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Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

2.18.13

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GOALS:

Understand how to make Critical Thinking and Problem Solving work for our students.

To take away resources to aide in further exploration in our classrooms leading to success!

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TIPC Says

21st Century Classroom Teachers�

provide the activities, experiences, and feedback needed for students to develop questioning, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

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TIPC Says

21st Century Classroom Students�

students extend knowledge and skills in practical ways to solve real world problems�

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Where are we at?

Share your experiences:

What are some of the successes you have had?

What are some challenges?

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Success in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving hinders on 3 things-

1. Real world and relevant

2. Challenging but not impossible

3. Resist telling and replace with asking

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How is setting up the right situation connected to our

ability or motivation to problem solve?

Using the items on your table, attach the candle vertically to use as a lamp so as no wax drips on the table below.

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Functional Fixedness

Duncker found that participants tried to attach the candle directly to the wall with the tacks, or to glue it to the wall by melting it. Very few of them thought of using the inside of the box as a candle-holder and tacking this to the wall. In Duncker’s terms the participants were “fixated” on the box’s normal function of holding thumbtacks and could not re-conceptualize it in a manner that allowed them to solve the problem.

We need to create situations where students can think "outside the box" and be successful doing it. More recently, Michael C. Frank and Michael Ramscar gave a written version of the candlebox problem to undergraduates at Stanford. When the problem was given with identical instructions to those in the original experiment, 23% of students were able to solve the problem. For another group of students, the noun phrases such as "book of matches" were underlined, and for a third group the nouns (e.g., "box") were underlined. For these two groups, 55% and 47% were able to solve the problem effectively. In a follow-up experiment, all the nouns except "box" were underlined and similar results were produced. The authors concluded that students' performance was contingent on their representation of the lexical concept "box" rather than instructional manipulations. The ability to overcome functional fixedness was contingent on having a flexible representation of the word box which allows students to see that the box can be used when attaching a candle to a wall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_fixedness- Important to set up your tasks /questions with the end in mind but also your students ability to navigate and see other pathways or solutions to the problem.

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In other words-

its how you ask the question

(or structure the activity)

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�- Socrates (Quoted in Xenophon's "Economics")

“Can it be, Ischomachus, that asking questions is teaching? I am just beginning to see what is behind all your questions. You lead me on by means of things I know, point to things

that resemble them, and persuade me that I know things that I thought I had no knowledge of.”

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Activity 1

What do questions look like at each level of Bloom's?

Sorting activity-

Sort questions at each level. What makes them differ?

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REVISED BLOOMS

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Your Turn

Think about an upcoming lesson.

Create 2 questions(or activities) at each level of Blooms.

One for the teacher and one you would hope to get from a student.

Record and hang up.

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Reflection- Gallery Walk

Take a walk and mark what you would call a good question.

What characteristics make it a good question?

Where would the discussion/activity go after presenting the question?

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- Gail Sheehy

"Ah, mastery ... what a profoundly satisfying feeling when one finally gets on top of a new set of skills ... and then sees the light under the new door those skills can open, even as another door is closing."

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CT & PS Resources

http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework/260
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm
Critical thinking lesson plan examples: http://www.learnnc.org/lessons/search?phrase=critical+thinking
http://www.criticalthinking.org/
http://www.wannalearn.com/Academic_Subjects/Critical_Thinking/
HCPS Quality Questioning Site - Tons of Resources
Cuesta College Resources
101 Questions
http://www.bie.org/diy

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What will you do?

Work in groups to create a tool/resource, etc. that outlines what their next steps will be. Each person should have a take away that they plan to take back and use. We will meet again and share findings/experiences/tools.

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Mirror Mirror on the Wall

How do we get better at something?

Reflection Defined�The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.

Mental concentration; careful consideration.
A thought or an opinion resulting from such consideration.

Individual 21 Plan Designed to help you make a plan

and reflect through monthly updates. Update it now.