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The fundamental skill necessary to conduct evidence-based practice is learning to design a Well-Built Clinical Question

mirror neuron system (MNS)

The involvement of this multisensory and motor system is particularly evident in experts, such as musicians. Neuroimaging studies using voxel-based morphometry found evidence for structural brain changes such as increased gray matter volume in the inferior frontal gyrus in instrumental musicians compared with non-musicians

Social and communication impairments represent some of the key diagnostic characteristics of autism

In the meantime, I've written a book, from which this article is drawn, about all that I've learned from my research. In my book, I focus on what I identify as seven myths, or widely held beliefs, that dominate our educational practice. I start with the myth that teaching facts prevents understanding, because this (along with my second myth, that teacher-led instruction is passive) is the foundation of all the other myths I discuss. These myths have a long pedigree and provide the theoretical justification for so much of what goes on in schools. Taken together, all seven myths actually damage the education of our pupils. But here, let's focus on facts and the role knowledge has in our understanding.

Why Is It a Myth? My aim here is not to criticize true conceptual understanding, genuine appreciation of significance, or higher-order skill development. All of these things are indeed the true aim of education. My argument is that facts and subject content are not opposed to such aims; instead, they are part of it. Rousseau, Dewey, and Freire were wrong to see facts as the enemy of understanding. All the scientific research of the last half-century proves them wrong. The modern bureaucrats and education experts who base policy and practice on their thinking are wrong too, and with less excuse, as they have been alive when evidence that refutes these ideas has been discovered. Rousseau was writing in the 18th century; Dewey at the turn of the 20th; Freire in the 1970s. Research from the second half of the 20th century tells us that their analyses of factual learning are based on fundamentally faulty premises.

If we want pupils to develop the skills of analysis and evaluation, they need to know things. Willingham puts it this way:23 Data from the last thirty years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not just because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most—critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving—are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory (not just found in the environment).

Send me updates var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email'; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; jqueryLoaded=true; } catch(err) { var jqueryLoaded=false; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; if (!jqueryLoaded) { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js'; head.appendChild(script); if (script.readyState && script.onload!==null){ script.onreadystatechange= function () { if (this.readyState == 'complete') mce_preload_check(); } } } var script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jquery.form-n-validate.js'; head.appendChild(script); var err_style = ''; try{ err_style = mc_custom_error_style; } catch(e){ err_style = '#mc_embed_signup input.mce_inline_error{border-color:#6B0505;} #mc_embed_signup div.mce_inline_error{margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 5px 10px; background-color:#6B0505; font-weight: bold; z-index: 1; color:#fff;}'; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; var style= document.createElement('style'); style.type= 'text/css'; if (style.styleSheet) { style.styleSheet.cssText = err_style; } else { style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(err_style)); } head.appendChild(style); setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); var mce_preload_checks = 0; function mce_preload_check(){ if (mce_preload_checks>40) return; mce_preload_checks++; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; } catch(err) { setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); return; } try { var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({}); } catch(err) { setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); return; } mce_init_form(); } function mce_init_form(){ jQuery(document).ready( function($) { var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){} }; var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options); $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator options = { url: 'http://ifsw.us4.list-manage2.com/subscribe/post-json?u=2ba1006fc5fe4f46217ba1378&id=f1659bc18d&c=?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", beforeSubmit: function(){ $('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove(); $('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each( function(){ var txt = 'filled'; var fields = new Array(); var i = 0; $(':text', this).each( function(){ fields[i] = this; i++; }); $(':hidden', this).each( function(){ var bday = false; if (fields.length == 2){ bday = true; fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years } if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){ this.value = ''; } else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && (fields[2].value=='' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){ this.value = ''; } else { this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value; } }); }); return mce_validator.form(); }, success: mce_success_cb }; $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options); }); } function mce_success_cb(resp){ $('#mce-success-response').hide(); $('#mce-error-response').hide(); if (resp.result=="success"){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg); $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){ this.reset(); }); } else { var index = -1; var msg; try { var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2); if (parts[1]==undefined){ msg = resp.msg; } else { i = parseInt(parts[0]); if (i.toString() == parts[0]){ index = parts[0]; msg = parts[1]; } else { index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } } } catch(e){ index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } try{ if (index== -1){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } else { err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg'; html = ' '+msg+''; var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup'; var f = $(input_id); if (ftypes[index]=='address'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else { input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]; f = $().parent(input_id).get(0); } if (f){ $(f).append(html); $(input_id).focus(); } else { $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } } catch(e){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } } Definition of Social Work Definition* The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. Commentary Social work in its various forms addresses the multiple, complex transactions between people and their environments. Its mission is to enable all people to develop their full potential, enrich their lives, and prevent dysfunction. Professional social work is focused on problem solving and change. As such, social workers are change agents in society and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities they serve. Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice. Values Social work grew out of humanitarian and democratic ideals, and its values are based on respect for the equality, worth, and dignity of all people. Since its beginnings over a century ago, social work practice has focused on meeting human needs and developing human potential. Human rights and social justice serve as the motivation and justification for social work action. In solidarity with those who are dis-advantaged, the profession strives to alleviate poverty and to liberate vulnerable and oppressed people in order to promote social inclusion. Social work values are embodied in the profession’s national and international codes of ethics. Theory Social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognises the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development and behaviour an

learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning," the report says.

differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages

I believe that using questions that allow my students to explore areas that are relevant to their unique situations will help them to be successful.

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.

Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to be contrasted with: 1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated; 2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and 3) the mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.

Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought. Its quality is therefore typically a matter of degree and dependent on, among other things, the quality and depth of experience in a given domain of thinking or with respect to a particular class of questions. No one is a critical thinker through-and-through, but only to such-and-such a degree, with such-and-such insights and blind spots, subject to such-and-such tendencies towards self-delusion. For this reason, the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions is a life-long endeavor.