the original and from each other. One social studies teacher reported how pleased he was when he used abstracting to help students discover that the pattern of events in the Revolutionary War could be applied to current events. This process helped students to see why and how studying history helps us understand events in the world today. Using the abstracting process can help learners extend and refine knowledge by helping them make connections between the familiar and the unfamiliar. More specifically, the process can help them understand unfamiliar, complex information by connecting it to something they know well, and it can help them gain new insights into familiar information by connecting it to something new. For example: • In a unit on MacBeth, the process of abstracting helped students to see that a story that was written so long ago and that was set in a faroff place had a theme that was very much like those of books they had read and soap operas they had watched. • In a science class, students studying how blood cells fight disease began to better understand the process when they saw that it was like a military raid. • While learning about different cultures in a social studies class, students at first thought that many of the customs and rituals were “weird.” When they used abstracting, they reexamined their own familiar customs and discovered that these customs had some of the same general “weird” qualities.

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• As students were trying to understand the writing process, their teacher helped them to see that at an abstract level the process is like things they consider to be quite different. She helped them to see, for example, that writing is like baseball: In writing class they have to practice, try not to make errors, and do their best when other people are going to see their work. Let’s take a few minutes to consider and discuss the critical aspects and difficult steps of the abstracting process and to look at some classroom examples that feature abstracting.

Overhead 3.3H

The first key point explains that Step 1 of the process of abstracting (identifying what is important or basic to a block of information) is often the most difficult for students. Many of you experienced this when you did the assignment in your small groups. You may need to give students multiple opportunities to practice this step. The second key point highlights a dilemma that students often face when doing the second step (writing the basic information in a more general form). How general or how specific should the pattern be? Look at the examples provided in Key Point 2 on page 134. The level of generality that’s appropriate depends on the content and the purpose of the assignment. However, keep in mind that if the pattern is too specific, it will be difficult to make any interesting connections to the original information. On the other hand, if it is too general, everything starts to connect to everything else. Overhead 3.3I

Let me illustrate. On this overhead are four of the major events in the story of Cinderella. In the right-hand column is a pattern that is very general, perhaps too general. There are many stories that could be generated from this general pattern that would have very little connection to the theme of Cinderella. Working with one or two others, generate a more specific, but not too specific, general pattern for the middle column that more accurately identifies a general pattern or theme.


The last key point emphasizes that the process of abstracting is more powerful if at first you simply encourage students to make connections that are the most obvious but eventually hold them accountable for making connections that are less obvious. Remember that the goal is to extend and

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refine students’ knowledge. Therefore, it is important to push students a little as they use this process or any of the reasoning processes. The greatest insights will probably not come on their first try. As has been explained, you may have to guide students and model the steps of this process at first. In other words, you might start with tasks that are very teacher structured, and then slowly move toward tasks that are more student structured as suggested in strategy 5 on page 135. Turn to the classroom examples on pages 136 and 137 of your manual. As you read them, notice the extent to which the teacher is guiding the students in the use of the abstracting process. Large Group Discussion

<Use if you have looked at the processes of comparing, classifying, and abstracting as a cluster.> We have just looked at the processes of comparing, classifying, and abstracting. Take a few minutes to review and reflect on each of these three processes. What do they have in common? What are their similarities? What differences can you identify?

Closure

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of abstracting. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Inductive Reasoning

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Individual Task

Take five to ten minutes and go on an “induction outing.” That means that I want you to walk around the area and carefully observe everything around you. Make a list of several specific things that you observe. When you return to the room, I want you to write a conclusion that you can draw about the area, that is, about this building, the grounds, and/or about the people who work here. Make sure that your conclusion is supported with a number of observations, three or four perhaps. For example, if you took a walk around a neighborhood and noticed that at a particular house there were skis hanging in the garage, a basketball hoop above the driveway, tennis rackets on the porch, and a volleyball net in the backyard, you could reasonably conclude that the people living there are very involved in sports. When you come back, be ready to share the pieces of evidence that led you to your conclusions. <When participants return, have them write a conclusion about what they noticed.> Now look at your conclusion, and see if you can generate a different conclusion that could be drawn from the same observations. Inductive reasoning is the process of inferring unknown generalizations or principles from information or observations. It is a process that we use every day. In fact, we can’t avoid it. We infer people’s moods from their behavior, we infer the intent of comments made to us, we even infer what people look like before meeting them. Have you ever worked with someone for a long time before you met his or her spouse? And then when you met him or her, your first reaction was, “No way!”? You had unconsciously inferred what the spouse would look like. The induction outing you just experienced is a good way to introduce inductive reasoning to your class. Actually you can use it when students are in any situation in which they can make rich observations: on a field trip, during an assembly, watching a movie, and so on. It is an experience that students enjoy, and it is an effective way of helping students to understand two important points about inductive reasoning: When using the process, conclusions should be based on a number of observations (otherwise, how would you be able to look for patterns or connections?); and, there are often several conclusions that can be drawn from the same observations. Thus, conclusions that are based on inductive reasoning may or may not be accurate or true.

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We ask students to do inductive reasoning all the time, particularly after reading information or viewing a film or video. In fact, any time teachers say “read between the lines” or ask, “What can you conclude?”, they are asking students to use inductive reasoning; students must come to general conclusions that are not stated within the text but are inferred by the information that is presented. If we want students to do a good job with this type of reasoning, we should teach them the process and help them practice it so that they can consciously apply the process to everyday situations and to academic activities. Overheads 3.4A 3.4B

Let’s read over the general process for inductive reasoning. The steps are also on page 139 and 140 in your Teacher’s Manual. (Notice that you loosely followed these steps as you took your induction outing.) Take a couple of minutes to read these steps and the example in italics right below the steps on page 140. Note that seeing the patterns or connections in the information or observations is what helps you to determine the generalization or principle.

Individual Task

Overhead 3.4C

One way of giving students opportunities to practice using inductive reasoning is to provide them with a list of specifics and ask them to draw general conclusions. Let’s practice doing this with this list of specifics. The specific information listed here is about the topic of soap operas. Using only these statements, what conclusions might you draw about soap operas? Your goal is to draw general conclusions from the patterns or connections you see in the specific information. The only way to determine if your conclusions are logical is to examine the specific information that you used. There is nothing wrong with using more information than you were given, but I would need to consider that additional information. Valid conclusions arrived at inductively follow logically from specific information and observations. Notice that it is important to clearly identify the information or observations that are being used to draw conclusions inductively and the extent to which they are correct or valid. In this way, we can analyze the information and observations to determine the validity of the conclusions. Take a minute to skim over the key points on page 141.

Overhead 3.4D

As I responded to your conclusions about soap operas, I was applying these critical points to determine the validity of your conclusions. Were your conclusions really opinions, restatements, or additional observations? Was it clear what information you were using, and was that information free of bias or assumptions? Did you use several pieces of information to draw your conclusions? When introducing inductive reasoning to young students, you might simply emphasize the process of making connections and seeing patterns in information. Some of these key points will be too complex for them to understand. Gradually, however, students need to be made more aware of these points and increasingly held accountable for drawing conclusions that are valid. One way to help students become more proficient at using inductive reasoning is through visuals such as the organizer on page 142 and the inductive reasoning matrix illustrated on page 143.

Overheads 3.4E

3.4F

By organizing pieces of information graphically and providing spaces for written conclusions, students can make connections that otherwise might be quite difficult to make. Although drawing invalid conclusions about soap operas does not have serious consequences, sloppy inductive reasoning in other situations is much more serious. Look at the key points again.

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Overhead 3.4D

Discuss with two or three others at your table how sloppy inductive reasoning—that is, reasoning that violates the key points—can lead to prejudice, impulsive behavior, and destroyed relationships.

Think/Pair/Share

Closure

Section 5 in the Teacher’s Manual reminds us to use both teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. Read the classroom examples on pages 144145. In each case, the teacher is asking students to use the process of inductive reasoning. Choose a couple of the examples, and discuss with a partner whether you think they are student structured or teacher structured. How would you change one to be more student structured or a different one to be more teacher structured, and why would you do that? <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of inductive reasoning. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Deductive Reasoning Deductive reasoning is the process of using generalizations and principles to infer unstated conclusions about specific information or situations. This definition may sound fairly technical, even intimidating. But it is important to understand that it is something we do every day. Take a couple of minutes to read the introduction to deductive reasoning in your Teacher’s Manual on pages 146-147.

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We are going to examine deductive reasoning as a general process of applying generalizations and principles to specific situations, and we are going to look more closely at one form of deductive reasoning: categorical syllogisms. The goal of this training is to understand how to teach students the process of deductive reasoning. This process is particularly important for students to learn because, as emphasized in the introduction, it helps them to transfer knowledge from one situation to another. Let’s begin to develop our own understanding of the process of deductive reasoning by using the suggestions in the Teacher’s Manual for helping students learn to use it. On pages 147 and 148, strategy 1 recommends that you help students understand the process by examining the relationship between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. The most common understanding is that inductive reasoning moves from specific to general and deductive reasoning from general to specific. Although this is technically accurate, there is much more to the distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning. Take a couple of minutes to read the explanation and examples of inductive and deductive reasoning at the bottom of page 147 and the top of page 148. From these examples, it is evident that when you reach conclusions inductively, you use specific information and try to generate the most likely conclusion. However, even when you do a good job of reasoning, that conclusion may or may not be true. The process of deduction is much more precise; that is, if you use appropriate generalizations and principles and if you do a good job of reasoning, you can have a great deal of confidence in your conclusion. The important role of principles and generalizations in the deductive reasoning process should be fairly evident at this point. Let’s look at the steps for deductive reasoning to understand better when generalizations and principles are used in the process.

Overheads 3.5A 3.5B

Of course, the implication of these steps is that to be able to engage in deduction, students first must learn principles or generalizations that they can apply to specific situations. Further, students must understand these generalizations and principles well enough to know when and how to apply them to new or different situations. Using the example you just read at the top of page 148, if students only memorized principles of force and motion, they certainly would not be able to use those principles to make accurate predictions about the path of a billiard ball.

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In everyday situations, understanding important principles well enough to apply them might not seem so difficult. For example, if I understand general principles related to flowers, or to cooking, or to golf, I then can use these principles to draw conclusions about how to help a specific flower to bloom, how to cook a specific soufflé properly, or which club to select on a specific fairway. However, as we begin to examine some of the more academic generalizations and principles, the challenge of teaching these generalizations will become clear. Individual Task

Let’s examine some examples that use more academic generalizations and principles. Take a couple of minutes to read the classroom examples that apply deductive reasoning. These can be found on pages 153 and 154. What are the academic generalizations or principles that students must understand in order to complete the assigned tasks? What challenges in teaching these might the teacher encounter? The second key point related to deductive reasoning (on page 150) explains the challenge of the third step of the process: helping students determine if the generalizations or principles do, in fact, apply to the specific situation. Learners must make sure that the specific situation meets the conditions that have to be in place for those generalizations or principles to apply. In some cases, this means that they must restate the generalizations or principles in order to clearly identify those conditions. In the example you read earlier at the top of page 148, it was explained that because you understand the laws of gravity, you can predict that if you step off the roof, you will fall. Of course, that is the case only if certain conditions are met. The laws of gravity apply to the situation only if, for example, you are on the planet Earth and you are not in a vacuum. Again, it is important to determine if the situation meets the conditions that must be in place for the generalizations or principles to apply.

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In one of the classroom examples you read, students were learning that when someone is choking, the Heimlich maneuver should be applied. In the situation given to students, a person is choking. However, in order to answer the question correctly, students had to determine if the conditions were right for using the maneuver. They had to recognize that the specific situation did not meet the conditions necessary to require the Heimlich maneuver. What conditions were not met?


Take a look at the graphic organizers for deductive reasoning on pages 151 and 152. These highlight the importance of checking to determine if the conditions are in place that would make the generalizations or principles apply.

Overheads 3.5C 3.5D

As you may be able to see by now, deductive reasoning encourages an indepth understanding of important content generalizations and principles. It also enhances understanding of new situations to which these generalizations and principles are applied. This is why it is such a powerful process for extending and refining knowledge. The final key point related to deductive reasoning emphasizes that although inductive approaches to learning are often recommended (perhaps too often recommended), deductive approaches can be equally as effective. Because deductive reasoning can help students gain an in-depth understanding of content knowledge, when planning it is important to consider whether students should spend their time discovering generalizations and principles or applying generalizations and principles.

Overhead 3.5E

We have touched on each of the key points on page 150. Let’s review these points again. Are there any questions? Let’s turn to page 157 of your Teacher’s Manual. Some of you may be interested in teaching your students a more formal type of deductive reasoning called categorical syllogisms. Many of you will groan, but let’s take the following quiz.

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Overhead 3.5F

These items are similar to those that appear on many aptitude tests and tests of reasoning abilities. They all require deductive reasoning. The first one is an example of a categorical syllogism. Let’s spend some time exploring this type of deductive reasoning and discussing how to use it in the classroom.

Overhead 3.5G

A categorical syllogism contains two premises and a conclusion. On this overhead is the categorical syllogism example from page 155.

Overhead 3.5G

As explained, when the two premises are true and the reasoning is valid, the conclusion must be true. Most people are familiar with this format, often from the classic categorical syllogism: All men are mortal. Plato is a man. Therefore, Plato is mortal.

Overhead 3.5G

<Show the first syllogism on Overhead 3.5G.> This type of reasoning format is usually studied in formal logic classes. However, it can be used powerfully in any classroom. Your manual suggests four ways in which you might approach categorical syllogisms with your students.

Overhead 3.5H

The first suggestion is to help students recognize hidden categorical syllogisms in their everyday language. The syllogism about airplanes, as explained on page 155, could be “hidden” in the statement, “I know this airplane has a fire extinguisher because it is a commercial airplane.” When someone says, for example, “That is a bee. Watch out for its stinger,” the implied categorical syllogism is

Overhead 3.5G

All bees have stingers. That is a bee. Therefore, that has a stinger.

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Turning a statement into a categorical syllogism clarifies the two underlying premises and the conclusion and allows you to more easily analyze the degree to which they are true. Turning an everyday statement into a categorical syllogism with its two premises and conclusion is called standardizing. When a statement is standardized, it also is easier to recognize another characteristic of categorical syllogism: that the two premises have three elements. <Write the following two examples on a blank overhead: All apples are fruit. This is an apple. Therefore, this is a fruit. All whales are mammals. That is a whale. Therefore, that is a mammal.> The three elements of the first example are easy to pick out: “apples,” “fruit,” and “this.” Now examine the second syllogism. Identify the three elements.

Individual Task

Overhead 3.5G

Look again at these three categorical syllogism we used earlier. Let’s analyze the second one about airplanes. Finding the three elements here is a little bit tricky. See if you can find them. You probably easily identified “commercial airplanes” as one element. You probably can see that the third element is “the airplane I am on.” The second element, however, requires that you take the phrase “have a fire extinguisher on board” and turn it into an element. You do this by simply changing it so that it reads: “things that have a fire extinguisher on board.” That word things is the key to turning phrases into elements. So, if I had a premise, “All zebras are striped,” I would have to restate it to say, “All zebras are things that are striped.” Now my first two elements would be “zebra” and “things that are striped.” See if you can identify the three elements in the other two syllogisms we examined earlier.

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Overhead 3.5G

<Use the Plato and the bee syllogisms on Overhead 3.5G. Participants should be able to identify the elements in the Plato syllogism as “men,” “things that are mortal” (or “people who are mortal”), and “Plato.” The bee syllogism elements are “bees,” “things that have stingers,” and “this.”> Now try to standardize these everyday statements so that the logic is valid.

Overhead 3.5I

The second suggestion for teaching categorical syllogisms is to provide students with a way of graphically representing categorical syllogisms. The most common way is to use Euler <pronounced “oiler”> diagrams. If you can graphically represent the relationships, you can explore the logic in the reasoning. To get a sense of Euler diagrams, take a few minutes to read pages 156-157. Consider the statement from our previous exercise: “Oh, you say Mary wrote this report? Then we don’t have to worry; it will be accurate.” When we standardized it, we identified three elements: “reports that Mary writes,” “things that are accurate,” and “this.” Let’s represent these graphically. First, give each element a circle. Next, show the relationship between “reports that Mary writes” and “things that are accurate.” Now add the relationship between “this” and “reports that Mary writes.”

things that are accurate reports that Mary writes this

Notice that once you have depicted the relationship between the two premises, you can test the validity of a conclusion. In other words, you can determine whether the conclusion follows logically from the premises. Is the conclusion, “This is accurate” valid?

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Now graphically represent each of the other two syllogisms on this overhead. <Participants are doing this task for the syllogisms on Overhead 3.5I. Go over the answers with them.>

Overhead 3.5I

For each of these syllogisms, the conclusion that was written has been shown graphically to be valid. Notice that I continue to use the word valid. Again, this means that the Euler diagrams showed that the reasoning used was logical; in other words, we can confidently draw the conclusions, given two premises. However, we will see that valid does not necessarily mean true. If you are interested in having students become more familiar with common valid categorical syllogisms, you can follow the suggestion on page 157: Present students with the various forms of valid and invalid categorical syllogisms. The chart on page 158 can be used as a quick reference to help students analyze the validity of the reasoning in various syllogisms. You will see that this chart labels the elements A, B, and C. Look across the top of the chart, and find the coded form of your first premise. Look down the side to determine the coded form of the second premise. Now, find the intersecting square. If the square is blank, then no valid conclusion can be drawn; otherwise, the coded statement will tell you what conclusions can be drawn.

Individual Task

Try Item 1 in the test you took at the beginning of this section: All beans are vegetables = All A are B. Some vegetables are green = Some B are C. What conclusions can be drawn? Students who become intrigued with categorical syllogisms could try to write examples of each valid conclusion identified in the chart or find examples and try to place them in the chart. The final suggestion on page 159 suggests having students examine the truth of the premises in categorical syllogisms. Take a minute to read this section.

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Overhead 3.5J Small Group Activity

Now take a look at the statements on this overhead. Work with one or two other people to do the following: First, identity the implied categorical syllogisms; next, use a Euler diagram or the chart on page 158 to determine if the reasoning is valid. Is the conclusion in each example valid? But what is wrong? <Participants should easily see that although the reasoning is valid, the premises are not true.> These examples highlight the difference between validity and truth. If I teach students that “all dogs bark,” then tell them that I have a dog and ask them to tell me what they can conclude about that dog, they could say, “Your dog barks.” However, we know there are dogs that don’t bark; therefore, their conclusion might not be true because the principle they are reasoning from is not true. Actually, it is more accurate to say that the conclusion is valid but not necessarily true. To illustrate with content knowledge, students are commonly taught that mysteries have the following characteristics: • unresolved or unexplained events • foreshadowing • suspense • clues or evidence Students may incorrectly translate these characteristics into the following four generalizations or premises: • All mysteries have unresolved or unexplained events. • All mysteries use foreshadowing. • All mysteries are suspenseful. • All mysteries provide clues or evidence.

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If we asked students to use this information to make a prediction they might conclude the following: • All mysteries are stories with foreshadowing. • My book is a mystery. • My book will be a story with foreshadowing. Although this conclusion is logically valid, it is not necessarily true because we know that not all mysteries use foreshadowing. The point is that if you are teaching students to reason deductively from premises, you must be careful to make sure they understand that they must consider the validity of their conclusions and the truth of their premises. To summarize, when teaching students principles and generalizations, you need to help them understand if the principles or generalizations always apply or if they only sometimes apply to specific situations. Likewise, when teaching a concept, it is important to clarify which attributes are always present and which attributes are sometimes present. The consequences of incorrectly concluding that all dogs bark or that all mysteries use foreshadowing are not very serious. In other situations, however, faulty deductions can have serious consequences. In fact, at the heart of stereotyping is valid reasoning from untrue premises. An example from one or our earlier activities, the syllogism related to blondes, illustrates this type of stereotyping. What are some conclusions that students might make that could have serious consequences because they are based on false premises? <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of deductive reasoning. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Closure

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Constructing Support Small Group Activity

Think of a time when someone or something (such as an article or advertisement) tried to influence you or talk you into something. Now, find a partner. Taking the position assumed by the person, article, or ad, reconstruct the case made. Do this by role-playing the “pitch” that was made. You might be a teenager arguing to stay out late, a politician trying to gain support or a vote, or an advertiser selling a particular product. If you can’t recall such a situation, take a position about something that’s important to you, and role-play trying to influence your partner’s thinking or actions about that topic or issue. As you listened to someone else trying to influence your thinking or persuade you to do something or buy something, you probably noticed that the person used some very specific techniques. Specifically, what techniques did your partner use to try to persuade or influence you? Share your ideas with your partner. Constructing support is the process of building systems of support for assertions, or, stated more simply, it is the process of providing support for statements. Think about how our lives are influenced by the persuasive abilities of people involved in campaigns, whether designed to sell a political candidate, an anti-drug message, or a product or to elicit community buy-in for a new recycling project. These campaigns succeed because people know how to construct support for their ideas.

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People who successfully construct support for assertions have two kinds of knowledge: first, an understanding of and ability to use persuasive techniques, and, second, an understanding of the information needed to construct a powerful argument. Teaching students to construct support, then, not only provides them with the opportunity to gain the ability to use persuasive techniques, it sets up situations in which they will need to develop an understanding of the information—to extend and refine their knowledge—in order to construct the argument. In addition, taking and constructing support for a position, especially when students have some choice about the position, is beneficial because it increases their engagement in the learning process. Let’s look at the steps for the process of constructing support on page 162 of the Teacher’s Manual.

Overheads 3.6A 3.6B

As you present the steps to students, ask them to identify current topics or issues (e.g., from the classroom, the news, or their own lives) that might warrant their taking a position and constructing support for that position. Then, preferably using one of their ideas (or, if you feel more comfortable, using the think-aloud example in the manual or an idea of your own), model how you would construct support for a position. As you model the process, elicit suggestions from students for how to make the argument stronger.

Overhead 3.6C

The key points for constructing support present information that students need to understand in order to competently use the process. The first key point, which begins on page 163, discusses the difference between fact and opinion. This is an important distinction because, as stated in the first two steps of the process, it is appropriate to construct support only for opinions. Take a minute to read the Key Point 1 on page 163.

Overhead 3.6D

Now let’s take a look at a few examples. Teaching students the difference between facts and opinions is actually fairly common. However, it is important for students to understand that the term fact is being used to refer to statements that can be verified. At your tables, determine whether each of these statements is a fact or an opinion.


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In addition to understanding the difference between fact and opinion, it is important to understand some of the techniques that speakers traditionally use to garner support. Key Point 2, on page 164 of the Teacher’s Manual, includes a description of such techniques, specifically four types of appeals. Although these types of appeals will sound familiar, they actually date back to ancient Greece. As you read through the descriptions of these four types of appeals, keep two questions in mind: Which type of appeal is most commonly used in our society? Which type is emphasized in school? Large Group Discussion

Let’s answer the two questions: Which type of appeal is most commonly used in our society? Which type is emphasized in school?


It is important for students to understand all four types of appeals, because others will use these methods to persuade them and because students should know how to use the appeals to be persuasive in important situations. People who are well respected (and some who are not) use these appeals every day. For each of the appeals, see if you can identify famous people, living or from the past, who are or were particularly good at using that appeal. Be ready to share your examples.


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When you are aware of the variety of appeals, you begin to notice their uses. All of these types of appeals are effective, but the one that is probably the focus in most schools is the appeal to reason. One model for constructing a sound appeal to reason is provided in Key Point 3 on page 165 of the Teacher’s Manual. There are four primary components to a sound appeal to reason in this model.

Overhead 3.6E

Overhead 3.6F

Let’s look at the beginnings of an argument constructed with this model. Notice that the claim is supported with factual information that helps to build the case. However, just because all the parts are there does not guarantee that the argument is strong. Let’s look at two different passages constructed using the basic model. As you read each of them, notice that all the elements of an appeal to reason are present. What is the difference between the two?

Individual Task

Overheads 3.6G 3.6H

This activity makes it apparent that an appeal to reason containing all four components is not necessarily a strong appeal. Factual information may be presented in a way that communicates bias. When teaching the process of constructing support, it is important for students to understand the kinds of errors that they should avoid if they want their arguments to be valid. It may be useful to review the different kinds of errors in thinking. These types of errors are described in the Teacher’s Manual in the section on analyzing errors. With enough practice and guidance, students will become skilled at constructing support for their ideas. Let’s take a few minutes to practice constructing support. Use what you know and have learned about the process. You may want to use the graphic organizer on page 166 to help you plan for making your case.

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Consider the following claims: <Write on a blank overhead.> A. The salary structure for teachers should include merit pay. B. The salary structure for teachers should not include merit pay. Small Group Activity

You may work with one or two other people. First, select one of the two claims. All of the groups supporting Claim A move to one side of the room; groups supporting Claim B move to the other side. Now, working together, construct support for your claim. You may use any of the appeals, but you must include an appeal to reason. See if you can include all four components of a good appeal to reason. Now, I’d like each group to find a group from the opposing side. Take turns presenting your support.


What were the easiest and the most difficult parts of the process of constructing support? What did you notice as you listened to support for the opposing claim? How does the process of constructing support help you to extend and refine knowledge? You will notice that strategy 5 suggests using both teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. Let’s look at how the process of constructing support is used in the classroom. Take a few minutes to read the classroom examples on page 167. Notice that the first three are very teacher structured and the last one is very student structured.

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<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of constructing support. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Closure

Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7A

In each of these, someone is trying to persuade someone else to believe or to do something. Without necessarily using the technical language associated with fallacies, describe the types of weak arguments you notice in each statement.


We live in a society in which we are inundated with information like the examples we have examined. Some messages are clear and straightforward, simply providing us with information. Many messages, however, are like these. They are skillfully crafted to influence us to buy something, to believe or support something, or to take some sort of action. The ability to analyze this information, to identify ways in which others are trying to influence us or other people, and to recognize possible errors in thinking is an important lifelong learning skill. Analyzing errors is the process of identifying and articulating errors in thinking. This process is used to develop the habit of analyzing information for possible errors (intentional or unintentional) that are made through the use of faulty logic, weak references, attacks, or misinformation. One way to help students become aware of the need to understand and use the process of analyzing errors is to present them with information from their everyday

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lives and then ask them to find errors in thinking reflected in the information, just as we did a few minutes ago. When first teaching this process you might present students with messages like the ones you just analyzed but take them from your local newspaper or from current events students will recognize. Don’t use advertisements only; older students in particular are very aware that advertisers use all sorts of techniques to try to persuade them. As you present students with examples that reflect errors in thinking, focus on the reasons that people make errors in their thinking and the consequences of not recognizing such errors. Large Group Discussion

Look again at the examples of messages we examined earlier. Think about the types of examples you would probably find to introduce students to the process of error analysis. What are some examples of the consequences people experience because of their failure to recognize errors in the thinking underlying information they are receiving? As you are discussing consequences with students, you can present them with a model for the process of analyzing errors (on pages 169-170 of the Teacher’s Manual).

Overheads 3.7B 3.7C

Although the steps appear simple enough, most people do not rigorously apply the process when confronted with information and, consequently, fall into situations they could have avoided. As explained in the first key point (page 171), one of the major goals in teaching this process is to introduce and reinforce the practice of looking for errors in information that you are receiving. If students only develop the tendency to watch for errors, they are well on their way to becoming proficient at using this process. The next challenge, described in the second key point, is to help students recognize different types of errors. Although cautiously watching for errors in information is important, understanding different types of errors will enhance students’ ability to recognize errors, even subtle, skillfully crafted errors. Let’s look at the section called “Types of Errors in Thinking,” which is on pages 173-176. Let’s examine this detailed information on types of errors in thinking. You’ll find four sections that describe specific types of errors: faulty logic, attacks, weak references, and misinformation.

