Higher Level Cognitive Processes

1. Higher Level Cognitive Processes EDC 312 Session 8 Dr. Diane Kern

2. Admit activity • Take a look at your chapter 4 vocabulary sheet. How do you remember all of these terms? What memorization or metacognition strategies do you use? • Be sure to use at least 3 vocabulary terms and define vocabulary in the context of your response.

3. Samples from ‘Nas’ exit/admit activity • These responses are a strong start to a ‘short answer’ response on our quiz 1 and future course assessments. • Be sure to clearly state the theory and provide specific examples.

4. Thinking about one’s own thinking • Metacognition…define, example, teach? • What research tells us: • Metacognitive knowledge and skills gradually improve with age • Learners’ views about the nature of knowledge and learning influence their approach to learning tasks • Let’s take a look at students’ thinking at a variety of ages • Notetaking guide

5. Self-regulation • Establishing goals and standards for their own performance • Planning a course of action for a learning task • Controlling and monitoring cognitive processes and progress during learning • Monitoring and controlling motivation and emotions • Seeking support when needed • Evaluating final outcomes of effort • Self-imposing consequences for performance

6. Transfer • When previously learned knowledge and skills affect how one learns in a new context transfer is occurring!! • So, what does this mean? When can students use what you’ve taught again!! (This is why we teach!!) • Informational theorists call this “conditional knowledge”

7. Hold up…think back and connect • Declarative knowledge: What and why? • Procedural knowledge: How to? • Conditional knowledge: When again? (aka So what?!) • Example…

8. Problem-Solving and Creativity • Problem-solving involves using what we know to address an unanswered question or problem. • Creativity involves new and original behavior yielding a product for one’s culture. • Convergent and divergent thinking

9. Critical Thinking • Involves evaluating the worth and accuracy of information and lines of reasoning. • Critical thinking is a cognitive process as well as a disposition • Bloom’s taxonomy/levels of thinking (more on this in future workshops)…analysis, judgment, evaluation

10. So what…Teaching higher-level thinking processes • Teach thinking across the curriculum…really? Math teachers teach thinking? Pre-K teachers teach thinking? How so?! • Less is more (teach in depth) • Allow opportunities to practice in a variety of situations (think transfer) • Actively nurture metacognitive awareness and self-reflection (You are Dr. Thinking Strategy!) • Explicitly teach effective comprehension and study strategies in your content area and for the level of learners you teach.

11. More ideas for teaching higher-level thinking • Learning as on-going—one never completely knows something! • Encourage self-regulation and learning to learn • Encourage critical thinking and problem solving • Need opportunity for group projects and discussions • Assess and value metacognition, higher level thinking in your classroom/clinic setting