Nurturing Thinking in our Children

1. Nurturing Thinking in our Children • Garfield Gini-Newman • ggininewman@oise.utoronto.ca

2. "The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress." Socrates c. 400 B.C.E. 3

3. Wikipedia generation is lazy and unprepared for university’s rigours, survey of faculty says Toronto Star, April 6, 2009 The evidence is strong that they [Net Geners] are the smartest generation ever. [They have] been given the opportunity to fulfill their inherent human intellectual potential as no other generation. Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital, 2009

5. John Seely Brown

6. Does a child's belief about intelligence have anything to do with academic success? • 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, randomly assigned to workshops • One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. • The other taught about the nature of intelligence and thebrain.

7. Students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter.” • By the end of the semester, the group who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.

8. Nurturing a Growth Mindset • Growth Mindset • see setbacks as a challenge that motivate • success is about stretching oneself • intelligence comes from hard work • School is an opportunity to expand intelligence • Fixed Mindset • See intelligence as fixed - something you are born with • Success/failure is what is expected • School is about demonstrating your worth • Avoid challenges which may not immediately yield success 8

9. Howard Gardner’s Definition ofIntelligence • An intelligence entails the ability to solve • problems or fashion products that are of • consequence in a particular cultural • setting or community. • Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice

10. “It is desirable to expel...the notion that some subjects are inherently ‘intellectual’, and hence possessed of an almost magical power to train the faculty of thought... any subject ...is intellectual in its power to start and direct significant inquiry and reflection.”John Dewey, 1933

11. Yes, but are you a genius?? • ...an individual merits the term genius to the extent that his or her creative work in a domain exerts a material effect on the definition and delineation of the domain...The more universal the contribution, the more it travels across cultures and eras, the greater the genius. • Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice

12. Distributed Intelligence • Distributed intelligence refers to the role resources (libraries, internet, tools, experts) play in helping us to solve problems and meet challenges. • It refers to the selection of appropriate resources to solve problems and suggests intelligence is better thought of as "distributed" in the world.

13. Essential Brain Research Findings • 1. Emotion is the gatekeeper to learning • 2. Intelligence is a function of experience • 3. The Brain stores most effectively what is meaningful from the learner’s perspective

14. The environment must be physically and psychologically safe for optimal learning to occur! • Anything you do which • engages students’ • emotional/motivational • interest will naturally • engage the adrenaline • system and result in • stronger memories.

15. Attention:Approximately 99% of all information entering through the sense is immediately dropped. When it comes to paying attention the brain is more like a sieve than a sponge! • Every encounter with something new requires the brain to fit the new information into an existing memory category, or network of neurons. If it can’t, the information will have no meaning.

16. THE MONTILLATION OF TRAXOLINE • It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zointer. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristeriate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snelaus in the future because of our zointer lescelidge. • Attributed to Judy Lanier

17. Maya Islam Confederation Boer War Feudal System Pioneers Issac Brock Mo-hen-jadaro Democracy Federal Pharaohs Riel Rebellions Rebellions of 1837 William Lyon Mackenzie Civilization Wilfrid Laurier Revolution Christianity Homestead Act Union of the Canada’s Loyalists Jesuits Provincial Champlain Iroquois Metis Nunavut Municipal Seigneurial System Pyramids Roman Empire Plains of Abraham Earthquake Cartier Latitude Crusades Nellie McClung Longitude Castles Lower Canada Great Wall of China Tsunami Jean Talon Parthenon Magna Carta Underground Railway Election Compass Rose Prairies Upper Canada Printing Press Black Death Canadian Shield Louis XIV Quebec Act

18. “Although thinking is innate, skillful thinking must be cultivated”Art Costa, 2008

19. Decode the Picture: Alberta 1890

20. Critical thinking is... • Concerned with judging or assessing what is reasonable or sensible in a situation, • Focuses on quality of reasoning, • Depends on the possession of relevant knowledge • Occurs when we attempt to solve a problematic situation • Takes effort but is more interesting than merely memorizing information

21. When is someone thinking critically? • A person is thinking critically only if s/he is attempting to assess or judge the merits of possible options in light ofrelevant factors or criteria. • Critical thinking is criterial thinking— thinking in the face of criteria.

22. A Definition of Critical Thinking • Critical thinking is the working through a problematic situationin orderto decidewhat to believe or how to act. It requires that we make a reasoned judgment.