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Overheads 3.7D 3.7E

Take a few minutes to skim through this information. Some of the types of errors will be very familiar to you. Some will probably be less familiar or new to you. Do you recognize the use of any of these in the examples we analyzed earlier?


Overhead 3.7A

Let’s become more familiar with these types of errors in thinking. I apologize for having you sit and read so much but we will become more active here in a minute. Turn to the classroom examples on pages 176 and 177, and read through them. Pay particular attention to the last example. Notice that in the last example the topic is whether there is life on other planets. This is a topic that people love to talk about, as evidenced by the number of movies about the topic, the speculation in the media, the UFO sightings, etc. Let’s use some of the types of errors to analyze the reasons that people give for believing or not believing about the existence of life on other planets. Working in small groups, try to construct, for as many types of errors as possible, an argument that exemplifies that error. Look again at the examples in the classroom task on page 177 for the model of what you should do. Let’s make this a little competitive. We will see which group can construct an argument for the most types of errors in thinking. Ready. Go.



Now let’s use what we have learned to apply these types of errors to other topics. On the table in the front of the room, there are small pieces of folded-up paper. On each piece is a letter. Buddy up with someone, and each of you come up and select a piece of paper. You and your partner will now have two letters that correspond to one of the types of errors on

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pages 173-176. Generate an example of each to present to a partner. Do this by • thinking of an experience in which you heard the error used or making up a story in which such an error is used, or • role-playing a situation illustrating the type of error in thinking. In a few minutes, you and your partner will present one or two of your examples to another pair, and they will try to determine which error in thinking you are illustrating. Alternative Activity


What did you discover or find interesting during that activity?

Overhead 3.7F

As explained earlier, the first key point emphasizes that the first goal in teaching the process of analyzing errors is to help students develop the habit of looking for errors. However, as highlighted in the second key point, helping students become familiar with the types of errors we have just been using here will help them to recognize errors in information they are receiving. Finally, as discussed in Key Point 3, it is important for students to realize that good thinkers know that there are some situations in which error analysis is not appropriate. Good thinkers accept some information on faith or because of the credibility of the information source.

Overhead 3.7G

Take a look at the graphic organizer on page 172. Help students to understand that those two “stop sign” symbols remind them that not all information needs close scrutiny. As with each of the reasoning processes, strategy 5 simply suggests using both teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. After spending time with the process of analyzing errors, ideally students will begin to recognize situations in which the process is necessary.

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<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of analyzing errors. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Closure

Analyzing Perspectives In a moment, I’m going to bring up an issue about which people have different opinions. Note your reaction to the issue, and indicate that reaction by putting your thumb up, down, or to the side. “Thumbs up” means you have a positive reaction to the issue; “thumbs to the side” means you are neutral, and “thumbs” down means you feel negatively about it. The proposal is year-round schooling . Now, jot down the reasons for your reaction. Next, consider a different reaction. For example, if your reaction was negative, consider either a positive or neutral reaction. Now, predict what reasons someone might give for that reaction.

Individual Task

Next, find someone whose initial position was different from yours. Then, compare their recorded reasons with what you predicted. As you talk with

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your partner, ask questions about the reasons he or she gave. Remember that the goal of analyzing perspectives is not to accept, agree with, or tolerate someone else’s perspective or the reasons for that perspective. The goal is to fully understand the reasons for another’s position. Analyzing perspectives is the process of identifying multiple perspectives on an issue and examining the reasons or logic behind each. It is about understanding various points of view. It is not about changing anyone’s perspective. Why do you think it is valuable for students to learn the process of analyzing perspectives?


It is, of course, valuable to listen to and be sensitive to others’ points of view. Students will be developing a skill they can use later when faced with emotionally charged situations. As a result of identifying and understanding their own reasons for a perspective as well as the reasons for a different perspective, they will find that sometimes they change their perspectives but that often they strengthen their points of view. The academic value to students’ learning how to analyze perspectives is that it can help them to extend and refine academic content knowledge. Because the emphasis is on analyzing the perspectives, the goal is understanding. This often means that students have to seek additional information and seek clarity in that information to explain various perspectives. As with all Dimension 3 complex reasoning processes, it is important to present and model the steps in the process of analyzing perspectives.

Overheads 3.8A 3.8B

These steps are described on pages 179-180 of the Teacher’s Manual. Take a couple of minutes to read them. You may now realize that these steps parallel the thumbs up/thumbs down activity we did. Following my first instruction (to put your thumb up, down, or sideways) required you to select a perspective. This part is often fairly easy. The second instruction (to jot down your reasons) was probably a little more difficult because it might have been a while since you thought about the reasons for your point of view. It may be that you never have had to clearly articulate the reasons for your perspective.

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The third and fourth instructions (to identify a different perspective and to identify the reasons for that perspective) might have been even more difficult, especially if you felt strongly about the topic. This is because we sometimes attend most closely to information that supports our own point of view. When teaching the process of analyzing perspectives, it is important to emphasize to students that the goal is to seek understanding of the reasons or logic underlying multiple perspectives, including their own. To help us gain a deeper understanding of the process of analyzing perspectives, we are going to spend some time reviewing four key points discussed on pages 180-181 of the Teacher’s Manual. First, read over the following anecdote about a potential display at the Smithsonian Institute.

Overhead 3.8C

With a partner, identify the probable perspectives of the diverse groups.


Now, with your partner, review the key points.

Overhead 3.8D

Let’s discuss each, using the perspectives of the groups that wanted to display the Enola Gay. We actually have already discussed the first point: that the goal of analyzing perspectives is not just to acknowledge other perspectives but to gain an understanding of multiple perspectives. If you were analyzing perspectives about displaying the Enola Gay, it would be important for students to do more than state, for example, that some people wanted to display it as a reminder of the horrors of war. Students would need to explore why people felt that it would serve as such a reminder. The second key point explains one of the challenges of teaching the process of analyzing perspectives: helping students to recognize and be able to generate good reasons and valid logic. Articulating good reasons for a perspective is an ability that can be developed starting in kindergarten. Examine the kindergarten example in the margin on page 181. These young students are learning that a good reason must provide information or

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evidence; it can’t just be a restatement of the perspective, such as, “I like winter because I love it.” Small Group Activity

Using the Enola Gay example, generate some examples of weak reasons for believing that the airplane should be displayed. In other words, generate reasons that really do not provide information or evidence. For example, “The plane should be displayed because it is the right thing to do.”


Key Point 3 states that most issues have multiple perspectives and that students should learn to dig deeply to search them out. What other perspectives not yet mentioned could increase our understanding of the issue of displaying the Enola Gay? There are several ways to engage students in the process of analyzing perspectives. One common classroom activity is to set up a role-playing situation in which students argue one side of a controversial issue and then the other. Another approach is to ask students to describe the thinking of several people involved in a situation in which there are differences in perspectives. Students can practice with real-life issues (e.g., a family feud between a sister, a brother, a mother, and the family dog; a planning session for a school dance from the perspectives of a student, a custodian, and a teacher).


Let’s practice. Consider the topic “nuclear reactors as the major source of power for large cities,” which might be brought up in a science unit. In small groups, take a few minutes to identify the reasons that someone might have who strongly opposes the use of nuclear reactors as the major source of energy for large cities. Then take an equal amount of time to identify the reasons that someone might have who supports this use of nuclear reactors. What did you learn as a result of doing this activity? What knowledge might be extended and refined as a result of using the activity in the classroom? One way to analyze perspectives is to ask students to place positive, negative, or neutral values on a topic and then to specify reasons for their assignment of value in a structured format using a Perspective Examination Matrix or a Conflict Clarification Matrix like those that have been filled in on page 182.

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Overheads 3.8E

In small groups, try filling in a Conflict Clarification Matrix for the following issue: All employees in a school district should be subjected to mandatory drug testing.

3.8F


What did you learn, discover, or think about as a result of doing this activity? Notice the last row in the Conflict Clarification Matrix in which students are asked to identify a conclusion they drew or an awareness they gained as a result of analyzing perspectives in this way. Teachers report that sometimes students’ responses are fairly trivial. For example, they sometimes say that they concluded that “there are other ways of looking at things” or “there are two sides to every argument.” It takes some encouragement to get students to think about what they learned about the issue being examined. But it is worth the time to encourage them to do this thinking. It is the key to their extending and refining their knowledge. Let’s apply this process to the classroom. First, skim the information on teacher- and student-structured tasks on page 183. Then, look at the classroom examples on pages 183 and 184. Discuss what you’ve read with a partner, and then, using that information, together design an analyzing perspectives task for the classroom, preferably one that one or both of you could use.


<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of analyzing perspectives. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Planning for Dimension 3 <Participants should have a blank planning guide for Dimension 3 in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.> Overhead 3.P1

Planning for Dimension 3 requires asking and answering the following overarching question: What will be done to help students extend and refine knowledge? By following the three steps outlined in the Teacher’s Manual, pages 185-187, you will answer this question. Each step requires you to answer a specific key question or provide information. There is a place on the planning guide to record your decisions. We will look at the planning guide for Dimension 3 for the sample Colorado Unit (page 188) while considering the planning questions for this dimension. Step 1 asks you to respond to the following question: What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically, students will be extending and refining their understanding of . . . As you answer this question, it is important to remember that the goal of extending and refining knowledge is to deepen and broaden students’ understanding of information that is important enough to warrant the extra time and emphasis. In most cases, it is generalizations/principles and concepts that will be selected as important enough to extend and refine. For example, students might not need to deepen their understanding of the facts about the life of an artist, but it might be important for them to deepen their understanding of the following generalization that is related to these facts: An artist’s body of work reflects his or her life experiences. The best way to identify the knowledge that you want students to extend and refine is to examine the declarative knowledge that was identified during the planning process for Dimension 2 and then to simply ask yourself, “What information that I have identified in this unit do I want students to understand in greater depth?” Turn back to page 87 in Dimension 2. You will see the Unit Planning Graphic for declarative knowledge for the Colorado Unit.

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Overhead 2.P5

Keeping your hand on that page, look at the planning guide for Dimension 3 on page 188.

Overhead 3.P2

Notice the knowledge that is being extended and refined, which is identified in the first column. Now go back to the Dimension 2 Planning Graphic for the Colorado Unit, page 87. You can see that the knowledge being extended and refined in this unit was selected from the concept and generalization/principle patterns. You can also see that not all of the information in these patterns is being extended and refined. The teachers planning the unit have decided which information is going to be a major focus of the unit and then have designed tasks that will help students develop an in-depth understanding of that knowledge.

Overhead 3.P1

Step 2 asks you to identify the reasoning process that students will use to extend and refine the important knowledge you have identified. The specific process selected should be driven by the information that you think should be extended and refined. Some processes are better suited to certain information than to others.

Overheads 3.P3

3.P4

On pages 186 and 187, you will find a set of questions for each of the eight Dimension 3 reasoning processes. These questions are intended to be used during planning to stimulate ideas for tasks and to help you design interesting tasks that engage students in complex reasoning and that lead to students’ extending and refining the knowledge they are learning. Let’s examine the process used to design the tasks for the Colorado Unit.

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Overhead 3.P1

The third step of the planning process simply asks you to describe the tasks that students will be doing. Take a minute, if you haven’t already done so, to read the first task in column 3, a classification task, as well as the second task, an inductive reasoning task, both of which were designed using these planning steps.

Overhead 3.P2

Let’s walk through this planning process once more. Both of these tasks were generated as a result of the teachers first asking themselves the Step 1 and 2 questions. To plan the first task, for example, they obviously decided that students would be increasing their understanding of how topography, natural resources, and climate influence settlement patterns. They might not at first have known exactly what they wanted students to do, but perhaps they knew that they wanted students to apply the knowledge in situations other than those directly related to Colorado. With these goals in mind, they then used the questions for the complex reasoning processes (on pages 186 and 187) to help stimulate ideas for the task. They might have considered two or three ideas before designing the classification task described on the planning guide.


Picture the students doing these two tasks. Discuss at your tables how these tasks would extend and refine students’ understanding of the identified knowledge.

Overheads 3.P3

3.P4


Read over these stimulus questions. Then look again at the processes selected for the Colorado Unit. Select two different processes that might have been used and then, using the blank Dimension 3 planning guide you have been given in your handout, try to design tasks that would extend and refine the identified knowledge. Note that there is room on the planner for two processes. This isn’t a magic number. You might have only one or, perhaps, even three. The idea here is not “the more the merrier.” When deciding how many tasks to include in a unit, you should consider the length of the unit, how much of the information students need to understand in-depth, and how many reasoning processes you might have to teach in the unit. If students are not already

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proficient at using the reasoning processes the tasks require, you must allow time in the unit to teach these processes. Now let’s practice using this planning process for a unit you are planning or might plan. First, identify some important declarative knowledge that you want students to extend and refine. Then select one or two complex reasoning processes, and design tasks that might help students extend and refine that knowledge.

Planning Activity


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DoL Trainers Div

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Dimension 4

DIMENSION 4

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4 Dimension 4 Use Knowledge Meaningfully

To the Trainer This portion of the training deals with Dimension 4, which is covered in Chapter 4 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. As a result of this training, participants will understand that the ultimate purpose of acquiring knowledge is to be able to use it in a meaningful way. This means that students must be able to use what they have been learning by engaging in tasks that they perceive to be relevant, interesting, and engaging. These tasks often take a significant amount of time to complete. However, when they are used in instruction, they allow students to achieve a higher level of understanding and proficiency; when they are used for assessment, they allow students to demonstrate their understanding and proficiency. Ideally, educators will use tasks that ask students to use knowledge meaningfully for instruction as well as assessment. When designing tasks that ask students to use knowledge meaningfully, participants should learn to use the complex reasoning processes so that the emphasis is on students’ thinking about the content knowledge rather than on the product that they are to create. Six reasoning processes have been identified and defined within Dimension 4. They are •

Decision making: Generating and applying criteria to select from among seemingly equal alternatives.

•

Problem solving: Overcoming constraints or limiting conditions that are in the way of pursuing goals.

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Dimension 4 Use Knowledge Meaningfully

•

Invention: Developing unique products or processes that fulfill perceived needs.

•

Experimental inquiry: Generating and testing explanations of observed phenomena.

•

Investigation: Identifying and resolving issues about which there are confusions or contradictions.

•

Systems analysis: Analyzing the parts of a system and the manner in which they interact.

During this training, participants will be in the process of gaining understanding about the complexity of constructing tasks that require students to use knowledge meaningfully. They will be in the process of learning

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•

that teachers can help students use knowledge meaningfully by making sure that students engage in tasks that they perceive to be relevant, interesting, and engaging and that require them to apply complex reasoning processes to content knowledge;

•

that when students perceive tasks as meaningful and relevant, they are motivated to acquire the knowledge needed to complete the tasks, which, in turn, can result in a greater depth of understanding and proficiency relative to that knowledge;

•

that six specific complex reasoning processes should be explicitly taught to and modeled for students: decision making, problem solving, invention, experimental inquiry, investigation, and systems analysis;

•

how to model and teach the six complex reasoning processes to help students use knowledge meaningfully;

•

how to help students learn to use the processes independently in ways that are meaningful to them;

•

how to create tasks that involve these processes; and

•


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Exploring Dimension 4

Overhead O.13

Most people would agree that learning does not end with acquiring and integrating knowledge or even with extending and refining knowledge. Ultimately, learning is about being able to use knowledge in meaningful ways. Dimension 4, Use Knowledge Meaningfully, suggests that students can go beyond acquiring and integrating or even extending and refining knowledge. They can gain an even greater understanding of declarative knowledge and proficiency with procedural knowledge by engaging in tasks that require them to use their knowledge in novel, meaningful contexts. Dimension 4 tasks should be designed around one of the complex reasoning processes; These processes help students to think in ways that go beyond simple recall, recognition, or reiteration. Focusing on the reasoning process helps them to engage in thinking that results in the generation of ideas, such as decisions, solutions, and clarifications. Specifically, students should be asked to engage in the following reasoning processes: decision making, problem solving, invention, experimental inquiry, investigation, and systems analysis.

Overhead O.14

Tasks that require students to use these reasoning processes as well as their content knowledge often are perceived as quite challenging. For this reason, the emphasis in this dimension is not only on students’ rigorously using knowledge but also on using this knowledge in contexts that are meaningful to them. When students find tasks to be meaningful, they, like anyone else, are more likely to tackle the challenges presented by these tasks. Because Dimension 3 activities also require students to engage in complex reasoning processes, it is useful to note how the Dimension 3 processes are similar to and different from those in Dimension 4. A major similarity between the processes in these dimensions is that when students use them they must move beyond simply recalling, recognizing, or reiterating knowledge. By virtue of conducting a comparison, analyzing a perspective, solving a problem, or analyzing a system, for example, students are called upon to generate knowledge rather than to reproduce it. In addition, the processes in both Dimensions 3 and 4 require what many people consider to be higher level thinking. Therefore, in some respects, the distinction between the processes in Dimensions 3 and 4 is somewhat artificial; that is, all fourteen of the processes in these two dimensions could have been included in one list.

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However, there are some general differences between the processes in Dimensions 3 and 4. First, the Dimension 3 processes are less cognitively complex than those in Dimension 4; in other words, it takes fewer mental operations to complete a comparison, for example, than it does to conduct a systems analysis. Second, it usually takes less time to complete an activity or a task that is constructed around a Dimension 3 process than it does to complete one that is constructed around a Dimension 4 task. For example, a student might classify items in just a few minutes, whereas he might take hours or days to invent something. Third, the Dimension 3 processes require students to analyze content in some way; the Dimension 4 processes tend to provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge of content in specific ways. Finally, Dimension 4 tasks are typically more student directed than most Dimension 3 activities or tasks. Just as completing a task that requires students to use knowledge meaningfully can be perceived as a major challenge, designing these tasks, or setting up opportunities for students to design them, can pose major challenges to teachers. There are several points to keep in mind when constructing tasks designed in this dimension. Think/Pair/Share

We’re going to take a few minutes to go over some suggestions for constructing Dimension 4 tasks. Turn to page 191 in the Teacher’s Manual. Starting at the bottom of the page and continuing to the top of page 193, there are several suggestions, each preceded by a bullet. Buddy up with someone, divide the bulleted sections between you, read your sections, and then share and discuss your information with your partner. It is important to note that tasks that require students to use knowledge meaningfully can be constructed with reasoning processes other than or in addition to the Dimension 4 processes. For example, two or more Dimension 3 processes may be used together in a combination task that requires students to do more than simply extend and refine knowledge. Take a moment to read an example of such a task on page 194. The emphasis in the Dimensions of Learning model is not on trying to decide if a task is a Dimension 3 or a Dimension 4 task. It is on

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understanding that some tasks simply help students to increase their understanding and some tasks require them to also use their understanding. In both situations, it is important to emphasize the thinking students are doing. Many times, projects involve the creation of products that simply have students reproduce knowledge, albeit often in a creative, fancy, or even glitzy manner. Incorporating a Dimension 4 complex reasoning process or one or more Dimension 3 processes moves the project to a completely different level by requiring students to generate knowledge and apply it in a meaningful context. Chapter 4 of the Teacher’s Manual is structured to provide you with the direction and information needed to understand and use the identified complex reasoning processes to construct tasks that require students to use knowledge meaningfully. For each of the six reasoning processes, the following organizational format is used.

Overhead 4.0A

On page 193, you will find an explanation of Roman numeral 2, the five sections that are included for each reasoning process. Take a couple of minutes to scan through these reasoning processes in the Teacher’s Manual so that you are familiar with the format. Please notice that for each process, you will find in section 2 a set of steps for the process, followed by a version of the same steps in simplified language. This simpler version is often used with younger students or with students who are just beginning to learn the process. <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to this section of Dimension 4. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Decision Making Individual Task

I am going to present you with a decision that I want you to make fairly quickly. You are going on a vacation at your own expense. You must select one of the following: • two weeks in London for $4,000 • two weeks in Hawaii for $2,000 • two weeks in a cabin in the Adirondacks for $700 What you have just done is use a decision-making process. For some of you, this may have been a fairly easy decision because one of the choices seemed far superior to you than any of the other choices. For others, it may have been a more difficult decision because all of the choices were equally appealing or unappealing. In either case, most of you probably did not give a great deal of thought to the criteria you would use to make the decision because you realized that this decision was being made only to make a point; it wasn’t going to lead to your going on that trip. Certainly, the importance of the decision and the degree to which the choices are equal affects the rigor with which we approach the decision-making process. When used to construct meaningful use tasks, the process of decision making requires a great deal of rigor and thought. Decision making is defined as the process of generating and applying criteria to select from among seemingly equal alternatives. Stated more simply, it is the process of developing and using criteria to select from choices that seem to be equal. On pages 196 and 197 of the Teacher’s Manual is an explicit model of the steps involved in the decision-making process.

Overheads 4.1A 4.1B

Notice the level of rigor required for students to engage in this process. When considering seemingly equal choices, they must clearly define the criteria they consider to be important and then apply those criteria to

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alternatives in order to make a selection. It is a more methodical and rigorous process than the one you probably used to determine which trip to take. To teach students this process, introduce the process to them by demonstrating each step, perhaps as a think aloud. Select a decision-making situation that uses fairly simple content knowledge or a real-life situation, like deciding what car you should purchase. This modeling experience should involve the use of a matrix to help students organize the large amount of information needed to generate criteria and alternatives and to apply each criterion to each alternative.

Overhead 4.1C

<Just for fun, you might use the blank matrix to do the following activity. Tell participants that you are going to give an award for the best participant in the workshop due to the extensive and critical nature of the information being discussed. Have them determine criteria they think you should use to select the winner of this award. After participants have had a few minutes to generate criteria, compare their criteria with criteria such as • the number of treats the participant brings and the quality of those treats; • the degree to which the participant takes care of your wants and needs; • the frequency with which the participant smiles and exhibits positive body language; and • the extent to which the participant agrees with what you are presenting and tries to convince others around them that you are one of the best, most intelligent presenters he or she has encountered. Help participants to see that generating criteria has a profound effect on the outcome of the decision-making process and that changing criteria can lead to different choices.> Now let’s go through an entire example together, using each step of the process.

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Suppose I am trying to decide which car to buy. I have narrowed my choices to four: • • • •

the Kia the Saturn the Explorer the Lexus

Next, I determine the criteria I want to consider in this decision. I include • • • • •

cost mileage safety roominess style

But these criteria are much too vague. In other words, I have not defined my criteria very well. What exactly do I mean by “cost”? Vague, ill-defined criteria are often the reason people have trouble making clear decisions. The first key point, on page 200, talks about the importance of clear, precise criteria. Take a minute to quickly skim Key Point 1. Overhead 4.1D

Now let’s go back and better define my criteria. By “cost” I mean the car must cost under $15,000. By “mileage” I mean it must get approximately 15 miles per gallon in the city. Now I can assign each criterion an importance score, using a scale of 1-3. I might assign cost and safety a score of 3, meaning they’re very important, mileage and roominess a 2, and style a 1. Next, I determine the degree to which each alternative possesses each criterion. On a scale of 0 to 3, to what degree does the Kia meet the cost criterion?

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I decide that because the Kia is fairly inexpensive, it gets a 3. The Saturn also gets a 3, the Explorer a 1, and the Lexus a 0. When I finish filling out all the cells, I multiply the two numbers in each cell and add up the column totals.

Alternatives Criteria

Kia

Saturn

Explorer

Lexus

cost (3)

3×3 9 3×3 9 3×1 3 3×0 0

mileage (2)

2×3 6 2×3 6 2×1 2 2×2 4

safety (3)

3×1 3 3×2 6 3×3 9 3×3 9

roominess (2)

2×1 2 2×2 4 2×3 6 2×3 6

style (1)

1×1 1 1×2 2 1×2 2 1×3 3

TOTALS

21

27

22

22

But something doesn’t feel right to me; I’m disappointed. This is probably an indication that I should go back through the process and make some changes. I might add or change criteria or I might reassign importance scores. Some people, when they reach this last step, say, “Why bother going through this whole process if you’re just going to decide using your initial intuition?” But it is this last step that makes the process particularly powerful because it combines the rational with the intuitive. If the decision doesn’t feel right, I use that information to push myself to further examine my criteria and their relative importance. What sometimes happens, if I stick with the process, is that I discover a criterion that is really important but has not been identified or articulated. Once it is added to the matrix and given its appropriate importance, I redo the process and come to a decision that feels right and takes into account what I know is important. You can see that the decision making matrix can guide you through the steps of the process. However, some teachers report that students can begin to have the misperception that decision making is a process of filling out a matrix. Take a minute to read the second key point (on page 201), which discusses the use of the matrix.

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Overhead 4.1D

Although you can see how the matrix can guide students through the steps, it is critical that as you monitor their work, you reinforce the idea that decision making is a process, not just an exercise of putting numbers into boxes. It is relatively easy at first to provide students with opportunities to practice using this decision-making process. Just select decisions students might make about familiar things, such as choosing a pet, a vacation destination, a college, or a career. Practicing with information with which students are familiar allows them to concentrate on the process itself. Then, as they become more familiar with the process, they can begin to use it in the meaningful use of academic content knowledge. An example of such a task, in think-aloud form, may be found on pages 197-200 in the Teacher’s Manual. There are several suggestions under the final key point (on pages 201 and 202) for using the process of decision making to enhance student learning. Take a minute to read these bulleted suggestions on pages 201 and 202.

Overhead 4.1D Small Group Activity

Overhead 4.1E

Obviously, engaging in the process (rather than simply seeing it modeled) is a more meaningful experience. Pretend that you are in my social studies class and that we are in the middle of a unit about the 1960s. In this unit, I might ask you to engage in the following decision-making task. Take a minute to form groups of three or four with those around you. Then in your small groups, follow the steps of the decision-making process, and perform this decision-making task. Be ready to report on • the criteria you used and the importance scores you applied to each, • the individuals you considered and the extent to which they met your criteria, and • your final selection. What did you learn about the 1960s as a result of doing this activity? What evidence is there that this activity encourages the meaningful use of knowledge?


As students become more comfortable with the decision-making process, encourage them to construct their own tasks around the process relative to the content knowledge they are learning. Give them direction, as appropriate, about how to do this. On page 203 there are several suggestions for helping students to construct their own decision-making tasks. As you read this information, keep in mind the 1960s decision-making task you just completed. Would you consider it to be more student structured or more teacher structured as defined in the reading? Discuss this with your partner. Be ready to support your answer with what you’ve learned about each type of task.

Think/Pair/Share

There are three examples of Dimension 4 decision-making tasks on page 204 of the Teacher’s Manual. Read the examples, and then create a decisionmaking task for a current, past, or future unit of study. Be sure that your task provides students with the opportunity to use important content knowledge in a way that will be meaningful to them.

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Closure

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of decision making. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Problem Solving Small Group Activity

Now we’re going to do some problem solving, another way to use knowledge meaningfully. First, form groups of three or four with those around you. In your groups, make a paper airplane. You must • use exactly one-half sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” paper and no other materials; • make four folds, no more, no fewer; and • make sure your airplane can fly at least ten feet.

