National Geographic has this totally cool interactive page about memory.

I found a whole website dedicated to memory improvement!

Here are some techniques for improving memory, and I'm sure there are many more.

With regards to the necesity of background knowledge and factual knowledge in learning, here are some pre-teaching strategies that might be helpful.

As with all Western psychology, I cannot help but make connections to Buddhism (and to get more specific, I'm particularly fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism). I noticed on p. 55 of Why Students Don't like School that "If you can't pay attention to something, you can't learn it!". I am struck by how shamatha meditation is about stabalizing the mind and being present in order to practice vipashyana, which is insight into how the mind works. And since you can't separate your mind from anything you perceive....Buddhists posit that that insight into how the mind works, and how self and identity are constructed, leads to insight into the nature of reality itself.

As with all Western psychology, I cannot help but make connections to Buddhism (and to get more specific, I'm particularly fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism). I noticed on p. 55 of Why Students Don't like School that "If you can't pay attention to something, you can't learn it!". I am struck by how shamatha meditation is about stabalizing the mind and being present in order to practice vipashyana, which is insight into how the mind works. And since you can't separate your mind from anything you perceive....Buddhists posit that that insight into how the mind works, and how self and identity are constructed, leads to insight into the nature of reality itself.

Since background knowledge is essential for critical thinking, that means we have to do some pre-teaching with our lessons! With regards to teaching reading, here are some strategies that you could even commit to memory. I'm sure there are many other strategies as well. :)

Since background knowledge is essential for critical thinking, that means we have to do some pre-teaching with our lessons! With regards to teaching reading, here are some strategies that you could even commit to memory. I'm sure there are many other strategies as well. :)

Here is a collection of activities for learning Spanish. When critical thinking in a second language, it's important to consider how background knowledge may not bee in the target language, but you can help students produce language by studying grammar in conjunction with reading or listening. A lot of second language acquisition scholars are debunking the notion that learning grammar is the pre-requisite to critical thinking in the target language. They can develop side by side with lots of structure and support from the teacher!

Since factual knowledge is needed for critical thinking skills, I thought that OMG facts might be a good addition to my list. However, since this is a curious website on the wild wild web, I figure that it might be useful in a lesson about how citations and peer review work in academia. That is to say, you could ask students to consider how we know that this information is true. You can even teach them the word "epistemology"! It's also kind of fun, and I reckon the information is generally considered true.

Since factual knowledge is needed for critical thinking skills, I thought that OMG facts might be a good addition to my list. However, since this is a curious website on the wild wild web, I figure that it might be useful in a lesson about how citations and peer review work in academia. That is to say, you could ask students to consider how we know that this information is true. You can even teach them the word "epistemology"! It's also kind of fun, and I reckon the information is generally considered true.

I thought that this was an interesting website that elaborates more on the thinking process and ways to make thinking visible. Also has to do with our other book!