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Jul 1 2009, 12:40 PM EDT monk51295 2 words added, 1 word deleted
Jul 1 2009, 12:17 PM EDT monk51295 214 words added

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wieman (video) on effective teaching practices, those that allow students to develop their own understanding, by
“thinking hard about a subject and then monitoring and guiding that thinking.”

The pedagogical principles he ultimately distilled include: employing an *expert individual tutor (avg of class with expert individual tutors - 98%) to motivate, pose questions to and interact with students; and probing “where students are starting from and connect with them,” finding ways to have students challenge, explain and critique each other, with feedback from the tutor.

description of an *expert individual tutor:
1) large amt of role goes into motivation
2) gives very little praise - and it's always about the process - not the person
3) looks carefully to understand in detail what kids don't know so they can be specific in feedback
4) almost never "tells" students anything - more asking - with strategically directed questions
5) most talking is students
6) let students make mistakes (redirections come from more questions so students can correct self)
7) it's not enough for students to solve a problem - big bang comes from reflecting/assessing on the result/self


this is hard to do for more than 2-3 students - so use technology (clickers - *not automatically useful, optimize simulations) ie: effective use of clickers - look into this
role of expert tutor....
to motivate
to know of and make connections (to students current thinking/knowledge)

and to know what their brain is capable of :
is cognitive load taken into account for students?
no - every time you get a new term - the brain has to work on that - (so limit new terms//new ideas) 7 limit
experts don't feel it or appreciate it - just giving words give a load - sketch on the board would be easier to take in (dan roam)

brain is full during class - short term memory is extremely limited (7 items and 4 ideas at one)
purposes of groups:
1) learn from explaining things
2) a lot of times misunderstandings come from minor details that others may catch
but teacher needs to roam and clear up major misunderstandings
to increase student acitivityfor lecture - need prep research - having discussion before - come to lecture with questions - that kind of lecture is powerful - but it's not giving info - it's guiding thinking
to improve student reflection
(best use of clickers:
1) questions are challenging
2) student to student discussion before answering
3) timely specific feedback (some from students - but beyond that - teacher listen to discussions - bring out points of confusion))
absolutely need to measure what students are learning (research shows that what we are using now isn't working well for that) so first work on assessment tools
wieman isn't the only one talking about this idea he terms "expert individual tutor," but his description of it really resonated with me. in disrupting class, clayton christensen has the most clear cut plan i've heard for making it happen through the use of web base instruction. because one-size doesn't fit all. and technology is allowing us the ability to tailor to suit each kid.
clayton also writes - 80% of the typical teacher's time is now spent in monolithic acitivity - preparing to teach, actually teaching, and testing an entire class. far less than 20% is available to help students individually....instead of spending most of their time delivering one-size-fits-all lessons year after year, teachers can spend much more of their time traveling from student to student to help individuals with individual problems.
i'm like half-way through disrupting class - can't consume it fast enough.

the *flow*flow csikszentmihalyi and goleman have penned - sounds like what willingham touched on in ch 1 and what feynman calls the pleasure of finding things out. does that sound right - or am i missing something? flow comes from losing slfl-consciousness because you are so engaged?

*Csikszentmihalyi (flow) and Goleman (emotional and social intelligence)
flow: skills so perfectly match the demands of the moment that self-consciousness disappears




are we innovating - or the opposite - check out this video
how do we have to behave to create real value - to create authentic value - umair

voice of tv kids - kait & kyle present - without the embedded videos and lovely mc-stress



findings that the brain is much more similar to muscles than previously thought - the brain needs: strenuous extended use
after 15 min lecture - 10% retention after 2 days practice - 90% retention

no matter how good the 90 min is - still not good enough: good to great idea- and so casual about hw
no matter what you do in classroom - brain doesn't have enough time to build the muscle - so need challenging, authentic hw geared to expert thinking.



expert student will have:
1) factual knowledge
2) oranizational structure
3) monitor own thoughts
so - needs more than just knowledge