Overheads 4.2A 4.2B Large Group Discussion

Take a moment to examine the steps involved in the problem-solving process and to determine the extent to which you followed the steps as your group solved the airplane problem. Are there any steps that you left out? What might have been different if you had included those steps? When people solve problems, they must use their knowledge in very specific ways. The problem you just solved is similar to problems provided for students participating in the Odyssey of the Mind program, a national, competitive problem-solving program. Unfortunately, experiences with

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programs like this are often limited to a few students, frequently those who have been identified as gifted and talented. This is unfortunate because most people believe that all students should learn to be good problem solvers. The term problem solving is used in many different ways. In fact, students, as well as teachers, frequently refer to any difficult task as a “problem-solving task.” Because some difficult tasks require using the processes of decision making or experimental inquiry, referring to them as “problem-solving tasks” does not guide students to a process that will help them complete these tasks. In the Dimensions of Learning model, the term problem solving is only used to refer to a process that helps students with tasks that require them to solve unstructured problems. This means that students are trying to overcome a constraint or limiting condition in order to achieve a goal. Take a few minutes to read the introduction to problem solving on pages 205 and 206. Pay particular attention to the descriptions of structured and unstructured problems. Be ready to distinguish between the two types and to discuss the type focused on in Dimensions of Learning. Now, get a partner. Together discuss the definitions of structured and unstructured problems and the difference between them. As you should do when crafting any good definition, do not use the terms themselves (i.e., the words structured or unstructured) in your explanation. Then, create an example of each type of problem. Finally, discuss the type of problem—unstructured problems—that is the focus of the process of problem solving as defined in the Dimensions of Learning model.


As explained, one important characteristic of an unstructured problem is that it involves a constraint or limiting condition. In the task you just finished (discussing structured and unstructured problems), I put a constraint on your discussion of the two types of problems: You could not use the terms unstructured or structured. In effect, I created a problem-solving task. How did having to overcome the constraint (not using the words structured or unstructured) affect your use of knowledge, in this case your knowledge of the types of problems?


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Problem solving, then, as defined in Dimensions of Learning, is the process of overcoming constraints or limiting conditions that are in the way of pursuing goals. Stated more simply, it is the process of overcoming limits or barriers that are in the way of reaching goals. Overheads 4.2A 4.2B

Students should be introduced to the steps in the problem-solving process with a demonstration of how they might use the steps as they go through the process. Let me model what that might look like.

Overhead 4.2C Small Group Activity

What I’d like you to do next is to use the demonstration we just went through to create and fill in a graphic organizer like this one, which can also be found on page 211. You may work together with one or two other people. After introducing the problem-solving process to students and presenting them with the model, give them opportunities to observe others engaged in problem solving and to practice and reflect on their own experiences solving problems in content-related situations. Let’s spend a little time right now practicing some problem solving. Try to be aware of yourself as a problem solver as you attempt one of the problems I’m about to give you. Be ready to reflect on the aspects of problem solving that are easiest or most difficult for you.


You may work with a partner, by yourself, or in small groups. First, read the three classroom examples on page 213. Because the third example poses a problem that would be difficult to solve in this workshop setting, select one of the first two and begin to solve the problem described. Let’s look at the key points related to problem solving on pages 209 and 210 and apply them to the problems you just solved.

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Overhead 4.2D

The first key point discusses the importance of step one of the process: identifying the goal you are trying to accomplish. In the problems you were just solving, the goal was provided for you. It is not unusual for the goal to be defined when a problem is presented in the classroom. However, in reallife situations, defining the goal is critical. If you are part of a school district that is dealing with parents who are complaining about test scores, but, in a time of budget cuts, you can’t spend any additional funds to address this issue, you clearly have a problem. There are at least two ways of defining the goal. What are they?


Notice that the way you define the goal will provide direction for the remainder of the problem-solving process. It is important for students to have opportunities to engage in problem-solving tasks in which the goal is not provided so that they can practice this step of the process. Read the second key point on page 209. As you were solving the problems from the classroom examples, to what extent did you carefully examine the constraints or limiting conditions before generating alternatives? Discuss this with your group.


The third key point explains that when solving a problem, you may have to shift to the processes of decision making or invention. If, for example, you can’t decide which alternative to try, you may need to engage in decision making. If you are unable to generate a good alternative solution to your problem, you may have to invent one. As you can see, as students become familiar with using each reasoning process, there are ever-increasing opportunities for them to use knowledge meaningfully. The final key point emphasizes the importance of students understanding that the process of problem solving should be used to help them find the best solution, not just a solution. Reflect once more on the problems you were solving earlier. If you were using these problems in the classroom, how might you encourage students to search for the best solution (as opposed to just “getting the assignment done”)? Discuss this in your group, and be ready to share your ideas.

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Assuming you have taught and reinforced the problem-solving process, one of your biggest challenges will be setting up problems around content. Take a few minutes to read the section in the Teacher’s Manual on teacherstructured and student-structured tasks (pages 211-213) and to quickly scan the classroom examples on page 213. Small Group Activity

Working with a partner or in small groups with those around you, construct a teacher-structured problem-solving task that you might use in a particular content area. Be sure to consider the steps in the process as you construct the task. Keep in mind that you need a clear idea of the content knowledge that you would like students to meaningfully use and a clear idea of how the problem solving-process will help them use that knowledge.

Closure

178

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of problem solving. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Invention We are now going to spend some time looking at the process of invention. As we will discuss a little later, not all inventions are successful.

Overhead 4.3A

Find a partner, or get into small groups with a few other people. I am going to provide you with paper, paper clips, rubber bands, and tape . I’d like each pair or group to invent a paper airplane that is better in some way than the typical paper airplane. Before you construct this airplane, set a standard that you will work toward. In other words, specify how it will be better than the typical paper airplane. Will it look better? Will it be able to fly farther? Turn at certain angles? Carry cargo?



Invention is the process of developing unique products or processes that fulfill a perceived need. The invention might be a procedure, a product, a speech, a game, a campaign, a machine, or a show. Whatever is being invented, the process of creating includes the following steps.

Overheads 4.3B 4.3C

Successfully completing this process requires a major commitment to a task. The U.S. Patent Office has expressed the concern at times that fewer and fewer people are willing to make such a commitment, as evidenced by the decreasing number of patent applications. Have you ever seen an invention that is incredibly successful and lucrative for the inventor and thought to yourself, “I had that idea a long time ago,” “Why didn’t I think of that?”, or “I can’t believe that’s popular.” Try to think of something you would like to invent or create. If it helps, complete one of these sentence stems.

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Individual Task

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<Write the following on a blank overhead: I wish I could think of a new way to __________________________. I would really like to create a new __________ that would ________. Give participants time to generate ideas. Ask several people to share their ideas.> Even when people have good ideas, they often do not follow through on them. On the other hand, some people do follow through and create something new but then find that their invention is a flop. Consider these situations in which new products or procedures were created but failed to gain popularity. Overhead 4.3D


<Show top half of Overhead 4.3D. Give participants the handouts entitled “The Better Mousetrap” and “Improvement in Fire Escapes.”> In small groups, discuss the three inventions that didn’t make it in light of the steps in the invention process. Now, use the model for the invention process to analyze the three inventions that did make it.

Overhead 4.3D Large Group Discussion

<Show bottom half of Overhead 4.3D.> What conclusions can you draw from these analyses? 1. Inventors may identify what they want to improve but don’t stop to determine what their goal or purpose is. Identifying the goal or purpose—the first phase of the invention process—is important because it reflects an understanding of the situation that created the need for the invention in the first place. Without this knowledge, the invention might be unique but may fail to meet the perceived need or fail to improve the situation for which it was created. 2. Ideas also may fail either because the identified need was vague or inaccurate or because the inventor did not continually revise and polish it to make it meet the identified standards. In some cases, the inventor identified no standards or poor standards, and, therefore, the final steps did not produce the best invention.

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3. Finally, inventors might not attend to step 5, which asks them to be flexible in looking for alternatives and to revise the standards as necessary. Coming up with invention tasks is sometimes difficult. Although the Teacher’s Manual does not really provide suggestions for coming up with ideas for invention tasks, let’s look at one powerful way to do this. One way to stimulate ideas for student invention tasks and to stimulate students’ thinking about potential invention ideas is to use analogical reasoning. Using analogies to come up with ideas for inventions might look like this. <Write the following on a blank overhead: I would like to invent something for____ that would do what _________ did for _________. For example, I would like to create a television show for opera that would do what MTV did for modern music or what AMC did for old movies.> When applied to content, analogical reasoning can help teachers and students generate ideas for invention tasks. Here are some more examples.

Overhead 4.3E

To develop a better sense of the steps in the invention process, we’re going to break into small groups for the next 10 minutes and engage in the process of invention. Take a look at the suggestions on this overhead.


Overhead 4.3F

Before working on the task, read the key points on pages 218-219 in the Teacher’s Manual. Let’s go over these points together briefly.

Overhead 4.3G

Each of these points reminds the teacher that students often want to jump in right away and start making their invention. It is important to monitor them carefully to ensure that the invention process not only results in something useful and creative, but that it also encourages students to use knowledge meaningfully.

Overhead 4.3F

Now let’s go back to our task. Select one of the tasks, and, keeping in mind the key points, start to move through the steps of the invention process. Get as far as you can in 10 minutes. Use the graphic organizer on page 219 to represent the invention process that you are engaged in.

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Overhead 4.3H


What did you learn, discover, or think about the topic you chose as a result of engaging in this activity? What evidence was there that you were using knowledge meaningfully? Knowledge about what?

Individual Task

Let’s take a few minutes to think about and begin to create an invention task that you might use in your classroom. First, take a few minutes to read the teacher-structured and student-structured section on pages 220-221 of the Teacher’s Manual. Then, select one classroom example to read. Using the information you have read, begin to construct an invention task you might be able to use in the classroom. Remember that the purpose here is for students to use knowledge meaningfully. Make sure to clearly identify what knowledge is being used in the invention task. As students work, you will want to hold them accountable for two things: their use of the invention process and their level of understanding of the knowledge they are using. This second part will be weak if you and your students do not know what knowledge is being used. When the knowledge piece is missing, students may work harder on creating a “pretty project” than on using their knowledge.


Closure

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of invention. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Experimental Inquiry Experimental inquiry is the process of generating and testing explanations of observed phenomena. Stated more simply, it is the process of developing and testing explanations of things we observe. Experimental inquiry is often associated with science, specifically the scientific process or method. However, the steps involved in this process can be applied to any content area and can be useful to anyone, not just scientists and researchers. Before we explore some examples, let’s examine the steps of the process.

Overheads 4.4A 4.4B

A real-life example might make these steps seem more familiar to you. Consider a mother observing the behavior of her two-year-old son.

Overhead 4.4C

At a certain level, even young children engage in experimental inquiry. They wonder why, they hypothesize, they test, they regroup and try something else. For example, they may wonder why their toy doesn’t work and think to themselves, “Maybe it’s the batteries. I’ll turn the batteries around and try it again. . . . Nope, it still doesn’t work. Maybe it’s because. . . .” In essence, these children—and all who engage in the process of experimental inquiry— are trying to address the questions identified in the simplified version of this process. In a science classroom, there are obvious opportunities for teaching the process of experimental inquiry and for explicitly applying it to content. What are some science-related examples that you have seen or used? Experimental inquiry is less commonly used in other subject areas within the liberal arts, fine arts, or the humanities. This is unfortunate because the same process that is applied to physical phenomena in the sciences can be applied to psychological phenomena related to a wide variety of content areas. For example, by conducting an experimental inquiry, students can attempt to explain why people react to specific pieces of literature, art, or music. As explained on page 225 of the manual, when introducing experimental inquiry to students, that is, before you even introduce the steps, you might conduct an actual experiment or discuss an example of a famous experiment. Then ask students to think of examples of famous or important experiments and to discuss how people’s lives have been impacted by these experiments

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and by experiment inquiry in general. As you go through your example or an example offered by a student, help students to identify what they think are the key aspects of the experimental inquiry process. Guide them to the awareness that the process involves answering the four basic questions: What do I observe? How can I explain what I observe? What do I predict based on my explanations? How can I test my predictions? In order for students to engage in experimental inquiry tasks, they need a model of the steps of the process and opportunities to practice each step. Overheads 4.4A 4.4B

It is important when illustrating the steps to demonstrate each one concretely. The think-aloud on pages 226 and 227 provides an example of how you might do this. Take a couple of minutes to read it. Notice how the teacher models the steps of the process in a very concrete way. Let’s review the steps of the process again. As we do this, I will discuss each of the key points about experimental inquiry. These can be found on pages 228-229.

Overhead 4.4D

The first step of experimental inquiry—“Observe something that interests you, and describe what has occurred.” or “What do I see or notice?”— implies that someone engaged in asking this question has observed something that has piqued his or her interest or curiosity or that is inherently meaningful to him or her. Key Point 1 emphasizes that it is important for students to be interested in the phenomenon that they are exploring. In fact, this first step of experimental inquiry highlights the intent of all Dimension 4 tasks: that students use knowledge in ways that are meaningful to them. To help students with this first step, teachers who have used the experimental inquiry process report that it is important to help students become better observers and to encourage them to wonder. As a result, students begin to notice and wonder about things that they might like to explore through experimental inquiry.

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Take a couple of minutes to think about what makes you wonder. In other words, try to think of things you might like to explore through experimental inquiry. For example, I wonder why people don’t exercise, why people get sick at high altitudes, and why so few people read Shakespeare.


Students initially enjoy the second step of the experimental inquiry process because trying to explain the reason for what they have observed can seem a bit like a guessing game. They soon realize, however, that to conduct an effective inquiry, they must slow down and think, rather than guess or thoughtlessly make up explanations. In order to be successful, students must bring with them an understanding of the concepts, generalizations, and principles that could help them explain the phenomenon. In fact, this is the point in the process that they use what they have previously learned in order to understand an observed phenomenon. In the think-aloud you read in the Teacher’s Manual (about the feather and rock), what knowledge would students need to use to try to explain why the rock fell faster than the feather? Key Point 2 discusses the necessity of providing opportunities for students to learn the knowledge they will be asked to use in the experimental inquiry. Similarly, students often find that generating a hypothesis or prediction is fairly simple (step 3) but that setting up an activity or an experiment to test it (step 4) can be quite challenging. Step 4 requires a great deal of modeling and guidance in how to set up an experiment. The final step in the experimental inquiry process, step 5, reinforces the idea that invalidating your hypothesis can be as enlightening as finding support for it. Key Point 4 discusses the importance of students understanding the interactive nature of the steps of the experimental inquiry process; that is, if the results of an experiment indicate that their explanation of the phenomenon was incorrect, they must go back and either try to set up additional experiments or, perhaps, go all the way back to step 2 and consider different explanations. Let’s take some time now to practice the experimental inquiry process. Pretend we are in a social studies class and that we are in the middle of our 1960s unit. Get into groups of three or four, and read over these experimental inquiry tasks.


Overhead 4.4E

In your groups, select one of the two tasks, state your hypothesis, and be ready to describe the experiment you would set up to test your hypothesis. See if you can use the graphic organizer on page 229 to help you organize your ideas.

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Overhead 4.4F


What did you learn as a result of doing the activity? As you worked, what evidence was there that your group was using knowledge meaningfully?

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As students begin to use the experimental inquiry process, give them fairly well-structured tasks. Then, as they have practiced with structured tasks, allow them to participate in designing and structuring tasks. Even when they help create their own tasks, however, students need some guidance in the process. Now, get together in groups of three. Each of you read one of the three classroom examples on pages 231-232. Identify the extent to which the experimental inquiry process was teacher structured or student structured. Then identify the knowledge that students were using in the tasks.


Each of you now share with the other two a summary of the task, your analysis of how it was structured, and the knowledge that students were being asked to use. After sharing, quickly sketch out a teacher-structured experimental inquiry task that relates to important content that one of you teaches or has taught. <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of experimental inquiry. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Investigation Large Group Discussion

What is the difference between what reporters do when they are reporting a story and what they do when they are engaged in investigative reporting? Reporting a story requires gathering information from several sources and organizing it in some cohesive way; investigative reporting involves digging for information and trying to resolve inconsistencies, contradictions, or other indications that the entire truth has not been exposed. The goal of investigation is to gather and use information to clear up inconsistencies and confusions, or to uncover or generate information that is missing or otherwise unknown. Just as reporting is different from investigative reporting, investigation is different from doing an information-gathering research report.


Which of the five dimensions of learning are students using when they do an information-gathering research report?


Overhead 4.5A

The process of investigation requires students to go beyond the acquisition and integration of knowledge. To understand what is required of students, read the descriptions on page 235 of the three types of investigation. Then look at the steps of the process on page 237.

Overheads 4.5B 4.5C

What specifically are students required to do in an investigation that they typically are not required to do in more traditional research reports? Students cannot simply go to a resource and find the resolution to an investigation topic. Instead, they must use what they have already learned

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that is relevant to the issues they are investigating and then seek out and use a variety of resources, often primary sources, to understand the confusion or contradiction. The process then requires them to take what they already know and what they have learned and use this knowledge to craft a resolution to the contradictions or confusions. Investigation requires research, as do most research reports, but the process also requires students to use their thinking abilities, often their creative thinking abilities, to provide plausible definitions or scenarios about which there is confusion or to provide answers to questions for which there are no known answers. To illustrate, take a couple of minutes to read the classroom examples on pages 243-245. Now, in your groups, for each of the examples you read, describe what the assignment might have looked like if students had been asked to do a more conventional research report related to the topic. Remember, for many research topics, students are asked to look up information and present it in a particular format, such as a written report or an oral presentation.


Again, there are three types of investigation: definitional, historical, and projective. Take a few minutes to reread the definitions of these three types on page 235 and to skim over on pages 235-236 the suggestions for helping students understand these three types.

Overhead 4.5D

Now, take a look at these investigation topics. See if you can identify the type of investigation each task exemplifies: definitional, historical, or projective. Refer to page 235 of the Teacher’s Manual if you need clarification of the types of investigation.


You may have noticed that many of the topics in the investigation examples, both on the overhead we just used and the classroom examples provided in the Teacher’s Manual, are appropriate for upper elementary and secondary students. Of all of the reasoning processes in Dimensions 3 and 4, investigation is probably the most difficult one to use with primary students. The ability of young students to conduct research is somewhat limited, thus topics for investigation are limited. However, the process can be taught to students as they seek to define concepts like friendship or community or as they project into the future with ideas that start with, “What would happen if…?” The challenge of identifying topics for investigation—whether identified by the teacher or by students—is the focus of the first key point in this process. These key points are described on pages 239-240.

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Overhead 4.5E

Again, as explained in the first key point for this process, recognizing topics for investigation may be somewhat difficult because we are not accustomed to looking for confusions or contradictions in our content areas. Teachers have reported that it takes some practice to become aware of topics about which there are such inconsistencies. The practice is worthwhile, however, because the tasks that are developed around such confusions are usually intriguing and motivating and provide opportunities for students to use what they have learned in a meaningful and interesting context. Let’s start practicing now. Form small groups with those around you, and see if you can identify topics about which there are confusions or contradictions worthy of investigation. Before generating your topics, take a couple of minutes to read strategy 1 on pages 235 and 236. This section provides questions and sentence stems that may help your thinking.


Students also need to increase their awareness of possible topics for investigation. Of course, they first need to become familiar with the three types of investigation and with the steps involved in the investigation process. Then, as suggested in Key Point 1, ask students to suggest examples of each type. You might begin a class list of potential investigation topics of each of the three types.

Overhead 4.5E

The second and third key points, on page 240, discuss some challenges in teaching the process of investigation. The second key point highlights the important role of resources in the investigation process. You may need to work closely with media specialists so that they understand the variety of resources students will need and then work with students to help them effectively access and use these resources. The third key point notes that creating their own resolutions is creative and exciting for students. However, it also presents challenges. Can you see a potential problem with this aspect of investigation? Take a few minutes to discuss your thoughts with a partner.

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Overhead 4.5F Small Group Activity

The graphic organizer presented on page 241 can be helpful to students as they present their information and resolutions. Look at the think-aloud example about the ozone layer on pages 237 and 238. In your groups, share what information you might put in each of the boxes of the graphic organizer.


Again, it is important to gradually move from teacher-structured to studentstructured tasks. Find a partner. A’s, read the guidelines for teacher-structured tasks (bullets at the bottom of page 241) and the teacher-structured democracy task at the top of page 242. B’s, read the guidelines for studentstructured tasks (bullets on page 242) and the student-structured democracy task at the bottom of page 242. When you both have finished, share your information and compare the teacher-structured and student-structured democracy tasks. How are they similar, and how are they different?

Closure

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of investigation. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Systems Analysis The world that surrounds us is composed of many systems: families, the interstate highway system, factories, schools, etc. Many of these systems are part of even larger systems. For example, a factory might function as a system, but, it also might be part of a larger business system that has other parts such as a marketing department, a retail outlet, and so on. Each part of any system is dependent on other parts; when one part changes or stops functioning, other parts of the system are influenced. Large Group Discussion

Take a minute to identify other systems you encounter regularly or that you know about. It is often said that the key to understanding the present, and even to predicting the future, is to use “systems thinking.” This means that as you analyze any situation, you carefully attend to all of the systems that are relevant to the situation and analyze each system to try to understand the relationships

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among the parts within the system. If you develop an understanding of how a system works, you will be better able to describe or predict the effect of any course of action on any of its parts. The ability to do this type of thinking is called systems analysis in the Dimensions of Learning model. Your first goal, when using systems analysis, is to make sure that students understand what a system is. Strategy 1, on pages 247-248, suggests ways you might introduce the concept of a system to students. This section mentions some software that, if available to you, provides an excellent way to help students understand systems. However, if you are unable to demonstrate the software to your class, other suggestions are included for helping students become aware of the systems around them. One of these suggestions describes a simulation that you might stage in the classroom using students to create a system. Have a few students stand in a circle, and ask each student to make a particular robot-like movement over and over. One student might turn his head, another might lift her arm, another might bend from side to side. Make sure each student’s movement does not influence the movement of the others. Next, give each student a new movement to perform repetitively, but make sure that the first student’s movement influences the next student’s movement and that his or her movement, in turn, influences the next. For example, a student’s hand might make a circle, which knocks the arm of the next student, which spins the next student, and so on. In effect, you are making a “human machine.” Point out that the first series of movements is not a system because if you pull one student out or change a movement, the other students will not be affected; conversely, the second series of movements is a system because if you pull a student out, the “machine” stops. Let’s try this together now so that you will have had some practice in setting up this simulation in your classroom. Get in to groups of at least five. You have three or four minutes for each member to begin repeating a robot-like movement that does not influence anyone standing near him or her. Begin.


Stop. You have created a group that is not a system. Now, you have five minutes to create a human machine that is a system. Each person’s movement must affect one or more other people in the circle. I will ask several groups to demonstrate their systems. Begin.

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This activity helps students to have a clear image of what a system looks like. You might then have them begin a list of systems that they understand fairly well and then have them discuss how the parts interact. Overheads 4.6A 4.6B

Next, introduce to students the definition and the steps of the process of systems analysis. Systems analysis is defined as the process of analyzing the parts of a system and the manner in which they interact. Stated more simply, it is the process of describing how the parts of a system work together. Let’s look at the steps. We will examine them together as you might do in the classroom, by modeling with a specific example. Let’s take a system we’re all familiar with, and see if we can use the systems analysis process to analyze it using what we know about this system. How about a school district? Step 1 of the process asks us to identify the parts of the system. What are the parts of a school district?


Let’s do step 2. What are the boundaries of the system? This requires us to define the role of the system and to describe where it begins and where it ends. For example, a school district includes all of the parts that work together to offer formal education to children within given boundaries, which are usually mandated by the state. Its physical boundaries, areas of jurisdiction, responsibilities, and powers are fairly well delineated in state documents. In this way the boundaries are clear. Some boundaries might be a little more difficult to delineate. For example, are parents part of the school system, or are they members of another system—the family—that can influence the school system? What do you think? You can see that defining the boundaries of some systems might require careful analysis and that, in the end, everyone might not agree. Step 3 asks how the parts of the system affect one another. You are familiar enough with a school district to define the roles of many of its parts, for instance, the role of the school board, of teachers, of administrators, etc. However, even when you are familiar with a system, this can be a challenging part of the process. Take a couple of minutes to read the two key points for systems analysis on pages 250-251. Both key points are related to this third step of the process. Notice the term functional relationship as it is defined in the second key point.

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Overhead 4.6C

With two or three people around you, describe the functional relationship between at least two parts of the respiratory system. Then select at least three parts of a school system—whatever parts you wish—and try to verbalize the functional relationships among them. Be ready to share one of the relationships you defined. In addition, be ready to identify what you learned as you engaged in this step of the process first with a physical system (the respiratory system) and then with a system involving human interactions.


Let’s move on to Step 4. You may work in small groups for this step. Step 4 requires identifying the various parts of the system and, for each part, explaining what would happen if it changed or stopped working.


Let’s do this step with both of our examples: the respiratory system and a school district. What happens if one part of the school district changes? The possibilities here are endless, but let’s consider it, anyway. Think of either a real situation in which you have been involved or make one up. Describe specifically how a part of the system might change. For example, using the respiratory system, you might hypothesize a situation in which the lungs are suddenly working at only 75% capacity. Relative to a school system, you might speculate how other parts of the system would be affected if the school board decided to meet only twice a year or if it decided that the teachers in the system no longer need to be certified. For each example, describe what and how other parts of the system would be influenced.

Overhead 4.6D

Look at this graphic representation of a system, which is also on page 252. This visual is meant to help students create a mental picture of a system. It can also be used as a graphic organizer. The number of circles, of course, will be a function of the complexity of the system. Keep in mind, however, that if there are many interacting parts in the system being analyzed, this graphic might begin to contain too many arrows and become too visually confusing to be of use.

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You will find a discussion of the use of teacher-structured and studentstructured tasks on pages 252 and 253. Although the philosophy underlying Dimensions of Learning is to increasingly shift responsibility for these thinking processes to students, you still might need to model the process for them and guide them as they engage in it. When the system being analyzed is quite complex and involves human interactions, the process of systems analysis is challenging even to those experienced in using the process. Systems analysis, like the other complex reasoning processes, can provide a meaningful context within which students can use what they have been learning by engaging in tasks that are relevant, intriguing, and authentic. At the same time, effective systems analysis tasks are tied strongly to content knowledge. Turn to pages 253-254 in the Teacher’s Manual, and read the examples provided. Notice how each example has students use content knowledge meaningfully. Let’s look at the elementary example in which students began to realize how parts of a story are a system. This strategy is sometimes called character relationships, but the thinking process underlying it is systems analysis. Students are trying to understand that plot, character, and setting create a system. But characters in a story, together, are also a system. Let’s look at the relationships among the characters as depicted on page 253. Overhead 4.6E Small Group Activity

Notice that the teacher is guiding students through the first three steps of systems analysis. The parts of the system are identified and the relationships are described. Now try doing the last step of the process (as students are asked to do in this example). Change just one relationship, and then discuss how the story or plot would change. Then select a different story, and try to use the same process.


To help build your understanding of the systems analysis process, work with a partner or with two or three other people to identify systems within your own content area or within units of study you now teach. Suggest ways of applying systems analysis to that content in order to help students use their knowledge of the system in a meaningful way. Be ready to share your ideas with the large group.

