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David McGavock

John Seely Brown & Cognitive Apprenticeship - 1 views

  • Brown's work on cognitive apprenticeship evolved from the work of Lave on situated learning.
  • Learners enter a culture of practice. Acquisition, development and application of cognitive tools in a learning domain is based on activity in learning and knowledge. Enculturation (social interaction) and context (learning environment) are powerful components of learning in this model.
  • In traditional classroom approaches, the teacher's thinking processes are usually invisible and operate outside of conscious awareness, even for the teacher. The goal of cognitive apprenticeship is to make the thinking processes of a learning activity visible to both the students and the teacher.
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  • The legitimacy of prior learning and knowledge of new students is respected, and is drawn upon as scaffolding in tasks which initially seem unfamiliar or difficult to learners.
  • Cognitive apprenticeship can be especially effective when teaching complex, cognitive skills such as reading comprehension, essay writing, and mathematical problem solving.
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    Theories of Learning in Educational Psychology John Seely Brown: Cognitive Apprenticeship
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    An approach to teaching that leads with active questioning.
David McGavock

How To Develop Your Critical Thinking Skills - 3 views

  • Andrea Kuszewski, in an article for Scientific American, debunks the myth that intelligence is about the amount of information you know.
  • That is called crystallized intelligence, and is not nearly as important as fluid intelligence,
  • Brain training games like those on Lumonisity.com and in brain training books can help
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  • Meditation has been shown to increase cognitive thinking skills, perhaps because it enhances concentration and focus.
  • Working on a creative outlet like art or music
  • try something new.
  • Think of your brain as a muscle like any other. Just like you have to up your reps to get the same results when you workout, you have to increase the challenge level to keep your brain working out and getting stronger.
  • Social interaction, especially of the non-virtual variety, is another way to stimulate and challenge your cognitive thinking skills
  • every so often you do something the hard way. Use a map instead of a GPS when you go somewhere new, do long division with paper and pencil instead of using a calculator
  • Attend inexpensive college courses online or through iTunes U.
  • Stephen Pinker writes that if everyone could have only one ‘tool’ for improving their thinking skills, it should be practice with scientific thinking. Understanding the scientific method—how a hypothesis is developed and tested—can help you think critically about everything you read and see, making you a more informed customer and a better critical thinker.
  • as you read and take in new information, you create a web of knowledge that can make it easier to remember new information and apply it to creative problem solving.
  • Stress can inhibit cognitive function, so relaxation techniques such as massage or meditation can help you reach your full potential of intelligence.
  • Caffeine boosts mental performance, but studies show that it works best when it is taken in smaller doses over a longer period of time.
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    No matter why you want to do it, there are simple and effective methods you can use to increase your cognitive thinking skills in useful and lasting ways.
David McGavock

Critical Thinking On The Web - 3 views

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    Offers definitions of critical thinking and links to quality resources on topics such as argument mapping, assessment, cognitive biases, critical reading and writing, experts and expertise. (this resource was identified in Microsoft's "Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research skills") Top Ten 1. Argument Mapping Tutorials. Six online tutorials in argument mapping, a core requirement for advanced critical thinking. 2. The Skeptic's Dictionary - over 400 definitions and essays. 3. The Fallacy Files by Gary Curtis. Best website on fallacies. 4. Butterflies and Wheels. Excellent reading - news, articles, and much more. 5. Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts by Peter Facione. Good overview of the nature of critical thinking. (pdf file) 6. Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion by John Stuart Mill. Classic chapter, densely packed with wisdom about thinking. 7. Chance - best resource for helping students think critically about issues involving probability and statistics 8. Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards Heuer. A good overview of how to improve thinking in the light of insights from cognitive psychology. 9. A Handbook on Writing Argumentative and Interpretative Essays by Ian Johnston 10. Baloney Detection Part 1 and Part 2 - by Michael Shermer. 10 step guide.
David McGavock

epfr515 - 0 views

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    "Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies Introduction Reading comprehension is fundamental to ultimate educational success. Yet elementary students struggle with it on a daily basis. In order for students to comprehend their reading materials, it is helpful to explicitly teach comprehension strategies. (Check out this list!) I will be looking at three aspects of human cognition to be of assistance in this task: metacognition, working memory, and activating prior semantic knowledge. As an educator, it is important that I help my students reach as much of their potential as I can. Testing different strategies on my students can help me, but even more importantly, can help my students identify the best ones for each of them."
David McGavock

Elke Weber - The Earth Institute - Columbia University - 2 views

  • Currently, Weber is focusing the majority of her time on two very different, but crucial issues: “… environmental decisions, in particular responses to climate change and climate variability, and financial decisions, for example pension savings.” 
  • Weber is past president of both the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and Society for Mathematical Psychology, and she is the current president of the Society for Neuroeconomics.
  • Her areas of expertise include cognitive and affective processes in judgment and choice, cross-cultural issues in management, environmental decision making and policy, medical decision making, and risk management.
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    "Working at the intersection of psychology and economics, Weber is an expert on behavioral models of judgment and decision making under risk and uncertainty. Recently, she has been investigating psychologically appropriate ways to measure and model individual and cultural differences in risk taking, specifically in risky financial situations and environmental issues. She describes her research as follows: "I try to gain an understanding and appreciation of decision making at a broad range of levels of analysis, which is not easy, given that each level requires different theories, methods and tools. So at the micro end of the continuum, I study how basic psychological processes like attention, emotion and memory (and their representation in the brain) influence preference and choice. At the macro end of the continuum, I think about how policy makers may want to present policy initiatives to the public to make them maximally effective. This range of topics and methods is challenging, but at least in my mind the different levels of analysis inform and complement each other." "
David McGavock

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain - 2 views

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    "Most of what you do, think and believe is generated by parts of your brain to which you have no access. Here's the expose about the non-conscious brain and all the machinery under the hood that keeps the show going."
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