23. Intellectual Tools Invite children to solve problems or offer thoughtful assessments Children as thoughtful learners Encourage open discussion of issues Background Knowledge Criteria for Judgment Critical Thinking Vocabulary Thinking Strategies Habits of Mind

24. Three Types of Questions

25. Come up with your own examples!

26. Which of the theories used by scientists to explain the dinosaurs disappearance from the face of the earth is the most plausible?

27. Paint an image using an impressionist style.

28. Who is the protagonist in Macbeth?

29. List three methods of harvesting trees used in Ontario and rank order them from most to least sustainable.

30. Prepare a list of holiday presents for your family.

31. Designing Critical Challenges • Critical challenges may take one of the following six forms: • Critique the piece • Judge the better or best • Rework the piece • Decode the puzzle • Design to specs • Perform to specs

32. Where does truth lie?Sandy Danny

34. Where does truth lie?Sandy Danny

35. Is Canadian diversity the result of or inspite of government intentions? Create a Want Ad profiling the ideal immigrant sought by the Canadian government as reflected in the 1904 cartoon All Together Now.

36. Can you help out Lou Costello? • Uncover the conceptual error in Lou’s mathematical thinking • Design a learning activity that would help Lou in understanding this conceptual error by providing an alternative solution to the math problem being discussed. 36

37. To what extent is the wikipedia definition of the term “Globalization” consistent with other definitions? • Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of people and places as a result of advances in transport, communication, and information technologies that cause political, economic, and cultural convergence. • Wikipedia Encyclopedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization (Accessed October 28, 2007) 37

38. Globalization simply refers to the complex of forces that trend toward a single world society. Among these forces are mass communications, commerce, increased ease of travel, the internet, popular culture, and the increasingly widespread use of English as an international language…. a process, well underway, which trends toward the undermining of national sovereignty, and therefore citizen's rights, in favor of the economic interests of gigantic transnational corporations. The latter already comprise more than half of the largest "economies" of the world, and are vastly more powerful than most governments. • The Progressive Living Glossary • Economists typically define globalization as increased economic integration across countries, including increased volume and decreased barriers to international trade and capital flows. As a result, domestic markets for both inputs and finished goods behave more like a single global market. • Chris D. Gingrich 38

39. Globalization also is about the homogenization of everything from biology to law and jurisprudential principles; from food to films to language to sales and consumption. Globalization, therefore, is about the corporatization of all life. It is about crushing people's dreams of communities, regions and nations across the world of one day governing themselves. Globalization is about the end to the idea of human rights...the end to the idea of species rights, place rights-accompanied by the commodification of everything under the sun (from water to soil to space, to, of course, the sun itself). • Richard Grossman • [Globalization] is a trend that has intensified and accelerated in recent decades and come into full view with all its benefits and destructive power. Just as climate has shaped the environment over the millennia, the interaction among cultures and societies over tens of thousands of years has resulted in the increasing integration of what is becoming the global human community. • Nayan Chandra in What is Globalizationwww.globalenvision.org/library/8/567/ 39

40. The spatial reach and density of global and transnational interconnectedness weave complex webs and networks of relations between communities, states, international institutions, non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations which make up the global order. These overlapping and interacting networks define an evolving structure which both imposes constraints on and empowers communities, states and social forces. • David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, Researching Globalization • http://www.polity.co.uk/global/research.asp#f1 40

42. How plausible is the science in Jurassic Park?

43. Judge the Better or the Best • Which of the following is the best map? 43

44. Mercator Projection Mappaemundi Peter’s Projection 44

45. What criteria did you use to arrive at your decision? 45

46. How would the following background knowledge affect your decision? 46

47. Mappaemundi • Created: Medieval period • Purpose: To orient the soul toward heaven. • Original Users: The Church 47

48. MercatorPeter’s ProjectionProjection • Created: 1569 • Purpose: Navigation • Original Users: Sailors Created: 1974 Purpose: To present a map which fairly represents all countries Original Users: Those concerned with social activism 48

49. Develop a plausible explanation for John Lok’s entry in the ship’s log. • John Lok, Voyage to Guinea, 1554, ship’s log: • The elephant is the biggest of all four-footed beasts.... Of all the beasts they are most gentle and tractable, and are of quick sense and sharpness of wit. They love rivers, and will often go into them up to the snout, wherewith they blow and snuff and play in the water. They have continual war against dragons, which desire their blood because it is very cold: and therefore the dragon lieth in wait as the elephant passeth by.