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<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to the process of systems analysis. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

Closure

Planning for Dimension 4 <Participants should have a blank planning guide for Dimension 4 in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.>

Overhead 4.P1

Planning for Dimension 4 requires asking and answering the following overarching question: What will be done to help students use knowledge meaningfully? By following the three steps outlined in the Teacher’s Manual, pages 255259, you will answer this question. Each step requires you to answer a specific key question or provide information. There is a place on the planning guide to record your decisions.

Overhead 4.P2

We will look at the planning guide for Dimension 4 for the sample Colorado Unit (page 259) while considering the planning questions for this dimension.

Overhead 4.P1

Step 1 asks you to respond to the following question: What knowledge will students be using meaningfully? Specifically, students will be demonstrating their understanding of or ability to . . . You will notice that you are given a sentence stem to begin answering this question. This stem suggests two important points to keep in mind as you are planning. First, the stem states “students will be demonstrating their understanding or ability to….” This is a reminder that you might be planning for students to use either declarative knowledge, thus requiring students to demonstrate their understanding of information, or procedural

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knowledge, which requires students to demonstrate their ability to use a skill or process. It is important to be clear exactly what knowledge students will be using as they do the task and to make sure that it is important knowledge, whether declarative or procedural, that is worth the time that Dimension 4 tasks often take students to complete. Second, this sentence stem reminds you that students are “demonstrating” knowledge, implying that they have had an opportunity to learn the knowledge that they are being asked to use. This emphasizes that these tasks should not be designed as independent studies. Although students might need to do some independent research, they should have had an opportunity to acquire the understanding or ability before they are asked to use it in the task. Take a minute to read the first column on the planning guide, page 259, that identifies the knowledge students will be using in the Dimension 4 task from the Colorado Unit. Overhead 4.P1

Step 2 of the planning procedure (on page 256) asks, “What reasoning process will students be using?” This is followed by a list of the reasoning processes from Dimension 4. The “other” on the list provides a place to indicate if students are being asked to use reasoning processes other than those identified in Dimension 4. For example, students might be doing what is referred to on page 193 as a “combination task.” This is a task that requires students to use a combination (usually two) of Dimension 3 reasoning processes as they complete the task. The second step of planning suggests that students should not only be using content knowledge meaningfully, they also should be “using” a reasoning process. We recommend that many, although not all, tasks engage students in these reasoning processes as a way of providing direction for the task and ensuring that students are doing some type of thinking that is not at the level of recalling, reiterating, or otherwise reproducing knowledge. Again, not all tasks will focus on these reasoning processes. For a further explanation of when they are included, please read the two paragraphs at the bottom of page 256. The same point was made earlier in the introduction to this dimension. When students are using procedural knowledge, such as their ability to calculate the area of a parallelogram or to play a piano concerto, it is not

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necessary to provide a focus for the task by integrating the reasoning process. Students might simply be using their ability in a meaningful context. However, sometimes even when the knowledge being used is procedural knowledge, you might need to provide a context or purpose for the task by requiring students to also use their ability while, for example, solving a problem or analyzing a system. For instance, students might be demonstrating their ability to display data on various types of graphs— procedural knowledge—but the reason they need to use this procedural knowledge might be to make a decision. Although designing tasks around a reasoning process is not always necessary when students are using procedural knowledge, when they are using their understanding of important declarative knowledge, we recommend that you select one of these reasoning processes for the focus of the task. As we have seen, the classroom examples at the end of each section for the reasoning processes in the Teacher’s Manual provide models for tasks that integrate the declarative knowledge and the reasoning processes. When these tasks were planned, the teachers first identified what type of reasoning students would be engaged in; then they identified what product students would create. The emphasis then is clearly on the thinking process. To help you with this step in the planning process, whether asking students to use declarative knowledge or procedural knowledge, the manual provides you with a set of questions (on page 257) that can stimulate your thinking and guide you as you design these Dimension 4 tasks.

Overheads 4.P3 4.P4

When trying to come up with an idea for a task or when trying to provide a focus for an idea you already have, let the questions help you determine which reasoning process would be best for guiding students in using the knowledge identified in Step 1. Notice that on the planning guide (page 259) the process of experimental inquiry has been selected. Notice also that only one process has been selected. The steps of the selected reasoning process should guide students through the task. Thus, we recommend that you focus on only one process (or two processes from Dimension 3 if you are designing a combination task). If you analyzed many tasks, you could identify a number of types of thinking (at least at a surface level) that students are engaged in. However, it is best to select the one or two that will guide them as they work. For example, as you design an experimental inquiry task, you might notice that students will also be making some inferences, which is inductive reasoning, and identifying some similarities and differences, which really is comparing. However, even

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though these other types of thinking are going on, we advise you to focus students on the steps of the reasoning process—in this case, experimental inquiry—that will guide them through the task. Overhead 4.P1

Finally, Step 3 asks you to describe the tasks that students will be doing. At this point, you would take your initial ideas from Steps 1 and 2, and then create the task that will be given to students. As you draft and revise the task, there are several other characteristics of the task that you should consider. Read the questions under Step 3 (on page 258) that will further guide you as you design the Dimension 4 tasks.

Overhead 4.P5

Think/Pair/Share

The first bullet reminds us that one of the major challenges in writing these tasks is to make sure that students are using the identified knowledge. Think of a time that you assigned a major project—maybe a time from your earliest years as a teacher—and, in hindsight, you would have to say that students got caught up in making the product and never really used the knowledge that you had hoped they would. For instance, they produced colorful maps but never really used their understanding of regions. Take a minute to think back to a situation like this from your own experience, then share with someone at your table. Before you practice planning these types of tasks, let me make one more point. Notice that the second bullet provides several ideas for ways of making sure that the task is meaningful to students. Some people may believe that in order for tasks to be meaningful, they must mirror real life or be perceived by students as being relevant to their future success. Actually, students can also consider a task meaningful when it stimulates them intellectually, encourages them to express themselves artistically, or allows them some choice and control. These suggestions certainly are not the only methods of making tasks meaningful, but remember that the goal is for tasks to be meaningful and that meaningfulness can be achieved in a variety of ways.

Overhead 4.P2

Now take a minute to read the brief description of the task in column three of the planning guide on page 259. You will notice that criteria for evaluation are not included. We will discuss these criteria when we examine the assessment section in Chapter 6.

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Look again at column one in which the knowledge that is being used is identified. At your tables, try to generate two alternative ideas for tasks that would also require students to use the identified knowledge. For each alternative, use a different reasoning process. Be ready to share.


Now let’s practice using this planning process for a unit you are planning or might plan. First, identify some important declarative knowledge that you want students to use meaningfully. Then select one or two complex reasoning processes, and design tasks that might help students use that knowledge meaningfully. Be ready to share your ideas.

Planning Activity


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Dimension 5

DIMENSION 5

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5 Dimension 5 Habits Of Mind

To the Trainer This portion of the training covers Chapter 5 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. Participants should understand that in this model higher order thinking is a characteristic of the learner, not of the task. Students’ performance on any task will be influenced by certain mental habits, or dispositions, referred to here as productive habits of mind. The dispositions listed under the categories of Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and SelfRegulated Thinking can be the criteria for determining if learners are engaged in higher order thinking. No matter what the task, some emphasis can be placed on helping students to develop these habits. The process of helping students to develop productive habits of mind may take some time away from academic content. However, when students develop and use these habits, their learning of academic content is enhanced and they learn more efficiently and effectively. These habits are also useful in learning situations throughout life. Productive habits of mind of the type identified in Dimensions of Learning are the mark of successful learners in any context. During this training, participants will be in the process of learning •

that higher order thinking is a characteristic of the learner, not of the task;

•

that certain mental habits—habits of mind—characterize higher order thinking and that teachers can help students to develop these habits;

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Dimension 5 Habits of Mind

•

that productive habits of mind enhance learning of academic content in the classroom and learning in other situations in life;

•

how to help students understand the habits of mind;

•

how to help students identify and develop strategies related to the habits of mind;

•

how to create a culture in the classroom and the school that encourages the development and use of the habits of mind;

•

how to provide positive reinforcement to students who exhibit the habits of mind; and

•


Exploring Dimension 5 Overhead O.15


Why do you suppose we are going to look at Dimension 5 in conjunction with Dimension 1?

Think/Pair/Share

Overhead O.16

Let’s explore the habits of mind by applying them to students you have or students you had in the past. Identify a current or past student whom you consider to be a successful learner. With that student in mind, review the habits of mind on page 264 , and answer this question: Which of the habits would you say the student exhibits? Then discuss with a partner how you think the student developed these habits.

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Of course, many students develop productive mental habits as a result of influences at home. However, because these habits significantly influence student learning, it is also important to teach and reinforce them at school. It is important to remember that although the list of mental habits on page 262 is considered important in much of the educational literature, the list is not sacred. As explained in the introduction, we encourage you to modify the list, if necessary, to match your own perspective on mental habits. Some teachers have made changes, additions, and deletions to this list; some have encouraged students to create their own individualized lists of important mental habits. Further, a district may prefer teachers to use its own list of the characteristics of “lifelong learners” instead of the habits of mind listed in Dimensions of Learning. Recommendations in the Teacher’s Manual for helping students to develop habits of mind also apply to these customized individual or district lists. As explained in the introduction to this dimension, it should be noted that the word habits might be misleading. There are instances when the use of a particular habit is critical, but there are other situations in which a particular habit may not be appropriate or useful. For example, you probably do not want to restrain impulsivity while brainstorming, and it could be dangerous to seek clarity if you smell smoke and someone yells “Fire!” Can you think of other situations in which specific habits might not be useful or needed?


To maximize the chance that all students develop productive habits of mind, we recommend that these habits be explicitly and overtly introduced, defined, taught, practiced, and reinforced. It is not enough to model them and then hope that students use them and appreciate their importance.

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Teaching productive habits of mind is different from teaching mathematics or reading, both in the nature of the knowledge involved and the perceived importance and resulting buy-in on the part of students. Students know they must learn to read, add, and subtract and that they will be graded on these abilities; they even see the importance of learning them. This is not necessarily the case with the habits of mind. Thus, the Teacher’s Manual includes a section, which begins on page 264, on specific suggestions for helping students to develop productive habits of mind. This section includes the following subsections. Overhead

5.1

There is also a resource section for teachers who plan to use the specific habits identified in Dimension 5. The section includes

Overhead

5.2

• a brief explanation of each habit, • examples of situations in which it might be beneficial to have each habit of mind, and • examples of strategies recommended by people who exhibit each habit. The first step in helping students to develop productive habits of mind is to help them “understand habits of mind” (Teacher’s Manual, page 264) and get a sense of their value or benefit. Students cannot be expected to develop the habit of persevering, for example, if they don’t know what it means, and they probably won’t develop the habit unless they see an advantage to having it.

Think/Pair/Share

Find a partner. Then take a couple of minutes to look over the strategies on pages 264-265 for helping students understand the habits of mind. With your partner, decide which of the strategies each of you will read. Then read the strategies and share your information with your partner. These suggestions range from simply discussing the habits to having students create pictures that reflect their understanding of the habits. Let’s look at how these suggestions might play out in the classroom. One group of first-grade teachers suggested changing the language of the habits of mind to make it simpler for young children to discuss but decided to stick with the original language because the children could understand the habits and liked the big words! A case in point is illustrated in this

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“Happy Gram” written by a first-grader to a student teacher, Mrs. McDermott, during their class party the day the student teacher was to leave.

Overhead

5.3

It is clear that the students were beginning to understand that these habits are positive and important. Another teacher asked students to set goals based on the list of habits and to draw pictures of what achieving those goals might look like. One example of these pictures is in the margin on page 265. Here are several others.

Overheads

One of the suggestions for helping students to understand the habits of mind is to share personal anecdotes with them. This takes some planning and reflection. Let’s try it. First, identify one of the habits in any of the categories (critical, creative, or self-regulated thinking) that is a strong one for you and that has been beneficial; or, identify one that is weak or missing, the absence or weakness of which has been costly or a problem. Try to think of an example of a time you used the habit or would have benefited if you had. Make sure your example is one you would feel comfortable sharing with students. Be very specific. This is good practice for the classroom. Share your example with one or two other people around you.

5.6

5.4

5.5

5.7

5.8


<Share a personal example to model the activity. Allow several minutes for participants to read and share their examples. Ask for questions, reactions, and an example or two.> Once students understand the habits and have a sense of their benefit or importance, you can begin to help them develop strategies for effectively using them. The Teacher’s Manual includes several suggestions (pages 265266) for helping students identify and develop strategies related to the habits of mind. One suggestion is to demonstrate a strategy by using a think-aloud. I’ll do this now using the PMI strategy from Edward de Bono’s CoRT program. (The citation for this program is on page 266 of the Teacher’s Manual.) This strategy encourages open mindedness. PMI stands for plus, minus, and interesting. When an issue or suggestion comes up about which you might feel close-minded, you can discipline yourself to go through the PMI process. That is, first identify something

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about the subject that is a “plus,” or positive idea, then something that is a “minus,” or negative idea, and then something that is “interesting” about the subject. So, if I were considering, for example, the suggestion that students wear school uniforms, I would do the following. “Let’s see. A ‘plus’ idea about school uniforms is that it would take some of the social pressure off of students. A ‘negative’ idea about school uniforms is that they don’t allow students to express their individuality. It might be ‘interesting’ to see if students would start looking for other ways to individualize their appearance.” Individual Task

Now I’d like you to try this. Here’s a topic for you to practice with: Marriage licenses should be issued with a five-year expiration date; the license would have to be renewed by both parties to be valid. Another recommendation is to have students share strategies that they use to foster the habits. Sometimes this involves asking students to share their strategies. Other times it requires you to interact with students to help them become aware of strategies that they have used but may not be conscious of using. For example, if you notice a student restraining herself from shouting out during class (e.g., you see her halfway out of her seat, red in the face, lips pursed; then she suddenly sits down, relaxes, and waits for her turn before speaking), you might acknowledge that you noticed that she restrained impulsivity and ask her to reflect on the thoughts and feelings that helped her to restrain herself in this instance. She might say that she noticed she was out of her seat, remembered being embarrassed the last time she spoke out without thinking, and reminded herself that she had promised herself to think before she speaks. You then might make explicit for her and for her classmates the strategy she used: She became aware of what she was doing, recalled the negative consequences she had suffered when she did the same thing in the past, and reminded herself of her decision to change this behavior.

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With a partner, take a few minutes to look over the ways to help students identify and develop personal strategies. These are on pages 265-266. Divide them between you, skim them, and then share the information with your partner.

Think/Pair/Share

Overhead

5.1

Overhead

5.9


The third set of suggestions for helping students develop productive habits of mind addresses the importance of creating a culture that encourages the development and use of the habits of mind. Students will not learn to plan, for example, if teachers do not give them long-term tasks. Similarly, it is unlikely that they will learn to generate new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions if their teachers only accept one view and one right way of doing or seeing something. Therefore, this section discusses ways in which to create a culture that nurtures and encourages the development of productive habits of mind. Creating this kind of culture includes modeling the habits, displaying posters or other representations of them, and explicitly focusing on them in specific units or tasks. As explained on page 267, creating this culture does not mean creating completely new activities. It often means simply integrating the habits into daily routines and activities. Three suggestions for doing this are provided on pages 267-268. Let’s consider each briefly.

1. How does debate help students develop the critical thinking habits of mind?

Overhead O.16

2. How does solving these kinds of problems provide opportunities for students to become more aware of and develop the habits of creative thinking? 3. How does having students set goals relate to the awareness and development of the mental habits that exemplify self-regulated thinking?

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In addition to integrating habits into these daily routines and activities, you will find that long-term tasks that require students to use knowledge meaningfully, as recommended in Dimension 4, also provide opportunities for reinforcing these habits of mind. When engaged in these tasks, students have a chance to plan, be clear, push the limits of their knowledge and abilities, use necessary resources, persevere, generate and maintain standards, and so forth. The activities listed above (debate, solving academic problems, and setting goals), as well as Dimension 4 tasks, are ongoing activities that can offer you opportunities to communicate to students the importance of becoming critical, creative, and self-regulated thinkers; these activities can also give students opportunities to develop and practice the habits involved in each type of thinking. The Teacher’s Manual provides other suggestions for creating this culture. Take a couple of minutes to scan these ideas on pages 268 and 269. Overhead

5.1

The fourth set of suggestions for helping students to develop productive habits of mind (page 269) gives ideas for providing positive reinforcement to students who exhibit the habits of mind. Reinforcing the habits, whether informally or formally, communicates to students and parents that these habits are valued and important. Reinforcement may be as informal as telling a student who asks you to repeat directions that you noticed that she sought clarity or telling a student who usually gives up when he doesn’t immediately get an answer that you noticed that he persevered this time. Positive reinforcement also might be more formal.

Overhead 5.10

Some districts have replaced sections of their report cards called “study habits” or “work habits” with sections that indicate their perceptions of students’ strengths and weaknesses related to the habits of mind. Take a couple of minutes to skim the strategies on pages 269-270 for positively reinforcing the habits of mind.

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Overhead

5.2

A major portion of the chapter on Dimension 5 is a resource for teachers who are using the specific habits listed in this model. This section includes • explanations of each habit, • examples of situations in which it might be beneficial to have each habit, and • examples of strategies recommended by people who exhibit each habit.

Overhead 5.11

To become familiar with this section, as well as some of the specific habits, we’re going to spend a few minutes reading and sharing about some of the information by using a jigsaw process.

Jigsaw

First, get into groups of three. Within your groups, choose an A, a B, and a C. A’s will focus on critical thinking; B’s on creative thinking; and C’s on self-regulated thinking. Your job is to select one of the habits from your category to major in, so to speak.

Overhead 5.12

You will read (1) the explanation of that habit, (2) the examples of situations in which it might be beneficial, (3) one or more of the strategies recommended by people who exhibit the habit, and (4) one or more of the classroom examples for your category from the selection on pages 270-273. Notice how the teacher deals with the habit or habits of mind. What is your reaction to his or her ideas? What else might be done? When everyone in your group has finished, share the information, the classroom examples, and your reactions to the examples. Then, if time permits, see if your group can generate examples of situations in which any of the habits has been beneficial or share strategies developed from your own experiences. What comments or questions do you have about Dimension 5 or about this section of the manual?

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Planning for Dimension 5 <Participants should have a blank planning guide for Dimension 5 in the packet that we recommend you give them at the beginning of any workshop in which planning is being addressed. See Handouts section.> As with the other four dimensions, if you don’t consider the habits of mind during planning, you often unwittingly leave them out of students’ experiences. Planning for Dimension 5 requires asking and answering the following question: What will be done to help students develop productive habits of mind? Overhead 5.P1

In order to answer this question, a step-by-step process is provided on pages 298-302 in the Teacher’s Manual. Each step requires you to answer a key question or provide information, which is then recorded on the Dimension 5 planning guide. Let’s look at the Dimension 5 planning guide for the sample Colorado Unit on page 302.

Overhead 5.P2

Step 1 asks you whether there are any goals or concerns related to students’ habits of mind in general or related to the specific unit being planned. During planning, you would note any general or specific concerns in the first column. Take a couple of minutes to look at the entries in the first column on page 302. The next question, which has two parts to it, asks what will be done to address the identified goals or concerns. The first part of this question relates to the productive habits of mind and asks whether anything will be done to help students develop any of the specific habits of mind under critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking. Again, look at the planning guide on page 302, and note what has been checked and how it relates to the goals and concerns. The second part of the second question asks you to describe what will be done. Read the descriptions on the Colorado planning guide.

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What questions or comments do you have about the planning guide or any of the entries? Now, working alone or with one or two others, identify a unit you are planning or might plan in the future. What general and/or specific goals and/or concerns might you have? Identify at least one productive habit of mind you might focus on to address that goal or concern. Describe what you might do.

Planning Activity

<Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented related to Dimension 5. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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P u t t i n g I t A l l To g e t h e r

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

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Putting It All Together

6 Putting It All Together This section of the training covers Chapter 6 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. After participants have explored each dimension in some depth, they may perceive the model as being a series of fragmented pieces. The goal of this part of the training is to pull these “pieces” back together. During this training, participants will be in the process of learning •

that planning units of study is rarely a linear process; although it is important to ask the key planning questions for each dimension, the sequence of planning will vary greatly from person to person and from unit to unit;

•

that after setting goals for students in each dimension, teachers must sequence instruction;

•

that assessing each dimension of learning requires selecting from among different types of assessment tools, such as forced-choice items, essay questions, performance tasks and portfolios, teacher observations, and student self-assessments;

•

that assessment requires teachers to use specified criteria in order to make judgments about students’ levels of performance;

•

that grading is not a process of compiling scores but a process of determining how well students have demonstrated their knowledge;

•

that teacher-student conferences provide important opportunities for communication, clarification, and support that can enhance students’ learning;

•

how to sequence instruction; and

•

how to assess and keep records of students’ performance.

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Overhead

O.3

This final chapter of the Teacher’s Manual will help you to pull together the dimensions that we have been examining separately. We will take a look at the entire planning process as a unified whole and examine issues and decisions to consider as you plan and implement curriculum units.

Overhead

6.1

A word of caution at this point. Three of the five sections in this chapter— Content, Sequencing Instruction, and Conferences—cover information with which you probably are comfortable. However, two of the sections— Assessment and Grading—make recommendations that you might perceive as a significant departure from what you currently do as you assess and grade students. Keep in mind that these are only recommendations; they do not have to be followed in order to use the Dimensions of Learning model to plan and implement curriculum units. These recommendations are included because they are useful for schools and districts that are working with standards and benchmarks. Let’s begin by becoming familiar with the explanations and recommendations in the first section of this chapter, Content (pages 303-309). This section includes a review of the planning questions for each dimension as well as suggestions for sequencing these questions as you plan the content for a curriculum unit. First, turn to pages 304-305, and review the entire list of planning questions, which includes one set for each dimension. Listing the questions like this allows you to review them together. However, we do not mean to imply that you need to plan for each dimension in this order. Turn to page 306, where you will see explanations of three commonly used models for planning. Each of these models describes a different order in which you might plan for the dimensions. Let’s look at these models on pages 306-309.

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We are going to explore these sections by using a jigsaw strategy. Organize yourselves into groups of three, and assign someone to be an A, someone to be a B, and someone to be a C. As we have done earlier in this training, each of you will be given a section to read and then will be expected to share information from your section with the other two members of your group.

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Overhead

6.2

If you are an A, read the section entitled “Model 1: Focus on Knowledge,” starting on page 306. If you are a B, read “Model 2: Focus on Issues,” starting on page 307. If you are a C, read “Model 3: Focus on Student Exploration,” starting on page 308. When your group is ready, you may begin to share the information in your group. You will notice that the order in which you plan for each dimension implies where you want students to focus: on the knowledge, on issues, or on exploration. Think a minute about these three models, and select the one that best matches where you typically want students to focus. In other words, if you had to select your preferred model right now, which of the three best describes how you would plan? Why do you think you prefer that model?


When you plan using the Dimensions of Learning model, you probably will find that at different times and for different units you will plan in different ways. Wherever you begin, however, it is important to know where you want to focus your unit and to ask yourself the planning questions for each dimension. Let’s skip the Assessment and Grading sections of the chapter for now and look instead at the Sequencing Instruction section, which begins on page 322. All of the planning up to this point has been aimed at carefully identifying the knowledge that students will be learning and the experiences that they will have in order to learn this knowledge. Before implementing your unit, however, you also may want to decide how to sequence these planned experiences. The order in which you plan for each dimension does not necessarily indicate how you will sequence your instructional lessons. Just because you planned Dimension 4 first, for example, does not mean that students will be presented with Dimension 4 tasks at the beginning of the unit. To understand the recommendations in this section, we first need to understand the two types of classes that are recommended: presentation classes and workshop classes. Take a couple of minutes to read the descriptions of these two types of classes on pages 322-324. Those of you who are accustomed to workshop classes commonly used in the language arts probably found these descriptions to be very familiar. On pages 324-326, there are four suggested questions, which can guide you through

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the decisions you need to make about the sequence of presentation and workshop classes. Overhead

6.3

The first question focuses you on the decisions you made in Dimensions 1 and 5. This reminds you to decide when you will use the activities and strategies identified on the planning guides for these dimensions. The second, third, and fourth questions require you to determine how many presentation and workshop classes you will need and how you will integrate these classes. Take a minute to examine the sequence of classes for the Colorado Unit (Figure 6.9, page 326).

Overhead

6.4

You will notice that the early part of the unit includes mainly presentation classes. Gradually, workshop classes are added, until, finally, they dominate the end of the unit. As explained, this is a common and recommended flow of classes: more presentation classes at the beginning of the unit and more workshop classes at the end of the unit. This implies that students are increasingly using knowledge during workshop classes that they are acquiring in presentation classes. In order to get a clear picture of what is happening during these workshop classes, it is important to understand the role of the teacher. In the description of workshop classes on page 324, the section entitled The Activity Period explains that while students are working on their projects, the teacher’s primary role is to coach students as they work and to have conferences with students. The fifth section of this chapter, Conferences (pages 327-328), provides a further explanation of this role. Take a minute to read this section now.


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Now, I’d like you to form small groups by getting together with one or two other people. One member of the group should be designated as the “teacher”; the others are the “students.” Teachers, your job is to have a brief conference with your students. Let’s make this conference have an “assessment focus,” as described on page 328. Try to determine how well the students think they have been learning the information presented in this workshop, and then provide them with feedback on how well you think they have been doing. You might not know each other well, so you may need to role-play this activity. Whatever the case, be sure to identify the criteria you and the students are using as you assess their performance and as they self-assess their own performance.

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Whether you were really doing this or doing this as a simulation through role-play, what were some of the things you discovered by talking together in your pair or small group? Were there any surprises? Are these the kinds of things you discover when you have conferences with students?


One reason that it is recommended that you plan to have workshop classes during your unit is because they provide you with the opportunity to have conferences with students. There is much you will find out about how well students are learning and you will have an opportunity to give individualized feedback and even instruction if you have one-on-one conversations with individual students or interactions with small groups of students. These conferences can be a major source of data that you can use to assess students and to improve instruction. Let’s spend some time now looking at the bigger picture of assessment and grading. As mentioned earlier, some of the recommendations in these sections might be fairly new to you. One last time, I am going to ask you to take time to read. This time, read these two sections of Chapter 6 on pages 309-322. You need to read this all the way through in order to see the big picture. We will then explore some parts of these sections in more depth. As explained in these sections, the focus of assessment and grading is on Dimensions 2, 3, 4, and 5. Let’s look at some of the recommendations for assessment. It probably did not surprise you that different knowledge requires different types of assessment. Take a look at Figure 6.1 on page 311.

