Deeper Learning Dialogic Learning And Critical Thinking

Deeper learning, dialogic learning, and critical thinking are essential capabilities in the 21st-century environments we now operate. Apart from being important in themselves, they are also crucial in enabling the acquisition of many other 21st-century skills/capabilities such as problem solving, collaborative learning, innovation, information and media literacy, and so on. However, the majority of teachers in schools and instructors in higher education are inadequately prepared for the task of promoting deeper learning, dialogic learning, and critical thinking in their students. This is despite the fact that there are educational researchers who are developing and evaluating strategies for such promotion. The problem is bridging the gap between the educational researchers’ work and what gets conveyed to teachers and instructors as evidence-based, usable strategies. This book addresses that gap: in it, leading scholars from around the world describe strategies they have developed for successfully cultivating students’ capabilities for deeper learning and transfer of what they learn, dialogic learning and effective communication, and critical thought. They explore connections in the promotion of these capabilities, and they provide, in accessible form, research evidence demonstrating the efficacy of the strategies. They also discuss answers to the questions of how and why the strategies work. A seminal resource, this book creates tangible links between innovative educational research and classroom teaching practices to address the all-important question of how we can realize our ideals for education in the 21st century. It is a must read for pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators and professional developers, and educational researchers who truly care that we deliver education that will prepare and serve students for life.

Education authorities from around the globe explore deeper learning, a process that promotes higher-order thinking, reasoning, and problem solving to better educate students and prepare them for college and careers. Relying on research as well as their own experience, the authors show how to use intensive curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership practices to meet the needs of 21st century learners.

This book empowers people to go beyond themselves into new spheres of learning, thinking and creativity. Drawing on recent work in communications theory as well as psychology, computer science and philosophy, it reveals some key characteristics of learning dialogues. It also demonstrates ways in which computers and networks can deepen, enrich and expand such dialogues. The book’s central argument is that this dialogic perspective in education and the latest developments in information and communications technology make ideal partners.

"Jay McTighe and Harvey Silver offer a practical guide to teaching seven essential thinking skills that will equip students for success in school and beyond"--

Practical strategies to take your students' understanding from "So what?" to "Wow!" Based on current brain research and information about differentiated learning, this book for Grades 4–12 outlines the Deeper Learning Cycle (DELC), a teaching model that applies learning and content processing techniques to everyday instruction. This resource features: Chapters explaining the cycle's seven stages, including standards and curriculum, building a positive learning culture, acquiring new knowledge, processing learning, and evaluating student learning A lesson plan template to apply to daily instruction Strategies to help students process content in meaningful ways Reflection questions to help teachers apply the material to their own practice

Integrated Education and Learning aims to discuss novel approaches to offer integrated educational methods. Within the last few years, educational techniques have evolved to favour critical thinking and improve learning skills. This volume links thinking and learning in educational settings and discusses diverse mechanisms that influence this association; including meta-cognitive capacity, memory, cognitive style, conceptual approaches, digitalization, teaching approaches, echoing, and questioning. It embraces this discussion at all levels, from early childhood education to higher education. This book also includes teaching tips for creating a learning environment that cultivates students’ creativity and critical thinking on both online platforms and live-in-classroom. The book follows discussing the merits of an integrated educational paradigm that will help develop highly intellectual thinkers and will promote modern values to face current and future challenges. Finally, the book shows a balance between learning and education to enhance creativity, critical thinking and social skills.

Deeper learning has been defined as “the skills and knowledge that students must possess to succeed in 21st century jobs and civic life” (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2013). Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks examines the role of performance assessment to facilitate student attainment of the core competencies of deeper learning. The book details a journey that a large school district undertook to create a system of performance tasks designed to assess students’ proficiency in critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. Chapters devoted to the development and implementation of the district’s high-quality performance tasks and rubrics highlight successes and lessons learned during the journey. Additional chapters focus on such topics as types of performance assessments, instructional methods that promote student engagement and deeper learning, policy, and how teacher leaders can drive this innovation to serve the teaching, learning, assessment, and accountability needs of schools. Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks was written for teachers, administrators, superintendents, and policy makers to better understand the challenges and opportunities afforded by using performance assessment to promote deeper learning.

Contemporary researchers have analysed dialogue primarily in terms of instruction, conversation or inquiry. There is an irreducible tension when the terms ‘dialogue’ and ‘instruction’ are brought together, because the former implies an emergent process of give-and-take, whereas the latter implies a sequence of predetermined moves. It is argued that effective teachers have learned how to perform in this contradictory space to both follow and lead, to be both responsive and directive, to require both independence and receptiveness from learners. Instructional dialogue, therefore, is an artful performance rather than a prescribed technique. Dialogues also may be structured as conversations which function to build consensus, conformity to everyday ritualistic practices, and a sense of community. The dark side of the dialogic ‘we’ and the community formed around ‘our’ and ‘us’ is the inevitable boundary that excludes ‘them’ and ‘theirs’. When dialogues are structured to build consensus and community, critical reflection on the bases of that consensus is required and vigilance to ensure that difference and diversity are not being excluded or assimilated (see Renshaw, 2002). Again it is argued that there is an irreducible tension here because understanding and appreciating diversity can be achieved only through engagement and living together in communities. Teachers who work to create such communities in their classrooms need to balance the need for common practices with the space to be different, resistant or challenging – again an artful performance that is difficult to articulate in terms of specific teaching techniques.