Individual Task

Overhead

6.5

Using the recommendations in the figure for types of assessment tools that are used with specific types of knowledge, answer the following questions:

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What type of assessment tool is best if I want to find out if students • know what happened at the battle of Gettysburg? • understand how health issues influence communities, families, and individuals? • can add whole numbers? • tend to be clear and seek clarity? Although some people prefer performance tasks and portfolios and others prefer to rely on teacher observations and student self-assessments, it is important to consider all of the types of assessment techniques as you determine which will provide you with the data you need to make judgments about how students are doing. On page 314, you read about the important role of teacher judgment in determining students’ levels of performance. This perspective is based on the belief that assessment cannot be seen as a process of compiling scores or calculating averages. The planning process that has been recommended in this manual emphasizes that we should help students not only acquire knowledge, but extend, refine, and use knowledge meaningfully. This implies that our goal is to help students increase their understanding of declarative knowledge and to develop their proficiency in using procedural knowledge. If, in fact, this is our goal, then we must assess students’ understanding and proficiency. This requires teachers to gather as much evidence as possible and then to make judgments about students’ levels of understanding and proficiency. These judgments are based on identified criteria, as shown in the sample rubrics. Teachers apply these criteria, to the extent possible, and make judgments about students’ levels of learning. Large Group Discussion

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Our level of commitment to assessing students’ learning is demonstrated in how we give grades. The grading section of this chapter recommends that we make a significant commitment to assessment by assigning and recording grades that indicate students’ knowledge. What was your reaction to the sample page from the grade book on page 318?

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Overhead

6.6

Overhead 3.8E

As stated at the beginning of the training for Chapter 6, the recommendations made in this chapter are not essential to implementing the Dimensions of Learning model. Assessing and grading in the ways that are suggested here represent a major commitment to using Dimensions of Learning to maintain a focus on learning and knowledge as you plan curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This is a good way to close this training for Dimensions of Learning.

Overhead O.20

Remember that the Dimensions of Learning model can be used in many different ways. It is a model of learning that can influence instruction, staff development, curriculum planning, and every part of a school system. No matter how it is used, keep in mind that the authors hope that it will always be seen as a way to study learning. If we increase our understanding of learning, then we make better decisions in districts, schools, and classrooms. <Use your preferred format for closure—table talk, pause and reflect, or learning logs—to allow participants time to think about the information that has been presented. See page 9 for explanations of each of these formats for completing this portion of the training.>

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Handouts

Step 4:

Step 3:

Step 2:

Step 1:

What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will know or understand. . . . What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge? What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning for, organize, and/or store this knowledge? Describe what will be done. Step 3:

Step 2:

Step 1:

What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to. . . . What strategies will be used to help students construct models for, shape, and/or internalize this knowledge? Describe what will be done.

2:59 PM

Classroom Climate Construct Meaning Construct Models • Help students understand that attitudes and perceptions related to • Help students understand what it means to construct meaning. (p. 52) • Help students understand the importance of constructing models for classroom climate influence learning. (p. 15) procedural knowledge. (p. 94) • Use the three-minute pause. (p. 53) • Establish a relationship with each student in the class. (p. 16) • Use a think-aloud process to demonstrate a new skill or process. (p. 94) • Help students experience content using a variety of senses. (p. 53) • Monitor and attend to your own attitudes. (p. 17) • Provide or construct with students a written or graphic representation • Help students to construct meaning for vocabulary terms. (p. 54) • Engage in equitable and positive classroom behavior. (p. 17) of the skill or process they are learning. (p. 95) • Recognize and provide for students’ individual differences. (p. 18) • Present students with the K-W-L strategy. (p. 55) • Help students see how the skill or process they are learning is similar • Respond positively to students’ incorrect responses or lack of response. • Create opportunities for students to discover or figure out the new to and different from other skills or processes. (p. 96) (p. 19) information for themselves. (p. 56) • Vary the positive reinforcement offered when students give the • Teach students to mentally rehearse the steps involved in a skill or • Use instructional techniques that provide students with strategies to correct response. (p. 19) process. (p. 96) use before, during, and after they receive information. (p. 58) • Structure opportunities for students to work with peers. (p. 20) Shape • Provide opportunities for students to get to know and accept each other. Organize • Help students understand the importance of shaping procedural • Help students understand the importance of organizing information. (p. 21) knowledge. (p. 97) (p. 61) • Help students develop their ability to use their own strategies for • Demonstrate and create opportunities for students to practice using • Have students use graphic organizers for the identified organizational gaining acceptance from their teachers and peers. (p. 21) the important variations of the skill or process. (p. 98) patterns. (p. 62) • Frequently and systematically use activities that involve physical • Point out common errors and pitfalls. (p. 98) • Provide students with advance organizer questions. (p. 68) movement. (p. 23) • Introduce the concept of “bracketing.” (p. 24) • Present note-taking strategies that use graphic representations. (p. 70) • Help students develop the conceptual understanding necessary to use • Establish and communicate classroom rules and procedures. (p. 24) the skill or process. (p. 99) • Have students create physical and pictographic representations of • Be aware of malicious teasing or threats inside or outside of the information. (p. 71) Internalize classroom, and take steps to stop such behavior. (p. 26) • Have students use graphs and charts. (p. 72) • Help students understand the importance of internalizing procedural • Have students identify their own standards for comfort and order. (p. 26) Store knowledge. (p. 101) Classroom Tasks • Help students understand the process of storing information. (p. 74) • Help students set up a practice schedule. (p. 102) • Help students understand that learning is influenced by attitudes and • Present students with the strategy of using symbols and substitutes. • Have students chart and report on their speed and/or accuracy when perceptions related to classroom tasks. (p. 29) (p. 74) practicing new skills or processes. (p. 103) • Establish a sense of academic trust. (p. 30) • Use the link strategy with students. (p. 75) • Help students understand how specific knowledge is valuable. (p. 30) • Use a variety of ways to engage students in classroom tasks. (p. 31) • Use highly structured systems for storing information with students. • Create classroom tasks that relate to students’ interests and goals. (p. 32) (p. 76) • Provide appropriate feedback. (p. 33) • Provide students with mnemonics for important content. (p. 80) • Teach students to use positive self-talk. (p. 33) • Help students recognize that they have the abilities to complete a particular task. (p. 34) • Help students understand that believing in their ability to complete a task includes believing that they have the ability to get the help and the resources needed. (p. 34) • Help students be clear about the directions and demands of the task. (p. 35) • Provide students with clarity about the knowledge that the task addresses. (p. 35) • Provide students with clear expectations of performance levels for tasks. (p. 36)

Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ attitudes and perceptions in general or related to this specific unit? Step 2: What will be done to address these goals or concerns? Step 2a: Specifically, will anything be done to help students develop positive attitudes and perceptions about classroom climate and classroom tasks? Step 2b: Describe what will be done.

Procedural

What will be done to help students acquire and integrate procedural knowledge? (p. 106)

Acquire and Integrate Knowledge

Dimension 2 What will be done to help students acquire and integrate declarative knowledge? (p. 83)

Declarative

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Attitudes and Perceptions

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Problem Solving (p. 205) • Is there a situation or process that has some major constraint or limiting condition? • Is there a situation or process that could be better understood if constraints or limiting conditions were placed on it?

Decision Making (p. 195) • Is there an unresolved decision important to the unit? • Is there an unresolved issue about who or what is the best or worst? • Is there an unresolved issue about who or what has the most or least?

What knowledge will students be using meaningfully? Specifically, students will be demonstrating their understanding of or ability to. . . . What reasoning process will students be using? Describe what will be done.

Analyzing Perspectives (p. 178) • Would it be useful to identify and understand the reasoning or logic behind a perspective on a topic or issue?

Analyzing Errors (p. 168) • Are there situations in which it would be beneficial to identify errors in reasoning?

Invention (p. 214) Abstracting (p. 130) • Is there a situation that can and should be improved on? • Is there an abstract pattern that could be applied? • Is there something new that should be created? • Could something complex or unfamiliar be understood better by generating an abstract pattern and applying it to something simple or Experimental Inquiry (p. 224) more familiar? • Is there an unexplained phenomenon (physical or psychological) for • Are there seemingly different things that could be connected through which students could generate explanations that can be tested? the generation of an abstract pattern? Investigation (p. 234) Inductive Reasoning (p. 138) • Is there an unresolved issue about the defining characteristics or • Are there important unstated conclusions that could be generated defining features of something? (Definitional) from observations or facts? • Is there an unresolved issue about how something occurred? • Are there situations for which probable or likely conclusions could be (Historical) generated? • Is there an unresolved issue about why something happened? • Are there issues or situations for which students could examine the (Historical) inductive reasoning used? • Is there an unresolved issue about what would happen if . . . or what Deductive Reasoning (p. 146) would have happened if … (Projective)? • Are there generalizations (or rules or principles) that could be applied Systems Analysis (p. 246) to reach conclusions and make predictions? • Are there parts of a system or the interactions of the parts of a system • Are there topics or issues for which students could examine the that could be analyzed? validity of the deductive reasoning used? • Is there something that could be examined in terms of how it behaves Constructing Support (p. 160) or works within a system? • Are there important claims to be refuted or supported? • Would it be important to examine existing arguments that support or refute a claim?

Classifying (p. 123) • Would it be helpful to have students group things? • Would it be beneficial for students to generate a number of ways to group the same list of things?

Comparing (p. 117) • Would it be useful to show how things are similar and/or different? • Would it be useful for students to focus on identifying how similar things are different and how different things are similar? • Would it be helpful to have students describe how comparing things affects their knowledge or opinions related to those things?

Step 2: Step 3:

Step 1:

A Resource for Teachers • Critical Thinking (p. 274) • Creative Thinking (p. 284) • Self-Regulated Thinking (p. 290)

4. Provide positive reinforcement to students who exhibit the habits of mind. (p. 269) • Appoint “process observers,” students who watch for positive examples of other students who are demonstrating the habits. (p. 269) • Ask students to self-assess their use of specific habits. (p. 269) • Give students feedback on a report card or progress report. (p. 270)

3. Create a culture in the classroom and the school that encourages the development and use of the habits of mind. (p. 267) • Model the habits. (p. 267) • Integrate the habits into the daily routines and activities of the classroom. (p. 267) • Develop and display posters, icons, and other visual representations to express the importance of productive habits of mind. (p. 268) • When appropriate, cue students to focus on specific mental habits or ask them to identify habits that would help them while working on difficult tasks. (p. 269)

2. Help students identify and develop strategies related to the habits of mind. (p. 265) • Use think-aloud to demonstrate specific strategies. (p. 265) • Ask students to share their own strategies. (p. 266) • Encourage students to find examples of strategies mentioned in literature and current events. (p. 266) • Ask students to interview others (e.g., parents, friends, or neighbors) to identify strategies. (p. 266) • Each quarter or semester, ask students to identify and focus on a habit of mind they would like to develop. (p. 266)

Helping students develop productive habits of mind. 1. Help students understand habits of mind. (p. 264) • Facilitate classroom discussion of each habit. (p. 264) • Use examples from literature and current events of people who are using the habits in different situations. (p. 264) • Share personal anecdotes that relate to a habit. (p. 265) • Notice and label student behavior that demonstrates a particular habit. (p. 265) • Ask students to identify personal heroes or mentors and describe the extent to which they exemplify specific habits of mind. (p. 265) • Have students create posters that illustrate their understanding of the habits. (p. 265)

Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ habits of mind in general or related to this specific unit? Step 2: What will be done to address these goals or concerns? Step 2a: Specifically, will anything be done to help students develop critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulated thinking? Step 2b: Describe what will be done.

Step 1:

What will be done to help students develop productive habits of mind? (p. 298)

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Step 2: Step 3:

What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically, students will be extending and refining their understanding of. . . . What reasoning process will students be using? Describe what will be done.

What will be done to help students use knowledge meaningfully? (p. 255)

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Dimension 3

Extend and Refine Knowledge

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clear about tasks?

❏ understand and be

the ability and resources to complete tasks?

❏ believe they have

valuable and interesting?

❏ perceive tasks as

Classroom Tasks

comfort and order?

❏ experience a sense of

teachers and peers?

❏ feel accepted by

Classroom Climate

Describe what will be done.

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Specifically, will anything be done to help students …

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Dimension 1 Planning Guide

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What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning for, organize, and/or store this knowledge? Describe what will be done.

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Dimension 2, Declarative Knowledge Planning Guide

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What will be done to help students construct models for, shape, and internalize the knowledge? Describe what will be done.

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Dimension 2, Procedural Knowledge Planning Guide

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Analyzing Perspectives Other _________________

❏

Analyzing Perspectives Other _________________

❏

Analyzing Errors


Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Abstracting

Classifying

Comparing

❏ ❏ ❏

❏ ❏ ❏

❏ ❏

What knowledge will students be What reasoning process extending and refining? will students be using? Specifically, they will be extending and refining their understanding of …

Analyzing Errors


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Abstracting

Classifying

Comparing


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❏

Other __________________

Systems Analysis (analyzing the parts of a system and how they interact)

❏

Investigation (resolving confusions or contradictions related to a historical event, a hypothetical past or future event, or to the defining characteristics of something)

❏

Experimental Inquiry (generating an explanation for a phenomenon and testing the explanation)

❏

Invention (creating something to meet a need or improve on a situation)

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Problem Solving (seeking to achieve a goal by overcoming constraints or limiting conditions)

❏

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respond appropriately to others’ feelings and level of knowledge?

take a position when the situation warrants it?

restrain impulsivity?

maintain an open mind?

be clear and seek clarity?

be accurate and seek accuracy?

generate new ways of viewing a situation outside the boundaries of standard conventions?

generate, trust, and maintain their own standards of evaluation?

push the limits of their knowledge and abilities?

persevere?

❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏

evaluate effectiveness of their actions?

respond appropriately to feedback?

identify necessary resources?

plan appropriately?

monitor their thinking?

Self-Regulated Thinking

❏

❏

❏ ❏

Creative Thinking

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❏ ❏

Critical Thinking


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HANDOUTS

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The Better Mousetrap “In the early part of the 20th Century, the Animal Trap Company of America sold a five-cent mousetrap. For years, the president of the company, Chester M. Woolworth, had tried to improve it, and in 1928 he succeeded. Yet, he couldn’t sell it. One problem was that it sold for twelve cents—almost two and one-half times as much as its predecessor. Another is explained at page 12 by A. Kelley et al. in Venture Capital, a book published by the Management Institute of Boston College (2nd ed. 1973): Mr. Woolworth failed to look carefully at the way the average family used a mousetrap. The mousetrap was normally purchased by the husband who set the trap at night after the children were in bed. In the morning, the husband hurried off to work leaving the dead mouse in the trap. The housewife did not want a dead mouse around all day so she would pick up the trap and dispose of the mouse and the trap. Unfortunately for Mr. Woolworth, the new trap looked too expensive to throw away. So, the wife was forced to remove the mouse and clean the trap. Obviously, the average housewife felt much happier with the old five-cent trap which could be thrown away. While the husband might buy the improved trap, the wife did not want it to be used. Thus, sales of the improved mousetrap were very low.” From: Field, T. G., Jr. (1996) “So You Have An Idea.” Franklin Pierce Law Center. Http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/idea.htm. Invention

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Improvement in Fire Escapes Patented November 18, 1879 221,855 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Improvement In Fire Escapes Specification forming part of Letters Patent, dated November 18, 1879 Application filed March 26, 1879 Serial No. 660,248

This invention relates to an improved fire escape or safety device, by which a person may safely jump out of a window of a burning building from any height, and land, without injury and without the least damage, on the ground; and it consists of a parachute attached, in suitable manner, to the upper part of the body, in a combination with overshoes having elastic bottom pads of suitable thickness to take up the concussion with the ground.

Invention

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Appendix A

Appendix A: Other Examples of Modeling the Model Below are examples of training activities for each of the five dimensions that model the Dimensions of Learning model. After you have gained experience and confidence in training, substitute your own examples.

Dimension 1 It is important to help participants feel welcome and accepted so that they focus their energy on the training and are willing to openly share experiences. The first hour or so of training is often when participants form attitudes and perceptions that carry over into the remainder of the training. Therefore, you must begin to help participants establish positive attitudes and perceptions from the opening minutes of the session. There are several ways for you to do this: • Personally greet as many participants as possible. • Begin the training with brief warm-up activities. • Ask participants to tell people at their tables about themselves, emphasizing that they should be sure to include one thing that most people don’t know about them. • Provide each person with a list of interesting experiences (e.g., serving on a jury, going on a cruise, seeing a famous musician perform, traveling overseas). Have participants find other people in the room who have had one of the experiences and ask them to sign their name next to the experiences they’ve had.

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Appendix A

• As the training proceeds, acknowledge times when people might feel frustrated or confused. Allow some discussion of the issue at hand to reduce psychological blocks.

Dimension 2 Many of the activities for acquiring and integrating knowledge can be used throughout the training to enhance participants’ understanding of the model. For example: • From time to time during the training, ask participants to develop graphic organizers to represent what they have learned. For instance, ask them to represent on paper the main issues presented in Dimension 1 without using words. • At the beginning of an especially difficult section, use the K-WL strategy. (See the Teacher’s Manual, pages 55-56, for an explanation of this strategy.) • At selected points in the training after Dimension 2 has been presented, have participants store some of the declarative information they have learned using one of the techniques they learned in the section on Dimension 2. (See pages 73-80 in the Teacher’s Manual for storing techniques.)

Dimension 3 Activities from Dimension 3 can be used to extend and refine participants’ knowledge throughout the training. For example: • When presenting important parts of the training, ask participants to make comparisons. (See page 118 in the Teacher’s Manual for the model for the process of comparing.) For example, you might ask participants to compare declarative and procedural knowledge. • Assign groups to compare staff development programs (such as those focused on learning styles and cooperative learning) in terms of the extent to which they reflect the different aspects of the Dimensions of Learning model. • Have participants analyze their perspectives on educational issues (such as the value of high school competency examinations) as they naturally arise during training. (See pages 179-180 in the Teacher’s Manual for the model for the process of analyzing perspectives.)

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• Ask participants to use inductive reasoning to infer conclusions about curriculum, instruction, or assessment based on their experiences with the Dimensions of Learning model. (See pages 139-140 in the Teacher’s Manual for the model for the process of inductive reasoning.)

Dimension 4 Using the Dimensions of Learning model to plan a unit of instruction is participants’ primary activity for using knowledge meaningfully. In assisting participants with this activity, the trainer should do the following: • Point out that when teachers work on curriculum in districts, this will be the activity for meaningfully using the knowledge that they have learned relative to the Dimensions of Learning model. • As participants engage in some of the tasks for the Dimension 4 processes, hold brief conferences to model conferencing during workshop classes. (See pages 327-328 in the Teacher’s Manual for descriptions of how conferencing may be used.)

Dimension 5 The use of effective habits of mind—critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking—should be supported by the trainer throughout the training experience: • Note instances of participants’ use of the productive habits of mind, and point them out as they occur. • Periodically stop the training, and have participants review their own use of important habits of mind. See Overheads O.17, O.18, and O.19 in this manual for examples of self-assessment questions for the habits of mind.

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APPENDIX B

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Appendix B

Appendix B: Structured Problems The seven problems described on the following pages can be used as structured problems as suggested in the introduction to this manual. Each takes no more than five minutes to complete. The problems are tricky because they tend to prompt people to make certain assumptions that, if followed, would make the problems impossible to solve. Once people think “outside” of their assumptions, the problems are relatively easy. These problems have an “aha!” quality that makes them fun to solve. Each problem includes a statement of the assumption that makes the problem tricky to solve, the correct answer to the problem, and, if appropriate, a graphic representation of the solution to the problem.

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Problem #1 You have three steaks that you want to cook on a grill. Each steak takes five minutes to cook on each side. You have a grill that can cook only two steaks at a time. What is the shortest amount of time that it will take to cook all three steaks? Assumption: Immediately after one side of a steak is cooked, the other side must be cooked. Answer: 15 minutes

steaks A, B, C grill positions #1, #2

#1

#2

A

C

5 minutes

A

B

5 minutes

C

B

5 minutes

TOTAL: 15 minutes

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Problem #2 You have four separate chains (A, B, C, D), each with three links (see Figure A below). You want to connect them so that you have one continuous chain with no clasp (see Figure B). The jeweler tells you that it will cost $2 to open a link and $3 to close a link. How can you combine the four chains in such a way as to obtain one continuous chain and spend only $15? Figure B

Figure A A

B

C

D

Assumption: Each chain must be linked to the end of another chain. Answer: Use the three links in one chain (e.g., chain D) as the links or fasteners for the other three chains. Step #1:

A

B

C

D

A1

B1

C1

D1

A2

B2

C2

D2

A3

B3

C3

D3

B

Step #2:

D1 B1 B1 B1 D2 A

A1 A2 A3

D3

C1 C2 C3

C

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Problem #3 You have 24 quarters, one of which is defective and weighs more than the others. You also have a balance score (see figure below), which will tell you which of two stacks of coins is heavier. It will not provide you with information about their actual weight. How can you identify the heavy coin using the balance scale only three times?

Assumption: You must break the pile of coins into two groups to use the balance scale. Answer: First break the 24 coins into three piles of 8 coins. Put two piles on a balance scale. If these balance, then the heavy coin is in the third pile of 8. If they do not balance, then the heavy coin is in the pile of 8 that is heaviest on the balance scale. Next, break the heavy pile into three piles (3, 3, 2). Place the two piles of 3 coins on the balance scale. If they balance, the heavy coin is in the pile of 2 coins. If they don’t, then the heavy coin is in the pile of 3 coins that is heaviest on the scale. Either break the pile of 3 coins in three piles (1, 1, 1), or break the pile of 2 coins into two piles (1, 1) and use the scale for a third time.

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Problem #4 Arrange 10 dots so that they form five straights rows of four dots each. Assumption: A dot cannot be in more than one row, and rows must be parallel. Answer:

Problem #5 You have 10 glasses, 5 of which are filled with chocolate milk and 5 of which are empty (see Figure A). Moving only 2 glasses, arrange the glasses so they alternate between those containing chocolate milk and those that are empty (see Figure B). Figure B

Figure A

Assumption: When you move a glass, you change its position only. Answer: Empty the milk in glass #2 into glass #9, and empty the milk in glass #4 into glass #7.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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Problem #6 Using six wooden matches, construct four equilateral triangles (equal sides and equal angles). Every triangle must be connected to every other triangle.

Assumption: The figure must be two-dimensional. Answer: Construct a three-dimensional figure. Problem #7 Divide the area shown below into four equal parts.

Assumption: The figure will be divided by four straight lines. Answer:

;;;; ;;;; ;;;; ;;;; ;;;; ;;;;

;;;; ;;;; ;;;; ;;;; ;;;;

REFERENCES

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REFERENCES

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References Bennett, B., Rolheiser-Bennett, C., & Stevahn, L. (1991). Cooperative Learning: Where Heart Meets Mind. Toronto: Educational Connections. Field, T. G., Jr. (1996). “So You Have An Idea.” Franklin Pierce Law Center. http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/idea.htm. Fowlie, W. (1977). A Journal of Rehearsals: A Memoir. Durman, NC: Duke University Press. Johnson, D., Johnson, R., Roy, P., & Holubec, E. (1984). Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Jones, B. F., Tinzmann, M., & Thelen, J. (1990). Can Music Hurt Me? Teacher Edition. Breakthrough Strategies for Thinking Series. Columbus, OH: Zaner-Bloser. Joyce, B., Murphy, C., Showers, B., & Murphy, J. (1989). “School Renewal as Cultural Change.” Educational Leadership 47, 3: 70-77. Joyce, B., & Weil, M. (1986). Models of Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lipman, M., Sharp, A.M., & Oscanyan, F. S. (1980). Philosophy in the Classroom (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Louis, K. S., & Miles, M. (1990). Improving the Urban High School: What Works and Why. NY: Teacher’s College Press. Marzano, R. J. (1992). A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Marzano, R. J., Brandt, R. S., Hughes, C. S., Jones, B. F., Presseisen, B. Z., Rankin, S. C., & Suhor, C. (1988). Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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References

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., Arredondo, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., Moffett, C. A., Paynter, D. E., Pollock, J. E., & Whisler, J. S. (1997). Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Moffet, C. (May 1991). Telephone interview with Carlene Murphy. Mullis, I. V. S., Owen, E. H., & Phillips, G. W. (1990). America’s Challenge: Accelerating Academic Achievement (A Summary of Findings from 20 Years of NAEP). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Ponte, L. (1991, Feb.). “Why Our Hair Turns Gray.” Reader’s Digest. “Silk, the Queen of Textiles.” (1984, Jan.) National Geographic.

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• Do I feel accepted? • Am I comfortable? • Am I safe?

• Is this information useful or interesting to me? • Can I do this? • Do I know what is expected? Overview

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Dimensions of Learning Attitudes and Perceptions I. About Classroom Climate • Feel accepted by teachers and peers • Experience a sense of comfort and order II. About Classroom Tasks • Perceive tasks as valuable and interesting • Believe they have the ability and resources to complete tasks • Understand and be clear about tasks

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Acquire & Integrate Knowledge Declarative

Procedural

Construct Meaning

Construct Models

Organize

Shape

Store

Internalize

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The procedure is actually quite simple. First, you arrange items into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to a lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run, this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then, one never can tell. After the procedure is complete, you arrange the materials into different groups again. Then you can put them into their appropriate places. Eventually, they will be used again, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Overview

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O.10

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Overview

Page 1

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A

Overview

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Extend & Refine Knowledge Comparing Classifying Abstracting Inductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning Constructing Support Analyzing Errors Analyzing Perspectives

Overview

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o f Mind s t i b a H Use Knowledge Meaningfully Extend and Refine Knowledge


A

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Use Knowledge Meaningfully Decision Making Problem Solving Invention Experimental Inquiry Investigation Systems Analysis

Overview

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A

Overview

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Dimensions of Learning Habits of Mind Critical Thinking • • • • • •

Be accurate and seek accuracy Be clear and seek clarity Maintain an open mind Restrain impulsivity Take a position when the situation warrants it Respond appropriately to others’ feelings and level of knowledge

Creative Thinking • Persevere • Push the limits of your knowledge and abilities • Generate, trust, and maintain your own standards of evaluation • Generate new ways of viewing situations that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions

Self-Regulated Thinking • • • • •

Monitor your own thinking Plan appropriately Identify and use necessary resources Respond appropriately to feedback Evaluate the effectiveness of your actions

Overview

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1. Am I actively seeking accuracy in the information I am receiving? not active

0

very active

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2. Am I actively seeking clarity in the information I am receiving? not active

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very active

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3. Am I maintaining an open mind about information I am receiving? not open

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very open

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4. Am I stopping to think before I speak or act? Am I restraining impulsivity? not stopping

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stopping

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5. Am I actively taking and defending positions when such action is warranted? not active

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very active

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6. Am I responding appropriately to the feelings and level of knowledge of others? not responding appropriately

0 Overview

responding appropriately

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Page 2

1. Am I persevering even when the task becomes difficult, or am I withdrawing? withdrawing

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persevering

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2. Am I pushing myself to my limits, or am I coasting? coasting

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pushing

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3. Am I continually identifying standards that I want to meet? not identifying

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continually identifying

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4. Am I continually trying to see the situation in new and unique ways? not trying

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Overview

continually trying

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1. Am I aware of my thinking about what I am trying to accomplish? not aware

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very aware

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2. Have I made a plan for what I want to accomplish? no plan

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complete plan

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3. Have I collected all of the resources that I need? all necessary resources

no resources

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4. Am I seeking out and responding appropriately to feedback about my actions? not responding appropriately

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responding appropriately

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5. Am I evaluating how well this is going and what I would do differently next time? always evaluating

not evaluating

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Overview

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Uses of Dimensions of Learning • A Resource for Instructional Strategies • A Framework for Planning Staff Development • A Structure for Planning Curriculum and Assessment • A Focus for Systemic Reform

Overview

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Resources for Improvement

Dimensions of Learning Outline Attitudes & Perceptions I. Classroom Climate A. Acceptance by Teachers and Peers B. Comfort and Order II. Classroom Tasks A. Value and Interest B Ability and Resources C. Clarity Acquire & Integrate Knowledge I. Declarative A. Construct Meaning B. Organize C. Store II. Procedural A. Construct Models B. Shape C. Internalize Extend & Refine Knowledge Comparing Classifying Abstracting Inductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning Constructing Support Analyzing Errors Analyzing Perspectives Use Knowledge Meaningfully Decision Making Problem Solving Invention Experimental Inquiry Investigation Systems Analysis Habits of Mind Critical Thinking Creative Thinking Self-Regulated Thinking

Overview

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REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

11:02 AM

Page 6

DIMENSION 1

Dimension 1

1.1

9/11/07

12:23 PM

Page 1

How Might These Behaviors Affect Attitudes and Perceptions? ■ The teacher asks a student how his baseball game

went the previous weekend. ■ The teacher describes what a project might look like

when completed. ■ The student comes early to school to clean out her

desk. ■ The teacher places beanbag chairs in the classroom

for students to use while reading. ■ The teacher posts classroom rules and procedures

on a chart. ■ The student reminds himself that even if he becomes

a professional athlete, he’ll need math skills. ■ The teacher organizes students into cooperative

groups. ■ The teacher describes how the information students

are learning might be useful in their day-to-day lives. Dimension 1

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1.2

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Helping Students Develop Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Classroom Climate 1. Help students understand that attitudes and perceptions related to classroom climate influence learning. 2. Establish a relationship with each student in the class. 3. Monitor and attend to your own attitudes. 4. Engage in equitable and positive classroom behavior. 5. Recognize and provide for students’ individual differences. 6. Respond positively to students’ incorrect responses or lack of response. 7. Vary the positive reinforcement offered when students give the correct response. 8. Structure opportunities for students to work with peers. 9. Provide opportunities for students to get to know and accept each other. 10. Help students develop their ability to use their own strategies for gaining acceptance from their teachers and peers. 11. Frequently and systematically use activities that involve physical movement. 12. Introduce the concept of “bracketing.” 13. Establish and communicate classroom rules and procedures. 14. Be aware of malicious teasing or threats inside or outside of the classroom and take steps to stop such behavior. 15. Have students identify their own standards for comfort and order. Dimension 1

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Helping Students Develop Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Classroom Tasks 1. Help students understand that learning is influenced by attitudes and perceptions related to classroom tasks. 2. Establish a sense of academic trust. 3. Help students understand how specific knowledge is valuable. 4. Use a variety of ways to engage students in classroom tasks. 5. Create classroom tasks that relate to students’ interests and goals. 6. Provide appropriate feedback. 7. Teach students to use positive self-talk. 8. Help students recognize that they have the abilities to complete a particular task. 9. Help students understand that believing in their ability to complete a task includes believing that they have the ability to get the help and the resources needed. 10. Help students be clear about the directions and demands of the task. 11. Provide students with clarity about the knowledge that the task addresses. 12. Provide students with clear expectations of performance levels for tasks. Dimension 1

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Vary Your Response to Students’ Incorrect Answers 1. What is the most frequently broken bone in the body? (The clavicle [the collar bone]) 2. Spell broccoli. 3. What do you call a baby rabbit? (A kitten) 4. What is the name of the first shot in a billiards game? (The break) 5. What is Queen Elizabeth’s surname? (Windsor)

Dimension 1

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1.4 & 1.5

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Page 2

Vary Your Response to Students’ Incorrect Answers 6. The city of Singapore is in what country? (Singapore) 7. What is the second tallest mountain in the world? (K2. It is next to Everest.) 8. How many items are in a gross? (144) 9. What book did Ken Kesey write that was turned into an Oscar Awardwinning movie? (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest ) 10. Spell Albuquerque. Dimension 1

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1.6

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Vary Your Response to Students’ Correct Answers 1. Explain at least one cause of the Civil War. 2. Solve the following: 3 x 4 + 8 ÷ 2 = _____. 3. Identify an influential author (or scientist, artist, or athlete) of the 20th century, and explain in what way he or she was influential. 4. What is censorship? 5. __________ is to a tree as ___________is to a person. Complete this analogy. Try not to use the most obvious relationships, such as, “Branch is to a tree as arm is to a person.” Dimension 1

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1.P1 Test

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1:27 PM

Page 1

Planning: Dimension 1 What will be done to help students develop positive attitudes and perceptions? Step 1 Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ attitudes and perceptions in general? Related to this specific unit?

Step 2 What will be done to address these goals or concerns? Step 2a: Specifically, will anything be done to help students… Classroom Climate • feel accepted by teachers and peers? • experience a sense of comfort and order? Classroom Tasks • perceive tasks as valuable and interesting? • believe they have the ability and resources to complete tasks? • understand and be clear about tasks? Step 2b: Describe what will be done. Dimension 1

Overhead 1.P1

Dimension 1

Students might be getting tired of studying Colorado.

The last field trip was not fun for anyone; it seemed unorganized and many rules for bus behavior were forgotten.

clear about tasks?

❏ understand and be

the ability and resources to complete tasks?

❏ believe they have

valuable and interesting?

✓ perceive tasks as ❏

Classroom Tasks

comfort and order?

I think I have been in a rut lately ✓feel accepted by when responding both to students ❏ teachers and peers? incorrect answers and to their correct or thoughtful answers. ✓experience a sense of ❏

Classroom Climate


The assignments will give students the opportunity to apply knowledge to regions of their choice.

I will go over the rules of bus behavior and the general rules for field trips; I think I’ll have students generate some additional rules and suggestions for making the field trip successful.

I am going to work on slowing down and giving students a chance to answer my questions; I need to do more restating and rephrasing of the questions.



1:29 PM

Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ attitudes and perceptions •in general? •related to this specific unit?

Step 2

Unit: Colorado

9/11/07

Step 1


1.P2 Page 1

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REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

11:02 AM

Page 7

Dimension 2 DIMENSION 2

2.1

9/11/07

12:36 PM

Page 1

1. Think about the field of science. If you listed the declarative knowledge and the procedural knowledge in science, which list would be longer? 2. If you were trying to determine how well I understand music, why might I justifiably object to your assessing my understanding by asking me to sing? 3. A graduate student complained, “I received an A in my statistics course. In fact, I think I could pass some of those same tests right now. However, when I started to plan data analysis for my dissertation, I had no idea how to set up my statistical study; that is, I didn’t know which of the formulas to use.” What type of knowledge did the student lack? How could this happen, given that the student received an A in the course? Declarative Knowledge

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Descriptions Vocabulary Terms

Facts

Time Sequences

Process/Cause-Effect Relationships

Episodes

Generalizations/Principles

Concepts


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Descriptive Pattern

Fact

Fact

Topic

Fact

Fact

Fact

nt Eve

Eve nt

nt Eve

nt Eve

nt Eve

nt

Time-Sequence Pattern Eve

2.3 & 2.4

Process/Cause-Effect Pattern Effect

duration place

Episode Pattern

time

Episode

CAUSE

person


person

EFFECT

person

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Page 2

Generalization/Principle Pattern

Generalization/Principle

Example

Example

Example

Example

Concept Pattern Characteristic

Concept Characteristic Characteristic

Example Example

Example

Example Example Example


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Specific

General

Students will know

Students will understand that

1. the major events in the book 1984;

1. literature can both reflect and have an impact on society;

2. that people in England have different types of houses and eat different food than we do;

2. where you live influences how you live;

3. that one cause of the Civil War was that people were outraged by the oppression suffered by slaves in the South;

3. when oppression—social, economic, or political— meets resistance, conflict results;

4. that diabetes occurs when the body cannot adequately metabolize glucose in the blood; and

4. most health problems result from a loss of the balance, or homeostasis, in a system of the body; and

5. that bar graphs are good ways of showing how something has changed over time.

5. graphs and equations are both ways of depicting relationships among data.


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2.6

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Page 1


Construct Meaning

Organize

Store


Construct Models


Shape

Internalize

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Page 1

Declarative Knowledge Construct Meaning

Organize

Store

Construct Meaning Link new information to prior knowledge.

Organize Identify patterns in the information.

Store Consciously store the information in memory. Declarative Knowledge

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Page 1

Silk Of the dozen platters artfully arranged on the luncheon table, only one commanded my attention—and apprehension—a dish of silkworms. Minutes before at the . . . Scientific Research Institute near Dandong, I had watched a golden yellow silkworm crawl across the back of my hand. Now it was on my plate for lunch. . . . The eyes of my luncheon companions shift between me and the shiny brown beast, the size of a medium shrimp, on the plate in front of me. Clutching it with my chopsticks, I took a crunchy bite. A smooth, warm custard with a nutty flavor spilled over my tongue. I noticed my dinner partners spitting shells of the silkworm pupae on the tablecloth and the floor. I swallowed the thing whole. —from “Silk, the Queen of Textiles” National Geographic (January 1984) Declarative Knowledge

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2.9

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Page 1

Why Our Hair Turns Gray When hair is still forming, it is impregnated with thousands of tiny packets of melanin pigment. Cells called melanocytes produce and blend only two basic “paints” to produce the exotic palette of different colors we see in human hair. . . . One pigment, eumelanin, tints our locks deep black to the lightest brown. The other, pheomelanin, turns the hair blond to golden brown or red. As we pass our twenties, melanocyte production slows down. Emerging hairs, possessing only a tiny amount of their former pigment, begin to appear gray. When the melanocytes go completely dormant, hair grows out with no pigment at all and takes on the natural color of hair protein: white. —Lowell Ponte Reader’s Digest (February 1991) Declarative Knowledge

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2.10

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Page 1

K-W-L What I KNOW


What I WANT to Know

What I LEARNED

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2.11

9/11/07

12:37 PM

Page 1

EXAMPLES

NONEXAMPLES

treehouse

kitchen

bedroom

computer

backyard

lightning

streetcar

engine

butterfly

tornado

Attributes:

Concept:


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Examples

Nonexamples

Attributes:

Concept:


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2.13

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Page 1


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2.14

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12:46 PM

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How Do You Hear Sounds? Do you know how you hear sounds? When you hear, you use more than just the part of your ear that you see on your head. Some parts of your ear are deep inside of your head, and those parts, along with your outer ear, help your brain to hear. Pretend you are playing a drum. When you strike it, the spot you hit moves back and forth very quickly. That movement is called vibration. You can’t see it, but if you put your hand on the spot you just hit, you can feel it for just an instant. The vibration shakes the air and makes an invisible wave of sound. Your outer ear, the part you can see, collects the waves and passes them through a channel to your eardrum. Then your eardrum vibrates and sends the sounds deeper inside your head to your inner ear. When the sound wave gets to your inner ear, it moves tiny hair cells. A healthy ear has over 15,000 hair cells. When the hair cells move, they send signals to your brain to tell it that you are hearing a drum. —from Jones, Tinzmann, & Thelen Can Music Hurt Me? (1990) Declarative Knowledge

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Noise Can Harm You Louder sounds do more serious damage. Because they can be as loud as 130 decibels, live rock concerts are dangerous to listen to for more than two hours. Some doctors think you could permanently lose some of your hearing after going to just 10 live rock concerts. Sounds that are over 140 decibels can even make your ears hurt. These sounds can damage your hearing quickly if you are close to the source of the sounds. One of these sounds is a firecracker explosion. Noise can do more than hurt your ears. If you hear noise all the time, you can feel cranky. And anything that makes you feel cranky for very long is not good for your body. Listening to lots of noise can give you a headache and an upset stomach. You can become so upset that you can’t sleep well. Constant noise at school will make it harder for you to study and learn. —from Jones, Tinzmann, & Thelen Can Music Hurt Me? (1990) Declarative Knowledge

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2.16

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Generate a Symbol or Substitute Australia Asia Europe North America South America Africa Antarctica Declarative Knowledge

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2.17

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Page 1

one

bun

two

shoe

three

tree

four

door

five

hive

six

sticks

seven

heaven

eight

gate

nine

line

ten

hen


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2.P1

9/11/07

1:00 PM

Page 1

Planning: Dimension 2, Declarative Knowledge What will be done to help students acquire and integrate declarative knowledge? STEP 1 What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will know or understand… STEP 2 What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge? STEP 3 What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning for, organize, and/or store this knowledge? STEP 4 Describe what will be done.


Overhead 2.P1


Text, pp. 8-10

Concept: Topography —Natural and artificial features including land forms, bodies of water, roads, bridges, etc. Facts describing Colorado’s topography will deal with the Rocky Mountains, sand dunes, rivers, plains, plateaus, canyons.

Concept: Natural Resources —Materials found in nature that are useful, necessary, or attractive. Facts describing Colorado’s natural resources will deal with snow, gold, soil, sunshine, forests, oil, mountains.

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?

What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will know or understand. . .

Field Trip: Argo Gold Mine

Read natural resource maps

Film: “From Sea to Shining Sea”

Independent study: Regional cake

Read physical maps

Pictograph

Use all senses

3-minute pause

Physical/pictographic representation

K-W-L

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning for, organize, and/or store this knowledge?

Step 3

During the field trip, students will have their pictographs with them so they can add examples of the natural resources that we observe.

Several times during the film, I will stop and ask students to identify one type of natural resource. After the film, I will ask them to try to create mental pictures of examples of natural resources and identify what they see, smell, feel, etc. We then will start our pictographs of natural resources- a class one and individual ones. After reading the natural resource maps, we will add information to the pictographs.

Each student will make a cake depicting topography from a region of his or her choice. Students will find information independently. After the regional cake assignment, as a class, we will add to our pictograph.

On a class K-W-L chart, we all will generate the K and the W related to topography. We will then read the text, watch the film, and read physical maps. After each experience, we will fill out the L of the chart. We will use the information from the K-W-L to start a class pictograph of examples of topography.


Step 4

1:03 PM

Film: “From Sea to Shining Sea”

Step 2

Unit: Colorado

9/11/07

Step 1

Dimension 2 Planning Guide: Declarative Knowledge

2.P2 Page 1

Overhead 2.P2

2.P3

9/11/07

1:22 PM

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Knowledge for Colorado Unit Partial Brainstormed List The Colorado Gold Rush The history of the development of major cities and towns The geographical features of Colorado: mountains, rivers, plains (Names of mountain ranges) Colorado’s culture of outdoor recreation: skiing, hunting, hiking, fishing, camping The Native American culture and heritage Famous Coloradans: Molly Brown, Zebulon Pike Climate: weather is dry, large amount of snowfall in mountains Denver’s history Influence of solar industry Western/cowboy culture Anasazi Indians Declarative Knowledge

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2.P4

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Sample Worksheet: Colorado Unit Declarative Knowledge Without Standards and Benchmarks Step 1 What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will know or understand. . . . (Use worksheet below to answer this question.)

Identify any organizational Identify the important declarative knowledge that will be organized patterns that are important into these patterns. in this unit: When necessary, identify any additional or specific knowledge that provides support for, examples of, or further explanations of more general knowledge. Concepts?

Topography, natural resources, climate, culture —facts about Colorado that are examples of each of these concepts

Generalizations/ principles?

Topography, natural resources, and climate influence the culture of a region. —examples from Colorado (e.g., Mountains and snow influence winter sports culture.)

Episodes?

Processes/cause-effects?

Time sequences?

Story of the Colorado Gold Rush, 1859-1900

Descriptions: facts, vocabulary terms?

Facts describing how Molly Brown, Zebulon Pike, and Alferd Packer interacted with their environments Vocabulary terms: tourism, urban


Overhead 2.P4


tourism, plateau, urban, rural

Vocabulary Terms

Knows facts describing Molly Brown, Zebulon Pike, and Alferd Packer.

Facts

(Unit Title)

Colorado

Understands that topography, natural resources, and climate influence settlement patterns. Knows examples from Colorado (e.g., mountains, gold, and hot springs contributed to settlement of Colorado Springs).

Understands that topography, natural resources, and climate influence the culture of a region. Knows examples from Colorado (e.g., mountains and snow cause winter sports emphasis; sunshine, rivers, and mountains cause outdoor recreation; plains create ranching, causing Western culture).

Knows the story of the Colorado Gold Rush, 1859-1900.

Time Sequences

Understands renewable, nonrenewable, flow resources. Knows process by which fossil fuels are created. Knows facts about Colorado’s renewable (e.g., timber), nonrenewable (e.g., gold, oil), and flow resources (e.g., wind, sunshine).

Generalizations/ Principles

1:23 PM

Understands topography, natural resources, climate, culture. Knows facts about Colorado that are examples of each of these concepts.

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Concepts

Unit Planning Graphic: Colorado Unit Declarative Knowledge (Without Standards and Benchmarks)

2.P5 Page 1

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2.P6

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1:23 PM

Page 1

Sample Worksheet: Colorado Unit Declarative Knowledge With Standards and Benchmarks Step 1 What declarative knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will know or understand. . . . (Use worksheet below to answer this question.)

Identify any organizational For each benchmark, identify the important declarative knowledge patterns that are important that will be organized into these patterns. in this unit: When necessary, identify any additional or specific knowledge that provides support for, examples of, or further explanations of more general knowledge.

Benchmark: Understands the interactions between humans and their physical environment within a region. Concepts?

Topography, natural resources, climate, culture —facts about Colorado that are examples of each of these concepts

Generalizations/ principles?

Topography, natural resources, and climate influence the culture of a region. —examples from Colorado (e.g., Mountains and snow influence winter sports culture.)

Episodes?

Processes/cause-effects?

Time sequences?

Story of the Colorado Gold Rush, 1859-1900

Descriptions: facts, vocabulary terms?

Facts describing how Molly Brown, Zebulon Pike, and Alferd Packer interacted with their environments. Vocabulary terms: tourism, urban


Overhead 2.P6


Knows facts about Colorado’s renewable (e.g., timber), nonrenewable (e.g., gold, oil), and flow resources (e.g., wind, sunshine).

Concepts: Understands renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, and flow resources. Knows process by which fossil fuels are created.

Geography Standard 3, Benchmark 2(D): Understands characteristics and locations of renewable and nonrenewable resources.

Knows the story of the Colorado Gold Rush, 1859-1900.

(Unit Title)

Colorado

Vocabulary Terms: urban, rural

Generalizations/Principles: Understands that topography, natural resources, and climate influence settlement patterns. Knows examples from Colorado (e.g., mountains, gold, and hot springs contributed to the settlement of Colorado Springs).

Geography Standard 2, Benchmark 5(D): Understands the reasons for human movement within and among regions.

Vocabulary Terms: tourism, plateau

Facts: Knows how Molly Brown, Zebulon Pike, Alfred Packers interacted with their physical environments.

Generalizations/Principles: Understands that topography, natural resources, and climate influence the culture of a region. Knows examples from Colorado (e.g., mountains and snow influence winter sports culture).

1:24 PM

Concepts: Understands topography, natural resources, climate, culture. Knows facts about Colorado that are examples of each of these concepts.

Geography Standard 1, Benchmark 2(D): Understands the interactions among humans and their physical environment within a region.

9/11/07

Other declarative knowledge not related to benchmarks:

Unit Planning Graphic: Colorado Unit Declarative Knowledge (With Standards and Benchmarks)

2.P7 Page 1

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Page 1

Time spent learning Declarative Knowledge

Time spent learning Procedural Knowledge

Construct Meaning

Construct Models

Organize

Shape

Store

Internalize


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2.19

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Page 1


Construct Models

Shape

Internalize

Construct Models Envision the steps of the process.

Shape Modify, adapt, and increase understanding of the process.

Internalize Practice to achieve automaticity and fluency. Procedural Knowledge

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1. Grasp one chopstick in the valley between the thumb and forefinger. 2. Stabilize this chopstick with the upper part of the thumb and the lower part of the ring finger. 3. Place other chopstick between tips of thumb and forefinger. Do NOT stabilize it. Rest chopstick on end of middle finger. 4. Adjust small ends of chopsticks to make them even. 5. Move second chopstick back and forth, making small ends touch. 6. Use step 5 to grasp a bite of food. Procedural Knowledge

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Practice Chart Trial (30 seconds each)

Number of items picked up and moved 12 inches without dropping Large Items

Small Items

1.

2.

3.


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Jigsaw Assignments A. CONSTRUCT MODELS. Read strategies 1-5, pages 94-96. Then read the second classroom example, page 104—Ms. Hallfield. B. SHAPE. Read strategies 1-4, pages 97-100. Then read the third classroom example, page 105—Coach Elway. C. INTERNALIZE. Read strategies 1-3, pages 101-103. Then read the fourth classroom example, page 105—Mrs. Cliburn. Procedural Knowledge

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Construct Models for Procedural Knowledge 1. Help students understand the importance of constructing models for procedural knowledge. 2. Use a think-aloud process to demonstrate a new skill or process. 3. Provide or construct with students a written or graphic representation of the skill or process they are learning. 4. Help students see how the skill or process they are learning is similar to and different from other skills or processes. 5. Teach students to mentally rehearse the steps involved in a skill or process. Procedural Knowledge

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Shape Procedural Knowledge 1. Help students understand the importance of shaping procedural knowledge. 2. Demonstrate and create opportunities for students to practice using the important variations of the skill or process. 3. Point out common errors and pitfalls. 4. Help students develop the conceptual understanding necessary to use the skill or process. Procedural Knowledge

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Internalize Procedural Knowledge 1. Help students understand the importance of internalizing procedural knowledge. 2. Help students set up a practice schedule. 3. Have students chart and report on their speed and/or accuracy when practicing new skills or processes.


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2.P8

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Planning: Dimension 2, Procedural Knowledge What will be done to help students acquire and integrate procedural knowledge? STEP 1 What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to… STEP 2 What strategies will be used to help students construct models for, shape, and/or internalize this knowledge? STEP 3 Describe what will be done.


Overhead 2.P8


Note: These strategies will be used to teach both types of maps.

Think-aloud

read and interpret physical maps.

read and interpret natural resource maps.

Internalizing is not a goal.

Practice with variations

Set of written steps


What will be done to help students construct models for, shape, and internalize the knowledge?

What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to. . .

Working in groups, students will receive several variations in format (taken from different textbooks) for both physical and natural resource maps. There will be questions for the group and then for individual students to answer as a way of becoming familiar with each variation. This assignment also will reinforce the learning of the concepts of topography and natural resources.

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I will talk through the steps of reading a map, demonstrating the steps with each type. I will give them a set of written steps for reading any map.

Step 3

Step 2

Unit: Colorado

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Dimension 2 Planning Guide: Procedural Knowledge

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Sample Worksheet: Colorado Unit Procedural Knowledge Without Standards and Benchmarks What procedural knowledge (skills and processes) will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to. . . . (Use worksheet below to answer this question.) Identify the important procedural knowledge (skills and processes). When necessary, identify specific skills that support more general processes.

read and interpret physical maps read and interpret natural resource maps

Unit Planning Graphic: Colorado Unit Procedural Knowledge Without Standards and Benchmarks

Colorado

Skills/Processes (P) Knows how to read and interpret physical and natural resource maps Procedural Knowledge

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Sample Worksheet: Colorado Unit Procedural Knowledge With Standards and Benchmarks What procedural knowledge (skills and processes) will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to. . . . (Use worksheet below to answer this question.) For each benchmark, identify the important procedural knowledge (skills and processes). When necessary, identify specific skills that support more general processes.

Benchmark: Uses thematic maps read and interpret physical maps read and interpret natural resource maps Unit Planning Graphic: Colorado Unit Procedural Knowledge With Standards and Benchmarks

Colorado

Geography Standard 6, Benchmark 1(P): Uses thematic maps Knows how to read and interpret physical maps Knows how to read and interpret natural resource maps Procedural Knowledge

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Content knowledge to which students are exposed in the unit

Knowledge that is targeted on unit planning guide


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REFERENCES

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DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

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Dimension 3

DIMENSION 3

3.0A

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CIVIL WAR

STATES’ RIGHTS

CIVIL WAR

VIETNAM WAR

Dimension 3

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3.0B

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“We learn by doing, if we reflect on what we have done.” —John Dewey Dimension 3

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3.0C

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Organizational Format for Each Reasoning Process I. A brief introduction to the process. II. Five sections with suggestions for teaching the process: 1. Help students understand the process. 2. Give students a model for the process, and create opportunities for them to practice using the process. 3. As students study and use the process, help them focus on critical steps and difficult aspects of the process. 4. Provide students with graphic organizers or representations of the model to help them understand and use the process. 5. Use teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. III. Classroom Examples Dimension 3

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Comparing The process of identifying and articulating similarities and differences among items. 1. Select the items you want to compare. 2. Select the characteristics of the items on which you want to base your comparison. 3. Explain how the items are similar and different with respect to the characteristics you selected. Comparing

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Comparing The process of describing how things are the same and different.

1. What do I want to compare? 2. What is it about them that I want to compare? 3. How are they the same? How are they different? Comparing

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Comparing

4.

3.

#3

Differences

Similarities

Differences

Similarities

Differences

Similarities

Differences

Similarities

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2.

#2

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Characteristics

#1

Items to be compared

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3.1D

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Key Points: Comparing 1. Because the process of comparing can be overused, it is important to ask if it is the best process to use to help students extend and refine the identified content knowledge. 2. Students need extensive modeling, practice, and feedback in order to become skilled at identifying meaningful and interesting characteristics to use in comparison tasks. 3. Students should understand that the purpose of doing a comparison task is to extend and refine knowledge. A question such as “What did you discover?” helps to reinforce this understanding. Comparing

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3.1E

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1.

Football Baseball

Chess

Golf

Football Baseball

Chess

Golf

Chances of players suffering from serious injury Average annual compensation Percentage of women playing competitively Average number of years players can compete

2. Size of crowds attending events Chances of players appearing on a Wheaties box Numbers of people watching or listening via the media Chances of high school players winning a scholarship

Comparing

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3.1F

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Venn Diagrams HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS United States

England

Labor Day

Christmas

Memorial Day

Easter

Fourth of July

Birthdays

Boxing Day Queen’s Birthday Guy Fawkes Day

FOOD United States

Comparing

England

Lamb

Beef

Potatoes

Peanut Butter

Bacon

Asian Food

Popcorn

Eggs

Steak and Kidney Pie

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3.2A

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Exercise: Life and Death Would you classify the following as living, dead, or ? Explain. Living Dead ? 1. Mummies 2. Fossils 3. Lightning 4. Bacteria 5. Seaweed 6. The Loch Ness Monster 7. Thoughts 8. Coral reefs 9. Petrified wood 10. Ghosts 11. Active volcanos 12. The sun 13. Fingernails 14. Pearls 15. Blood From: Philosophy in the Classroom (1980) Lipman, Sharp, and Oscanyan Classifying

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3.2B

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Blue

Classifying

Purple

Red

Yellow

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3.2C

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Hamlet Huckleberry Finn Where the Red Fern Grows The Scarlet Letter The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank To Kill a Mockingbird 1984 Catcher in the Rye A Tale of Two Cities The Outsiders Hollywood Wives The Hobbit The Grapes of Wrath Dimensions of Learning Crime and Punishment Gone with the Wind Death of a Salesman Iacocca Wuthering Heights Moby Dick The Accidental Tourist Classifying

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Classifying The process of grouping things into definable categories on the basis of their attributes. 1. Identify the items you want to classify. 2. Select what seems to be an important item, describe its key attributes, and identify other items that have the same attributes. 3. Create the category by specifying the attribute(s) that the items must have for membership in the category. 4. Select another item, describe its key attributes, and identify other items that have the same attributes. 5. Create this second category by specifying the attribute(s) that the items must have for membership in the category. 6. Repeat the previous two steps until all items are classified and the specific attributes have been identified for membership in each category. 7. If necessary, combine categories or split them into smaller categories and specify the attribute(s) that determine membership in the category. Classifying

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Classifying The process of grouping things that are alike into categories. 1. What do I want to classify? 2. What things are alike and could be put into a group? 3. How are these things alike? 4. What other groups can I make and how are the things alike in each group? 5. Does everything now fit into a group? 6. Would it be better to split up any of the groups or put any groups together? Classifying

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Key Points: Classifying 1. Categories should be related to one another or parallel. 2. It is important to focus on attributes that are important and meaningful to the content. 3. Students must understand the defining characteristics of the categories well enough to justify placement of the items–which gets more difficult with complex content. 4. Having students classify and then reclassify is a key to helping them notice unique distinctions and connections that they might not have noticed had they classified the items only once. Classifying

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Geography Terms basin bay canal canyon cape channel continent delta divide fall line fjord foothill glacier gulf

Classifying

harbor highland hill isthmus lowland marsh mesa mountain range mouth (of a river) peak peninsula plain

plateau port prairie rain forest reservoir source (of a river) strait stream swamp tributary tundra valley volcano

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3.2H

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Categories

Classifying

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3.3A

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When C. L. Sholes was inventing a typewriting machine in the early 1870s, he found that the machine jammed if he typed too fast. So he deliberately arranged the position of the letters in a way that forced typists to work slowly. Nevertheless, Sholes’s typewriter design was still a great improvement over earlier models, and so it was soon in use all over the world. Today, although typewriters have been improved in many ways, nearly all of them have keyboards like the one Sholes devised in 1872. The letter arrangement is called QWERT, after the five left-hand keys in the top letter row. You can see QWERT keyboards on computer consoles as well as on typewriters. Unfortunately, the QWERT arrangement slows typing, encourages errors, and causes greater fatigue than another arrangement devised by August Dvorak in 1930, which has proved in several tests to be much faster and more accurate than QWERT. Millions of people have learned the QWERT keyboard, however, and it is being taught to students in schools right now. So it seems that we will continue to live with this 19th-century mistake. Abstracting

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3.3B/3.3C

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Abstracting The process of identifying and articulating the underlying theme or general pattern of information. 1. Identify what is considered important or basic to the information or situation with which you are working. 2. Write that basic information in a more general form by • replacing words referring to specific things with words referring to more general things, and • summarizing information whenever possible. 3. Find new information or a situation to which the general pattern applies. Abstracting

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Abstracting The process of finding and explaining general patterns in specific information or situations. 1. What is important here? 2. How can I say the same thing in a more general way? 3. What else has the same general pattern? Abstracting

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Abstract

Literal

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Literal

3.3D

Abstracting

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3.3E

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Step 1:

Step 2:

Specific/Literal

General/Abstract

C.L. Sholes invented a keyboard, QWERT, that would slow down typists, thus solving the problem of the keys sticking.

Someone invented/created something to address an issue/problem.

Typewriter keys stopped sticking.

The issue/problem went away.

Another keyboard was invented that was shown to be superior to QWERT.

Something else was invented that was shown to be superior to the original invention.

QWERT is still used despite the fact that keys no longer stick and another keyboard configuration was shown to be better.

The original invention is still used/accepted even though the issue/problem is no longer present and something new is shown to be better.

Abstracting

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3.3F

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The Emperor’s New Clothes There once was an emperor who loved new clothes. One day two swindlers convinced him that they could make him very special clothes that would be invisible to anyone foolish or unfit for office. The emperor placed an order immediately, thinking that he would now be able to distinguish wise men from foolish men. As the swindlers set up their looms and began to work, many people stopped to see the fabric they were weaving. Each person, afraid to admit that he or she could see no fabric, raved about the beautiful color and texture. Finally, one morning the clothes were ready. The swindlers presented them to the emperor and pretended to dress him and put imaginary final touches on each piece. The emperor, staring at himself naked in the mirror, agreed that they were the finest clothes he’d ever seen. The emperor’s subjects had gathered from far and wide to view the new clothes they had all heard so much about. As the emperor marched through the streets, people talked of how beautiful the clothes were. Then, a little boy, not knowing that he would seem foolish if he could not see the clothes, shouted out, “The emperor has nothing on!” Soon, everyone joined in, “The emperor is naked!” The emperor now felt foolish, but he held his head high and tried to maintain his dignity. The crowd laughed and laughed. Abstracting

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3.3G

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Step 1:

Step 2:

Specific/Literal

General/Abstract

An emperor who loved the way he looked in new clothes was convinced by two swindlers that they could make him special clothes that would be invisible to anyone foolish or unfit for office.

A person in power with a flaw or an obsession is taken advantage of by someone who promises something unrealistic.

People who watched the swindlers work raved about the color and texture of the fabric, afraid to admit they could see nothing.

Other people see that what was delivered is not what was promised but are afraid or reluctant to speak out.

When the clothes were ready, the naked emperor paraded through the streets to show off his new clothes.

The person in power, because of his flaw or obsession, refuses to acknowledge the reality of the situation.

A little boy shouted, “The emperor has nothing on!”

An innocent person exposes the truth.

Even though everyone then laughed at the emperor, he continued to pretend that he had on clothes.

Even though all of the other people now speak out, the person in power still refuses to acknowledge the truth.

Abstracting

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3.3H

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Key Points: Abstracting 1. Step 1 of the process–identifying the important or basic literal information– is often the most challenging for students. They will need many opportunities to practice this step. 2. Students often have questions about how general the language in the abstract pattern should be. The level of generality that’s appropriate depends on the content and purpose of the assignment. 3. As students apply a general pattern to new specifics and identify the obvious connections, encourage them to make connections that are less obvious and more interesting. Abstracting

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3.3I

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Step 1:

Step 2:

Specific/Literal

Too General?

Cinderella lived with her wicked stepmother and spoiled stepsisters, all of whom disliked her and were jealous of beauty.

A person lived with some mean people.

The king announced that there would be a glorious ball held to find a princess for his son, the handsome prince.

There was a party.

The stepmother arranged for her daughters to go to the ball but would not let Cinderella attend.

The person could not go to the party.

A fairy godmother arrived and provided Cinderella with everything she needed to go to the ball.

Someone helped the person go to the party.

Abstracting

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3.4A/3.4B

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Inductive Reasoning The process of inferring unknown generalizations or principles from information or observations. 1. Focus on specific pieces of information or observations. Try not to assume anything. 2. Look for patterns or connections in the information you have identified. 3. Make a general statement that explains the patterns or connections you have observed. 4. Make more observations to see if your generalization holds up; if it does not, change it as necessary. Inductive Reasoning

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3.4A/3.4B

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Inductive Reasoning The process of making general conclusions from specific information or observations. 1. What specific information do I have? 2. What connections or patterns can I find? 3. What general conclusions or predictions can I make? 4. When I get more information, do I need to change my general conclusions or predictions? Inductive Reasoning

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3.4C

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What Conclusions Can You Draw? Soap operas generally involve births, deaths, affairs, marriages, divorces, murders, and lies. The most common types of products advertised during soap operas are household cleaning products and health care products. Many people who watch soap operas report that no matter how many episodes they have missed, it is easy to pick up on the story line. Many people who work all day record the soap operas on their VCRs and watch them in the evening. The soap opera format was once limited to daytime television but is now common in prime time. Inductive Reasoning

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3.4D

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Key Points: Inductive Reasoning 1. Students should make sure their conclusions are not just restatements of the information, descriptions of observations, or opinions. 2. Students should make sure they use observations and information to make their conclusions and avoid using assumptions and opinions. 3. Valid conclusions need to be supported with as many observations or as much specific information as possible.

Inductive Reasoning

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Conclusion

Observation

Observation

Observation

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3.4E

Inductive Reasoning

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3.4F

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Who How are What are CONCLUSIONS governs? decisions some early made? examples? Democracy

Republic

Monarchy

Dictatorship

CONCLUSIONS

Inductive Reasoning

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS

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3.5A/3.5B

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Deductive Reasoning The process of using generalizations and principles to infer unstated conclusions about specific information or situations. 1. Identify the specific situation that is being considered or studied. 2. Identify the generalizations or principles that apply to the specific situation. 3. Make sure that the specific situation meets the conditions that have to be in place for those generalizations or principles to apply. 4. If the generalizations or principles do apply, identify what is known about the specific situation, that is, what conclusions can be drawn or what predictions can be made. Deductive Reasoning

Overhead 3.5A

3.5A/3.5B

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Deductive Reasoning The process of using general statements to come to conclusions about specific information or situations. 1. What specific topic am I studying? 2. What general information do I already have that might help me understand my specific topic? 3. Am I sure the general information applies to the specific topic I am studying? 4. If it does, how did the general information help me understand the specific topic? Deductive Reasoning

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3.5C

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1. Specific situation/topic

2. Related generalization/ principle

Conditions that must be in place for the generalization/ principle to apply

3. Does the specific situation/topic meet the conditions that make the generalization/principle apply? Yes?

4. Conclusion/Prediction

Deductive Reasoning

No?

4. No Conclusion/Prediction

Overhead 3.5C

Specific topic or situation

Principles or Conditions that generalizations would make the that might apply. principle or generalization apply.

If the principle or generalization applies, what can you conclude or predict?

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Deductive Reasoning

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3.5E

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Key Points: Deductive Reasoning 1. Be sure that the curriculum specifies generalizations and principles that students need to understand. 2. Make sure that students can state the conditions necessary for generalizations and principles to apply. 3. Consider carefully whether students should be discovering a generalization or principle or whether they should be taught generalizations and principles and asked to apply them in many different situations.

Deductive Reasoning

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3.5F

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1. All beans are vegetables. Some vegetables are green. Therefore . . . a. Some beans are green. b. All beans are green. c. Some things that are green are beans. d. None of the above. 2. If your baby does not cry a lot, you should not worry. Joan’s baby cries a lot. Therefore . . . a. Joan should worry. b. Joan should not worry. c. Joan should cry a lot. d. None of the above. 3. Richard eats more than Keisha but less than Alejandro. Ted eats more than Richard and Keisha. Therefore . . . a. Ted eats more than Alejandro. b. Ted eats less than Alejandro. c. Ted eats too much. d. None of the above. Deductive Reasoning

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3.5G

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a. All men are mortal. b. Plato is a man. c. Therefore, Plato is mortal. a. All commercial airlines have a fire extinguisher on board. b. The airplane I am on is a commercial airplane. c. Therefore, this airplane has a fire extinguisher on board. a. All bees have stingers. b. That is a bee. c. Therefore, that has a stinger. Deductive Reasoning

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3.5H

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1. Help students see hidden categorical syllogisms in their reasoning and that of others. 2. Provide students with a graphic way of representing syllogisms. 3. Present students with the various forms of valid and invalid categorical syllogisms. 4. Have students examine the truth of the premises in categorical syllogisms. Deductive Reasoning

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3.5J

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STATEMENT Oh, you say Mary wrote this report? Then we don’t have to worry; it will be accurate.

SYLLOGISM a. All reports that Mary writes are accurate. b. This is a report that Mary wrote. c. This is accurate.

I know this is going to be a bad day. I have had two good days in a row.

a. All days that follow two good days are bad days. b. This is a day that follows two good days. c. This will be a bad day.

I can’t wait to get to the beach in Mexico. I am going to just sit in the warm sand and order a margarita.

a. All beaches in Mexico are places I can order a margarita. b. The beach I am going to is a beach in Mexico. c. The beach I am going is a place I can order a margarita.

Deductive Reasoning

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3.5I

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STATEMENT She obviously has more fun; she’s a blonde.

SYLLOGISM a. All blondes are people who have more fun. b. She is a blonde. c. She is a person who has more fun.

They will vote in favor of the child-care bill because they have children.

a. All people who have children are people who will vote for the child-care bill. b. They are people who have children. c. They are people who will vote for the child-care bill.

You didn’t do well on this test because you just don’t care.

a. All students who didn’t do well on the test are students who don’t care. b. You are a person who didn’t do well on the test. c. You are a person who doesn’t care.

Deductive Reasoning

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3.6A/3.6B

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Constructing Support The process of building systems of support for assertions. 1. Identify whether you are stating facts or opinions. 2. If you are stating an opinion, determine whether the situation warrants support. 3. When the situation warrants it, construct a supportive argument through the use of a variety of devices, such as facts, evidence, examples, or appeals. Constructing Support

Overhead 3.6A

3.6A/3.6B

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Constructing Support The process of providing support for statements. 1. Am I stating a fact or an opinion? 2. If I am stating an opinion, do I need to offer support? 3. What will I include (Facts? Examples? Evidence? Appeals?) when I provide my support? Constructing Support

Overhead 3.6B

3.6C

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Key Points: Constructing Support 1. Students should understand the difference between facts and opinions. 2. Students should understand devices used to construct an argument: facts, evidence, examples, and appeals. They should also understand the four types of appeals: personality, tradition or accepted beliefs, rhetoric, and reason. 3. Students should understand the four components of an appeal to reason: evidence, claim, elaboration, and qualifier.


Overhead 3.6C

3.6D

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Heart bypass surgery is one of the most common medical procedures performed on patients 65 years of age or older. Clearly, it is used far too often. In 1990, in Colorado alone, 600 patients underwent bypass surgery, making it an incredible 37th among the 50 most common reasons for hospitalization. Total hospital charges for this one procedure reached a whopping $22 million. These shocking facts definitely indicate that hospitals are making money at the expense of unsuspecting elderly patients. Constructing Support

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3.6E

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Components of a Well-Structured Appeal to Reason EVIDENCE. Information that leads to a claim. For example, “Last night five crimes were committed within two blocks of one another.” CLAIM. The assertion that something is true. For example, “The crime rate in our city is escalating dramatically.” ELABORATION. Examples of or explanations for the claim. For example, “The dramatic increase can be seen by examining the crime rates in the downtown area over the past twenty years.” QUALIFIER. A restriction on the claim or evidence counter to the claim. For example, “The crime rate has stabilized in some areas, however.” Constructing Support

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3.6F

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An Appeal to Reason EVIDENCE. In 1996 large, scheduled U.S. carriers flew an average of 14 million miles per day without incident. From a statistical perspective, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Safety Office if you boarded an airliner daily, you would have to fly an average of 21,000 years before dying in a crash. CLAIM. Air travel is the safest mode of transportation. ELABORATION. Each year, over 40,000 people are killed in motor vehicle accidents, whereas only 200-300 people are killed in airplane accidents. Each year, approximately 12,000 people die from falls and 4,000 drown.

QUALIFIERS. These statistics only apply to U.S. carriers. Africa has become a trouble spot, and Asia, South America, and Central America also have poor airplane safety records. All aircraft older than 20 years must be inspected more often than those planes less than 20 years old. Constructing Support

Overhead 3.6F

Nearly one-fifth of eighth graders and one-third of twelfth graders admit that they smoke cigarettes. Addiction to drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol is thought to account for, either directly or indirectly, a third of all hospital admissions, a quarter of all deaths, and the majority of serious crimes. Yet research has shown that drug addiction can be prevented and cured successfully. All of this suggests that a larger proportion of money spent in the war on drugs should be directed toward prevention and treatment. Two-thirds of the $15 billion spent on the war on drugs funds efforts to catch and prosecute those who engage in the illegal production and sale of drugs. Only one-third of the money goes to prevention and treatment. One reason for this is the misperception that treatment of drug addiction is unsuccessful. In fact, the failure rate is no greater than, for example, the failure rate of people treated for diabetes and hypertension who do not follow their diet, exercise, and medication regimens. Recent breakthroughs in medical research suggest that if more resources were spent on research, cures and treatments for drug addiction could be even more successful. This is not to suggest that we should stop prosecuting criminals who are trafficking illegal drugs. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the emphasis should be shifted to prevention and cure. Constructing Support

Overhead 3.6G

3.6H

9/13/07

8:52 AM

Page 1

Drug use is out of control in this country. The war on drugs has failed miserably. This is probably because of the emphasis on prosecuting criminals. In fact, twothirds of the $15 billion spent for the war on drugs is directed toward making it a criminal matter. We should spend less money on the criminals and more on the prevention and cure of drug addiction. The main reason that drugs are such a problem is that lawyers have become involved. All that money spent prosecuting criminals involved in drug trafficking actually goes into the pockets of lawyers eager to make a buck. Even more money goes to the shyster lawyers who defend these scum drug traffickers, often successfully getting them acquitted on technicalities. All of this money should go instead into medical research to help prevent and cure drug addiction. This is not to suggest that we should stop punishing criminals who sell drugs to our children. But we should skip the lengthy trials and just throw these guys in jail. Medical researchers can then get all that money, not lawyers. Constructing Support

Overhead 3.6H

Appeal through tradition or accepted beliefs

Appeal through rhetoric


Qualifier:

Elaboration:

Claim:

8:54 AM

Evidence:

Appeal through reason

9/13/07

Appeal through personality

Opinion

3.6I Page 1

Overhead 3.6I

3.7A

9/14/07

8:45 AM

Page 1

1. How can you reasonably object to the new curricular proposal? After all, it’s supported by the president, the provost, and all of the top administrators. 2. Every nation has the sovereign right to control the flow of people into its country, and most nations do so rigidly. Only the United States has a lax immigration policy. 3. Who can excuse the brutal slaughter of innocent baby seals by greedy killers anxious to sell the pelts to furriers catering to the idle rich? 4. The idea that is prevalent throughout the United States is that the people of Northern Ireland do not want to be part of Great Britain. This is false. Anyone advancing such views is either totally ignorant of the facts or deliberately irresponsible and mischievous. 5. No medical evidence or scientific endorsement has proved any other cigarette superior to Sussex. Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7A

3.7B/3.7C

9/13/07

9:02 AM

Page 2

Analyzing Errors The process of identifying and articulating errors in thinking. 1. Determine if the information being presented is important or is intended to influence your beliefs or actions. 2. If the information is important or intended to influence you, identify statements or claims that are unusual, violate what you know to be true, or seem wrong. 3. Look for errors in the thinking underlying the statements or claims you have identified. 4. If you find errors, seek clarification or more accurate information. Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7B

3.7B/3.7C

9/13/07

9:02 AM

Page 1

Analyzing Errors The process of finding and describing errors in thinking. 1. Is the information I am receiving important or does it try to influence my thinking or my actions? 2. Does something seem wrong with any of the information? 3. What is wrong? 4. How can I get more or better information? Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7C

3.7D

9/13/07

9:03 AM

Page 1

Types of Errors in Thinking Faulty Logic a. Contradiction b. Accident c. False cause d. Begging the question (circularity) e. Evading the issue f. Arguing from ignorance g. Composition and division

Attacks h. Poisoning the well i. Arguing against the person j. Appealing to force

Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7D

3.7E

9/13/07

9:18 AM

Page 1

Types of Errors in Thinking Weak References k. Using sources that reflect habitual and confirmatory biases l. Using sources that lack credibility m. Appealing to authority n. Appealing to the people o. Appealing to emotion

Misinformation p. Confusing the facts q. Misapplying a concept or generalization

Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7E

3.7F

9/13/07

9:08 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Analyzing Errors 1. Students need to be reinforced for attending to possible errors in the thinking underlying information that is trying to influence them in some way. 2. Students will be able to recognize errors more easily if they become familiar with specific types of errors that commonly occur in information. 3. It is important to emphasize that there are times and situations in which it is appropriate not to analyze errors in information. For example, it is appropriate to accept some things as a matter of faith or trust. Analyzing Errors

Overhead 3.7F

Analyzing Errors

Stop analysis

Stop analysis

Yes

Attacks?

Ask for more information.

Weak references?

Misinformation?

What is wrong with the thinking underlying the information?

Faulty logic?

No

Does anything seem wrong?

Yes

9:10 AM

No

9/13/07

Is this information important or intended to persuade?

Information:

3.7G Page 1

Overhead 3.7G

3.8A/3.8B

9/13/07

9:21 AM

Page 2

Analyzing Perspectives The process of identifying multiple perspectives on an issue and examining the reasons or logic behind each. 1. When you are examining an issue about which people disagree, first identify and clearly articulate one perspective. 2. Once you have identified a perspective, try to determine the reasons or logic behind it. 3. Next, identify and clearly articulate a different perspective. 4. Try to describe the reasons or logic behind the different perspective. Analyzing Perspectives

Overhead 3.8A

3.8A/3.8B

9/13/07

9:21 AM

Page 1

Analyzing Perspectives The process of describing reasons for different points of view. 1. What is one point of view? 2. What are the reasons for this point of view? 3. What is another point of view? 4. What might be some reasons for this other point of view? Analyzing Perspectives

Overhead 3.8B

3.8C

9/13/07

9:22 AM

Page 1

Around the time of the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, someone suggested that the Enola Gay (the plane that carried the atomic bomb) be displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. Various groups—for example, human rights groups, U.S. military leaders, air travel aficionados—wanted the plane to be on display but for very different reasons.


Overhead 3.8C

3.8D

9/13/07

9:22 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Analyzing Perspectives 1. Students should be held accountable for understanding and clearly articulating reasons for perspectives. 2. Students should understand two concepts: reasons and logic. 3. Students should understand that most issues have multiple perspectives. 4. Students should keep the focus on honing their skills of analysis rather than on changing people’s viewpoints.


Overhead 3.8D

3.8E

9/13/07

9:23 AM

Page 1

Perspective Examination Matrix Statement or Concept


Assigned Value

Reasoning or Logic Behind My Value

Overhead 3.8E

3.8F

9/13/07

9:25 AM

Page 1

Conflict Clarification Matrix Issue

Personal perspective

Reasons/logic behind my personal perspective

Different perspective

Reasons/logic behind different perspective

Conclusion/awareness


Overhead 3.8F

3.P1

9/14/07

8:46 AM

Page 1

Planning: Dimension 3 What will be done to help students extend and refine knowledge? STEP 1 What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically, students will be extending and refining their understanding of… STEP 2 What reasoning process will students be using? STEP 3 Describe what will be done.

Dimension 3

Overhead 3.P1

Dimension 3 Abstracting Inductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning Constructing Support Analyzing Errors Analyzing Perspectives Other _________________

❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏

Topography, natural resources, and climate influence the culture of a region. Classifying Abstracting

Deductive Reasoning

❏ ❏ ❏

Constructing Support Analyzing Errors Analyzing Perspectives Other _________________

❏ ❏ ❏ ❏

✓Inductive Reasoning ❏

Comparing

❏

What knowledge will students be What reasoning process extending and refining? will students be using? Specifically, they will be extending and refining their understanding of. . .

✓Classifying ❏

Comparing

❏

Several times during this unit we will, as a class, select articles from “USA Today” that reflect the culture of a place with which we are unfamiliar. Based on what we learn from the article about the culture of the place (e.g., issues or problems people face, their celebrations), we will try to induce specific facts about the topography, natural resources, and climate of the location.


So far we have been focused on understanding how topography, natural resources, and climate influence the “appearance” of settlements. Shift your focus now and examine how these factors influence the “disappearance” of settlements. You will be given descriptions of situations where populations thrived and then disappeared (e.g., Anasazi Indians, several ghost towns, dinosaurs, and the “dust bowl”) and the reasons for their demise. Classify each description according to whether the reasons for the disappearance had more to do with topography, natural resources, or climate. If more than one possible reason is given, you may have to place the example in more than one category.


Step 3

8:47 AM

Topography, natural resources, and climate influence settlement patterns in a region.

What knowledge will students be What reasoning process extending and refining? will students be using? Specifically, they will be extending and refining their understanding of. . .

Step 2

Unit: Colorado

9/14/07

Step 1


3.P2 Page 1

Overhead 3.P2

3.P3

9/14/07

8:48 AM

Page 1

Stimulus Questions Comparing • Would it be useful to show how things are similar and/or different? • Would it be useful for students to focus on identifying how similar things are different and how different things are similar? • Would it be helpful to have students describe how comparing things affects their knowledge or opinions related to those things?

Classifying • Would it be helpful to have students group things? • Would it be beneficial for students to generate a number of ways to group the same list of things?

Abstracting • Is there an abstract pattern that could be applied? • Could something complex or unfamiliar be understood better by generating an abstract pattern and applying it to something simple or more familiar? • Are there seemingly different things that could be connected through the generation of an abstract pattern?

Dimension 3

Overhead 3.P3

3.P3

9/14/07

8:48 AM

Page 2

Inductive Reasoning • Are there important unstated conclusions that could be generated from observations or facts? • Are there situations for which probable or likely conclusions could be generated? • Are there issues or situations for which students could examine the inductive reasoning used?

Deductive Reasoning • Are there generalizations (or rules or principles) that could be applied to reach conclusions and make predictions? • Are there topics or issues for which students could examine the validity of the deductive reasoning used?

Constructing Support • Are there important claims to be refuted or supported? • Would it be important to examine existing arguments that support or refute a claim?

Analyzing Errors • Are there situations in which it would be beneficial to identify errors in reasoning?

Analyzing Perspectives • Would it be useful to identify and understand the reasoning or logic behind a perspective on a topic or issue? • Would it be useful to analyze opposing perspectives on a topic or issue? Dimension 3

Overhead 3.P4

REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

11:02 AM

Page 9

Dimension 4

DIMENSION 4

4.0A

9/11/07

9:51 AM

Page 1

Organizational Format for Each Reasoning Process I. A brief introduction to the process. II. Five sections with suggestions for teaching the process: 1. Help students understand the process. 2. Give students a model for the process, and create opportunities for them to practice using the process. 3. As students study and use the process, help them focus on critical steps and difficult aspects of the process. 4. Provide students with graphic organizers or representations of the model to help them understand and use the process. 5. Use teacher-structured and student-structured tasks. III. Classroom Examples Dimension 4

Overhead 4.0A

4.1A/4.1B

9/11/07

10:23 AM

Page 2

Decision Making The process of generating and applying criteria to select from among seemingly equal alternatives. 1. Identify a decision you wish to make and the alternatives you are considering. 2. Identify the criteria you consider important. 3. Assign each criterion an importance score. 4. Determine the extent to which each alternative possesses each criterion. 5. Multiply the criterion scores by the alternative scores to determine which alternative has the highest total points. 6. Based on your reaction to the selected alternative, determine if you want to change importance scores or add or drop criteria. Decision Making

Overhead 4.1A

4.1A/4.1B

9/11/07

10:23 AM

Page 1

Decision Making The process of developing and using criteria to select from choices that seem to be equal alternatives. 1. What am I trying to decide? 2. What are my choices? 3. What are important criteria for making this decision? 4. How important is each criterion? 5. How well does each of my choices match my criteria? 6. Which choice matches best with the criteria? 7. How do I feel about the decision? Do I need to change any criteria and try again? Decision Making

Overhead 4.1B

9/11/07

10:24 AM

Page 1

Decision Making

TOTALS

Criteria

Alternatives

4.1C

Overhead 4.1C

4.1D

9/11/07

10:25 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Decision Making 1. Help students understand how important it is to generate clear criteria that accurately identify the conditions that the selected alternatives need to meet. 2. Hold students accountable for rigorously applying criteria to alternatives. 3. Vary the way that you use decision making to maximize its potential for encouraging students to use the knowledge they are learning in a unit of study.

Decision Making

Overhead 4.1D

4.1E

9/11/07

10:27 AM

Page 1

It is 1969. You are on the board of Time magazine. For the cover of the December issue, you want to select a Person of the Decade. Your job is to decide which person should be selected and justify your decision to the publishers by listing the people who were considered, the criteria you used, and how each person was rated under each criterion. Report on • the criteria you used and the importance scores you applied to each; • the individuals you considered and the extent to which they met your criteria; and • your final selection. Decision Making

Overhead 4.1E

4.2A/4.2B

9/11/07

10:31 AM

Page 2

Problem Solving The process of overcoming constraints or limiting conditions that are in the way of pursuing goals. 1.

Identify the goal you are trying to accomplish.

2.

Identify the constraints or limiting conditions.

3.

Determine exactly how these constraints or limiting conditions are preventing you from reaching your goal.

4.

Identify different ways of overcoming the constraints or meeting the limiting conditions.

5.

Select and try out the alternative that appears to be the best.

6.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the alternative you have tried. If appropriate, try a different alternative or identify additional ways of overcoming the constraints or limiting conditions.

Problem Solving

Overhead 4.2A

4.2A/4.2B

9/11/07

10:31 AM

Page 1

Problem Solving The process of overcoming limits or barriers that are in the way of reaching goals. 1. What am I trying to accomplish? 2. What are the limits or barriers that are in the way? 3. What are some solutions for overcoming the limits or barriers? 4. Which solution will I try? 5. How well did it work? Should I try another solution? Problem Solving

Overhead 4.2B

Problem Solving

Possible Solution:

Possible Solution:

Possible Solution:

Constraint/Limiting Condition:

Goal:

Problem

Problem solved.

Selected Solution:

Try another solution.

10:32 AM

Worked well.

9/11/07

Did not work well.

4.2C Page 1

Overhead 4.2C

4.2D

9/11/07

10:38 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Problem Solving 1. Help students understand that the way the goal is defined will determine the direction for the rest of the steps in the problem-solving process. 2. Make sure that students carefully analyze the constraints or limiting conditions before they generate alternative solutions. 3. Help students understand that they may need to use the processes of decision making or invention at various points in the problemsolving process. 4. Encourage students to try a number of solutions before concluding that the problem is solved. A major purpose for engaging in problem solving is to find the best solution, not just any solution.

Problem Solving

Overhead 4.2D

4.3A

9/11/07

11:31 AM

Page 1

Goggles for Fowls Goggles for Fowls United States Patent Office Eye Protector for Chickens Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 780,918, dated June 16, l903. Application filed December 10, 1902. Serial No. 134,679. (No model)

This invention relates to eye protectors, and more particularly to eye protectors designed for fowls, so that they may be protected from other fowls that might attempt to peck them, a further object of the invention being to provide a construction which may be easily and quickly applied and removed and which will not interfere with the sight of the fowl. Invention

Overhead 4.3A

4.3B/4.3C

9/11/07

11:32 AM

Page 2

Invention The process of developing unique products or processes that fulfill perceived needs. Choice 1. Identify a situation you want to improve or a need to which you want to respond. 2. State your purpose or goal; write or say it several times in several different ways to look at it from different perspectives. Drafting 3. Identify specific standards for your invention. What specifically do you want it to do? 4. Make a model, sketch, or outline of your invention. 5. Start developing your product. Keep looking for alternatives and even better ways of creating your product. Don’t be too easily satisfied. 6. Occasionally set your partially completed product aside so you can be more objective when you return to it. Revising 7. Keep going over your invention with attention to detail. 8. Stop when you have reached a level of completeness consistent with the norms and standards you have set. Invention

Overhead 4.3B

4.3B/4.3C

9/11/07

11:32 AM

Page 1

Invention The process of developing original products or processes that meet specific needs. 1. What do I want to make, or what do I want to make better? 2. What standards do I want to set for my invention? 3. What is the best way to make a rough draft of my invention? 4. How can I improve on my rough draft? 5. Does my invention meet the standards I have set? Invention

Overhead 4.3C

4.3D

9/11/07

11:32 AM

Page 1

Inventions That Didn’t Make It (Why?) 1. The Better Mousetrap 2. The Fire Escape 3. New Coke

Inventions That Made It (Why?) 1. Wide slots in toasters 2. FAX machines 3. Post-it notes Invention

Overhead 4.3D

4.3E

9/11/07

11:33 AM

Page 1

Using Analogical Reasoning to Create Invention Ideas 1. Write a speech that will do for drug awareness what the “I Have a Dream” speech did for civil rights. 2. Create a character that would do for my story what Hercule Poirot did for Agatha Christie’s books. 3. Create an experiment for ____ that would do what Pavlov’s dog experiments did for conditioned response.

Invention

Overhead 4.3E

4.3F

9/11/07

11:34 AM

Page 1

1. Invent a procedure or product that is needed by teachers or that exists now but needs improvement. 2. Invent a procedure or product that might be useful around the house. 3. Invent a procedure or a product that might be useful in an automobile. 4. Think of your own idea of something that needs to be invented. Invention

Overhead 4.3F

4.3G

9/11/07

11:35 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Invention 1. During the first phase of invention, Choice, students need to be held accountable for clearly identifying the need that their invention will address. 2. In the second phase, Drafting, students need to be encouraged to set clear, rigorous standards that will provide direction for their work. 3. During the third phase, Revising, students may need feedback and reinforcement to continue making revisions until the invention meets, or exceeds, the standards they have set. Invention

Overhead 4.3G

11:35 AM

Page 1

CHOICE Invention

Draft

Standards:

Need:

Draft

Draft

Invention:

9/11/07

DRAFT AND REVISE

4.3H

Overhead 4.3H

4.4A/4.4B

9/11/07

11:37 AM

Page 2

Experimental Inquiry The process of generating and testing explanations of observed phenomena. 1. Observe something that interests you, and describe what has occurred. 2. Explain what you have observed. What theories or rules could explain what you have observed? 3. Based on your explanation, make a prediction. 4. Set up an experiment or activity to test your prediction. 5. Explain the results of your experiment in light of your explanation. If necessary, revise your explanation or prediction or conduct another experiment. Experimental Inquiry

Overhead 4.4A

4.4A/4.4B

9/11/07

11:37 AM

Page 1

Experimental Inquiry The process of developing and testing explanations of things we observe. 1. What do I see or notice? 2. How can I explain it? 3. Based on my explanation, what can I predict? 4. How can I test my prediction? 5. What happened? Is it what I predicted? Do I need to try a different explanation? Experimental Inquiry

Overhead 4.4B

4.4C

9/11/07

11:37 AM

Page 1

1. I wonder why he throws such frequent, wild tantrums? 2. I think I’ll do some reading—maybe Dr. Spock and Dr. Mom—and increase my knowledge, which I can then use to generate an explanation. . . . I have a possible explanation: Maybe I reinforce his tantrums by giving them attention. I am scolding and punishing, but maybe he still perceives it as attention and continues the behavior. 3. If that is true, what if I stopped giving him attention when he throws tantrums? He might stop. 4. I think I’ll test it. For two weeks I will turn my back or leave the room (as long as he is safe) as soon as a tantrum starts. I will give him lots of attention the second it stops. 5. I have tried this for two weeks, and there is no change. In fact, his tantrums are worse and more frequent. I’d better think of another explanation. (He’s just like his father?)


Overhead 4.4C

4.4D

9/11/07

11:38 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Experimental Inquiry 1. Because engaging in experimental inquiry can be so demanding, it helps if students are examining topics that are interesting and meaningful to them. 2. It is important for students to have the opportunity to learn the knowledge they will need to use in step 2 of the process: offering possible explanations for the observed phenomenon. 3. Although the goal is for students to become proficient at independently setting up experiments, they may need a great deal of help at first with this part of the process. 4. Students should understand that regardless of the outcome of the experiment, it is important to go back and set up additional experiments or consider different explanations. Experimental Inquiry

Overhead 4.4D

4.4E

9/11/07

11:39 AM

Page 1

Task 1 Most people who became adults during the 1960s are now in their fifties. Consider this population. Some would say that it is interesting that the 1960s have had no lasting effect on these people. One possible explanation for this is that the effect is there but it is subtle. Try to determine what effects the experiences of the 1960s are having on the lives of these people today. Test your hypothesis and report on • • • •

your hypothesis how you tested your hypothesis your findings your conclusions

OR Task 2 During the late 1980s, there was renewed interest in the Vietnam War, which could be seen in the many movies, books, and documentaries released during that time. Create a possible explanation for this. Set up an experiment to test your hypothesis and report on • • • •

your hypothesis how you tested your hypothesis your findings your conclusions


Overhead 4.4E


Results:

Activity/Experiment:

Prediction:

11:39 AM

Possible Explanation:

Relevant Theory/Rule:

9/11/07

Relevant Theory/Rule:

Observation:

4.4F Page 1

Overhead 4.4F

4.5A

9/11/07

11:53 AM

Page 1

Definitional Investigation: Constructing a precise definition of a concept for which there is no generally agreed-upon definition.

Historical Investigation: Constructing a scenario for an event or situation from the past for which there is no agreed-upon explanation or sequence of events.

Projective Investigation: Constructing a scenario for a future event or for a hypothetical past event. Investigation

Overhead 4.5A

4.5B/4.5C

9/11/07

11:53 AM

Page 2

Investigation The process of identifying and resolving issues about which there are confusions or contradictions. 1. Clearly identify • the concept to be defined (Definitional Investigation), or • the past event to be explained (Historical Investigation), or • the hypothetical event to be defined or explained (Projective Investigation). 2. Identify what is already known or agreed upon. 3. Identify and explain the confusion or contradiction. 4. Develop and defend a plausible resolution to the confusion or contradiction. Investigation

Overhead 4.5B

4.5B/4.5C

9/11/07

11:53 AM

Page 1

Investigation The process of suggesting and defending ways to clear up confusions about ideas or events. 1. What event or idea do I want to explain? 2. What do people already know? 3. What confusions do people have about the idea or event? 4. What suggestions do I have for clearing up these confusions? 5. How can I defend my suggestions? Investigation

Overhead 4.5C

4.5D

9/11/07

11:54 AM

Page 1

Ideas for Investigation Topics 1. What specifically is a “cold war?” Is it any time there is nonmilitary tension between countries? 2. How did the scoring system of tennis evolve? 3. How many plagues were there before the Exodus? Why do some sources refer to the Red Sea and some to the Reed Sea? 4. What would happen if we became a cashless society? 5. Was Edgar Allan Poe really a deranged alcoholic? Or was that characterization created by a biographer who was jealous of him? 6. How and when did Hitler die? 7. What is the “Third World”? Is it a socioeconomic, political, cultural, or geographical distinction? 8. What would have happened if Columbus had landed on America’s West Coast? 9. What is cooperation? Is helping a friend with his or her homework an example of cooperation? Is letting a friend copy your homework an example of cooperation? 10. What would happen if genetic engineering resulted in processes that could be used to easily clone humans? Investigation

Overhead 4.5D

4.5E

9/11/07

11:55 AM

Page 1

Key Points: Investigation 1. Topics for investigation may, at first, be difficult to identify. To increase students’ awareness of how many topics could be investigated, start a class list that students can contribute to whenever they encounter a topic that needs to be investigated. 2. Because investigation demands extensive use of a wide variety of sources, you may need to help students learn how to access and use sources. 3. When students generate interesting, creative resolutions to the confusions or contradictions that are the focus of their investigations, reinforce their efforts by offering opportunities for them to share their ideas with others. Investigation

Overhead 4.5E

Investigation

• •

•

•

Resolution:

•

•

11:55 AM

Confusions or Contradictions:

9/11/07

Known or Agreed Upon:

Concept/Scenario:

4.5F Page 1

Overhead 4.5F

4.6A/4.6B

9/11/07

11:57 AM

Page 2

Systems Analysis The process of analyzing the parts of a system and the manner in which they interact. 1. Identify the parts of the system. 2. Describe the boundaries of the system. 3. Describe how parts affect each other. 4. Identify various parts of the system, and, for each, explain what would happen if this part changed or stopped working. Systems Analysis

Overhead 4.6A

4.6A/4.6B

9/11/07

11:57 AM

Page 1

Systems Analysis The process of describing how the parts of a system work together. 1. What are the parts of the system? 2. What are things that are related to the system but are not part of it? 3. How do the parts affect each other? 4. What would happen if various parts stopped or changed their behavior? Systems Analysis

Overhead 4.6B

4.6C

9/11/07

11:58 AM

Page 1

Key Points: System Analysis 1. Identifying how parts of a system affect each other is difficult because there are so many different ways in which one part might affect another. 2. Teachers may need to use tools such as graphs or computer simulations to help students identify and understand the “functional relationships” among the parts of a system.

System Analysis

Overhead 4.6C

4.6D

9/11/07

11:58 AM

Page 1

Systems Analysis

Overhead 4.6D

9/11/07

11:59 AM

Page 1

CINDERELLA

d re

te

d

a fe

STEPMOTHER

loved

loved

fe

d

ar

te

ed

ha

ha

STEPSISTERS

d ire m

t

ad

ou

dn

ab

d

ire

m

’t c

e

ar

ar

e

c ’t

ab

dn

ou

t

di ad

di

4.6E

PRINCE

Systems Analysis

Overhead 4.6E

4.P1

9/11/07

12:05 PM

Page 1

Planning: Dimension 4 What will be done to help students use knowledge meaningfully? STEP 1 What knowledge will students be using meaningfully? Specifically, students will be demonstrating their understanding of and ability to… STEP 2 What reasoning process will students be using? STEP 3 Describe what will be done.

Dimension 4

Overhead 4.P1

Dimension 4

Topography, natural resources, and climate influence settlement patterns.

❏

Other __________________

Systems Analysis (analyzing the parts of a system and how they interact)

❏

Investigation (resolving confusions or contradictions related to a historical event, a hypothetical past or future event, or to the defining characteristics of something)

❏

(generating an explanation for a phenomenon and testing the explanation)

✓ Experimental Inquiry ❏

Invention (creating something to meet a need or improve on a situation)

❏

Problem Solving (seeking to achieve a goal by overcoming constraints or limiting conditions)

❏

Decision Making (selecting from seemingly equal alternatives or examining the decisions of others)

❏

Set up an activity—for example, surveys or interviews—that would help to determine to what extent people have moved to Colorado because of factors related to topography, natural resources, climate, and culture. You will need to set up the activity, plan for analyzing your results, and be ready to report your findings to the class. Any member of your group may be asked to explain what you found out about the influence of each concept you are considering: topography, natural resources, climate, and culture.

One explanation is that aspects of the topography, natural resources, climate, and culture attract people to Colorado. Let’s find out if that helps explain it. If it is true, we should be able to trace people’s reasons for moving to Colorado to these characteristics of the state.

We have discussed in class that Colorado’s population is growing very rapidly. In fact, compared to many other states, a relatively large number of people who live in Colorado moved from somewhere else. There are actually not that many “Colorado natives.” Why have so many people moved to Colorado, and why is the population still growing so rapidly?


Step 3

12:06 PM

The concepts of topography, natural resources, climate, and culture

What knowledge will students be What reasoning process using meaningfully? Specifically, will they be using? they will be demonstrating their understanding of and ability to. . .

Step 2

Unit: Colorado

9/11/07

Step 1


4.P2 Page 1

Overhead 4.P2

4P.3 & 4P.4

9/11/07

12:11 PM

Page 1

Stimulus Questions Decision Making • Is there an unresolved decision important to the unit? • Is there an unresolved issue about who or what is the best or worst? • Is there an unresolved issue about who or what has the most or least?

Problem Solving • Is there a situation or process that has some major constraint or limiting condition? • Is there a situation or process that could be better understood if constraints or limiting conditions were placed on it?

Invention • Is there a situation that can and should be improved on? • Is there something new that should be created? Dimension 4

Overhead 4.P3

4P.3 & 4P.4

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12:11 PM

Page 2

Experimental Inquiry • Is there an unexplained phenomenon (physical or psychological) for which students could generate explanations that can be tested?

Investigation • Is there an unresolved issue about the defining characteristics or defining features of something? (Definitional) • Is there an unresolved issue about how something occurred? (Historical) • Is there an unresolved issue about why something happened? (Historical) • Is there an unresolved issue about what would happen if . . . or what would have happened if … (Projective)?

Systems Analysis • Are there parts of a system or the interactions of the parts of a system that could be analyzed? • Is there something that could be examined in terms of how it behaves or works within a system? Dimension 4

Overhead 4.P4

4.P5

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12:07 PM

Page 1

As you construct the task, you need to consider the following questions: • What specifically does the task require students to do? Make sure that the task requires students to use the identified knowledge in order to complete the task. • What makes the task meaningful to the student? • Does it have an authentic context or purpose? • Is it intellectually stimulating and interesting? • Does it allow for artistic expression? • Does it allow for student choice?

• To what extent will students be working alone or in groups? • What product will students turn in? • How will the criteria for evaluation be communicated to the students?

Dimension 4

Overhead 4.P5

REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

11:02 AM

Page 10

Dimension 5

DIMENSION 5

5.1

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11:21 AM

Page 1

Helping Students Develop Productive Habits of Mind 1. Help students understand habits of mind. 2. Help students identify and develop strategies related to the habits of mind. 3. Create a culture in the classroom and the school that encourages the development and use of the habits of mind. 4. Provide positive reinforcement to students who exhibit the habits of mind. Dimension 5

Overhead 5.1

5.2

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Page 1

The Dimensions of Learning Habits of Mind: A Resource for Teachers This section includes • a brief explanation of each habit, • examples of situations in which it might be beneficial to have each habit of mind, and • examples of strategies recommended by people who exhibit each habit.

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.2

5.3

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9:33 AM

Page 1

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.3

5.4

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Page 1

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.4

5.5

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9:37 AM

Page 1

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.5

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.6

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.7

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.8

Integrate the Habits Into Daily Routines Critical Thinking Have students engage in debate with the express purpose of reinforcing the habits of critical thinking.

Creative Thinking Have students engage in various types of problem-solving activities with the express purpose of highlighting and developing these habits of mind.

Self-Regulated Thinking Have students identify and pursue long-term goals. Dimension 5

Overhead 5.9

Dimension 5

Maintain an open mind

Be clear and seek clarity

Understands

Developing Strategies

Becoming a Habit

9:29 AM

Be accurate and seek accuracy

Lacks Awareness

9/11/07

CRITICAL THINKING

Habits of Mind

5.10 Page 1

Overhead 5.10

5.11

9/11/07

9:30 AM

Page 1

Critical Thinking Be Accurate and Seek Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Be Clear and Seek Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Maintain an Open Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Restrain Impulsivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Take a Position When the Situation Warrants It . . . . . . . 281 Respond Appropriately to Others’ Feelings and Level of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Creative Thinking Persevere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Push the Limits of Your Knowledge and Abilities . . . . . . . 285 Generate, Trust, and Maintain Your Own Standards of Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Generate New Ways of Viewing a Situation That Are Outside the Boundaries of Standard Conventions . . . . . . 288

Self-Regulated Thinking Monitor Your Own Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Plan Appropriately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Identify and Use Necessary Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Respond Appropriately to Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Evaluate the Effectiveness of Your Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Dimension 5

Overhead 5.11

5.12

9/14/07

11:31 AM

Page 1

Jigsaw 1. Read a. the explanation of the habit, b. the examples of situations in which it might be beneficial, c. one or more of the recommended strategies, and d. one or more of the classroom examples on pages 270-273 for your category. Notice how the teacher deals with the habit(s). What is your reaction to his or her ideas? What else might be done? 2. Share the information, classroom examples, and your reactions to the examples. 3. Generate a. examples of situations in which any of the habits has been beneficial, or b. strategies developed from your own experiences. Dimension 5

Overhead 5.12

Planning: Dimension 5 What will be done to help students develop productive habits of mind? STEP 1

Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ habits of minds • in general? • related to this specific unit?

STEP 2

What will be done to address these goals or concerns? STEP 2a

Specifically, will anything be done to help students… [Identify the specific habits of mind that will help you to address your goals and concerns.]

STEP 2b

Dimension 5


Overhead 5.P1

Dimension 5

Overhead 5.P2

Students know you should plan before you begin, but they do not consistently or efficiently do this. The experimental inquiry task will be dependent on careful planning and follow-through.

It’s that time of year. Students are really slacking off. Energy is low; only the minimum is being done— even from my good students.

Are there any goals or concerns related to students’ habits of mind • in general? • related to this specific unit?

Step 1

Step 2

respond appropriately to others’ feelings and level of knowledge?

take a position when the situation warrants it?

restrain impulsivity?

maintain an open mind?

be clear and seek clarity?

be accurate and seek accuracy?

generate new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions?

generate, trust, and maintain their own standards of evaluation?

❏ monitor their thinking? ✓ plan appropriately? ❏ ❏ identify and use necessary resources? ❏ respond appropriately to feedback? ❏ evaluate the effectiveness of their actions?

Self-Regulated Thinking

❏

❏

knowledge and abilities?

✓ persevere? ❏ ✓ push the limits of their ❏

Creative Thinking

❏

❏ ❏ ❏

❏ ❏

Critical Thinking

Specifically, will anything be done to help students. . .

Unit: Colorado

I am going to give students a planning form to keep on their desks. I will use it to lead some discussions about planning and then to demonstrate how to use the form. Every few days I am going to have students write in their learning logs about how their planning is going.

I am going to try to energize them a little bit by verbally reinforcing students when they push their limits or persevere. I think it is time to give out a few certificates of achievement when students exhibit these habits.




REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

DoL Trainers Div

4/16/09

11:02 AM

Page 11

P u t t i n g I t A l l To g e t h e r

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

6.1

9/10/07

3:17 PM

Page 1

Putting It All Together • Content • Sequencing Instruction • Assessment • Grading • Conferences


Overhead 6.1

6.2

9/10/07

3:18 PM

Page 1

A. Model 1: Focus on Knowledge, page 306

B. Model 2: Focus on Issues, page 307

C. Model 3: Focus on Student Exploration, page 308


Overhead 6.2

6.3

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3:18 PM

Page 1

Integrating Presentation and Workshop Classes 1. What strategies and activities will be used to support Dimensions 1 and 5? 2. How many days of the unit will be devoted to presentation classes, and when will they occur? 3. How many workshop classes will be needed in the unit? 4. What sequence of presentation and workshop classes will provide an integrated unit of instruction? Putting It All Together

Overhead 6.3

6.4

9/10/07

3:19 PM

Page 1

Sequence of Classes: Colorado Unit Monday Week 1

Tuesday

topography, natural resources—read text

induction task— demonstrate steps, do some together as class (cakes start coming in this week)

P topography, etc. influence culture— discussion using graphic organizer; present information on important people from Colorado history.

introduce field trip experimental inquiry task—teach steps of process—demonstrate planning; students begin work W

Week 4

renewable, nonrenewable, etc. film, concept attainment, graphic organizer


topography, etc. influence settlement patterns—read text, handout—use organizer (quiz)

P

Friday

culture, read text, and culture, read text, and presentations presentations; learn notetaking strategy

P

W

P experimental inquiry—I will conference

W

W

P

• experimental inquiry task—students work on project, I conference, demonstrate planning • review map reading, homework

W student presentations of results from experimental inquiry task

W

P

guest speaker on classifying task—students Gold Rush, students already know how to use timeline for notes. classify, but I will review steps before they start (quiz)

experimental inquiry: induction task— students work on task, students work with I conference newspapers in groups, I conference

experimental inquiry—students work, I conference

P

P

P

W Week 3

Thursday

construct models and • See film—begin shape for reading both pictographs physical maps, • climate—read text natural resource maps assign regional cakes

P Week 2

Wednesday

W unit test

W

Overhead 6.4

6.5

9/10/07

3:19 PM

Page 1

Types of Assessment for Different Types of Knowledge Forced-Choice Items

Essay Questions

Performance Tasks/Por tfolios

Teacher Obser vation

Student Self-Assessment

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Dimension 2: General Procedural Knowledge

X

X

X

X

Dimension 3 & 4: Complex Reasoning Processes

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Dimension 2: Specific Declarative Knowledge Dimension 2: General Declarative Knowledge Dimension 2: Specific Procedural Knowledge

Dimension 5: Habits of Mind


X

Overhead 6.5

6.6

9/10/07

3:20 PM

Page 1

Gradebook: Sample Page Assignment Key:

E.

C.

Quiz Induction Task Reg. cake (HW)

D.

Classify Task

H.

A. B.

Standards/Benchmarks: Students

Al Einstein

Marie Curie

George Carver


A B C D E F G H I J K L A B C D E F G H I J K L A B C D E F G H I J K L

F. G.

Quiz Exper. Inq. Task Unit Test Map Assign (HW)

I. J.

Quiz Quiz

K. Student Self-Assessment L. Observations

Geo S1B2 Geo S2B5 Geo S6B1 Dim 3 & 4 humans/ human use thematic complex physical movement/ maps reasoning environment regions

3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3

3 4

4

4 4

3 3, 3+

2 3 2

2 1

3

2

1 1 2 1

3 2 4 3 4

2

3

2

3

3

2

3

2, 2

2

1, 1

2 1

1 1

2 1

2

2 1

2

1

2 2

2, 2

2 2

2 4 4 3 3

4 4

3

3

2

2 1

2

Dim 5 habits of mind

4 4

4 3, 4, 3

4 3

3 4

3

4

4 4

3

3

3 3

4, 4

4 4

Overhead 6.6

REFERENCES

9/10/07

2:47 PM

Page 1

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning

Dimensions of Learning: Trainers Manual

Dimensions of Learning Teacher's Manual, 2nd edition

Personal Trainers

The Learning Mentor Manual

500 Tips for Trainers

Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning

Memletics Accelerated Learning Manual (full)

Technology for Trainers

Observing Dimensions of Learning in Classrooms and Schools

Homological Dimensions of Modules

Epistemic Dimensions of Personhood

Dimensions of Forensic Linguistics

Homological Dimensions of Modules

Dimensions of Love

Dimensions of Possession

Geometry of four dimensions

Mystical Dimensions of Islam

Dimensions of Raine

La Masoneria Revelada, Manual Del Apendiz learning Manual

Dark Dimensions

Death's Dimensions

Learning Surgery: The Surgery Clerkship Manual

Interlocking Dimensions of European Integration

Dimensions of Dignity at Work

Dark Dimensions

Historical Dimensions of Psychological Discourse

Political Philosophy (Dimensions of Philosophy)

Coordinate Geometry of Two Dimensions

Dimensions of Learning: Trainers Manual

Dimensions of Learning Teacher's Manual, 2nd edition

Personal Trainers

The Learning Mentor Manual

500 Tips for Trainers

Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning

Memletics Accelerated Learning Manual (full)

Technology for Trainers

Observing Dimensions of Learning in Classrooms and Schools

Homological Dimensions of Modules

Epistemic Dimensions of Personhood

Dimensions of Forensic Linguistics

Homological Dimensions of Modules

Dimensions of Love

Dimensions of Possession

Geometry of four dimensions

Mystical Dimensions of Islam

Dimensions of Raine

La Masoneria Revelada, Manual Del Apendiz learning Manual

Dark Dimensions

Death's Dimensions

Learning Surgery: The Surgery Clerkship Manual

Interlocking Dimensions of European Integration

Dimensions of Dignity at Work

Dark Dimensions

Historical Dimensions of Psychological Discourse

Political Philosophy (Dimensions of Philosophy)

Coordinate Geometry of Two Dimensions

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