Complex Cognitive Processes Speech Outline

Complex Cognitive Processes Speech

(Story abbreviated: Teacher has issue with students not being selective with information they find on the Internet to use for a research paper.)

How would you help your students evaluate the information they are finding on the Internet?

Beyond this immediate issue, how will you help students think more critically about the subjects you are teaching?

How will you take into account the cultural beliefs and values of your students as you support their critical thinking?

Metacognition: Have you ever thought about why you did something? Or how you even come to that particular thought in the first place?

Metacognition is the knowledge about our own thinking processes. There are three skills involved in metacognition, they are: planning, monitoring, and evaluating.

As we are all different, so are our levels and understanding of our own metacognition. Maturation and various biological and environmental differences can either hinder or help this process.

Learning Strategy: I before E, except after C.

Learning Strategies vs. Learning Tactics: Tactics are the plans, which are put into action—such as the mnemonics above. Strategies are simply the plans to do so.

Learning Strategies can help students in various ways. In addition to bolstering self-confidence in learning, learning strategies help retain knowledge and advance pre and post knowledge processing.

Students will apply these strategies when they are brought face to face with a worthy challenge. Explaining that these can also be applied to life will raise interest and merit.

Concept Map: a drawing that charts relationships between ideas.

CAPS: Characters, Aim of the story, Problem, Solution

KWL: What do I already know? What do I want to know? After—What have I learned? What happened?

READS: Review headings, Examine boldface words, Ask, “what do I expect to learn?”, Do it, Summarize in your own words.

Problem Solving: E=mc²

Problem solving is both general and specific. I.E. a flat tire vs. the Pythagorean theorem.

IDEAL: Identify the problem and opportunity, Define goals and represent the problem, Explore strategies, Anticipate outcomes and Act, Look back and Learn.

The IDEAL problem solving system is extremely useful in determining where a student is lacking in problem solving skills. Most students have an issue with representing the problem by understanding it, in its entirety or they get lost in other aspects of the problem that are not central to the issue.

Schema-driven problem solving: Seeing that an old problem is simply being disguised and having a solution readily available.

Algorithm: Step-by-step problem solving.

Means-end analysis: Heuristic that divides goal into sub-goals.

Heuristic: General strategy for solving a problem.

Analogical thinking: Limiting the search for a solution that is relevant only to the current problem.

Functional fixedness: Inability to use tools or objects in a new way.

Response set: Responding in the most familiar way.

Representativeness heuristic: Judging the likelihood of an event based on how will the events match you prototypes—what you think is representative of the category.

Availability heuristic: Judging the likelihood of an event based on what is available in your memory, assuming those easily remembered events are common.

Belief perseverance: Holding on to beliefs even if said person is in the wrong.

Confirmation bias: The search for info to validate our opinions or beliefs.

Creativity and Creative Problem Solving:

Creativity is NOT determined at birth, does not come with negative personality traits, are not necessarily “hippies”, and working in groups does not always bolster creativity.

Creativity is a process that involves independent rethinking of problems to make a new, imaginative, and original insight to a problem or subject.

Creativity cannot be measured. However, aspects of creativity such as originality, fluency, and flexibility can. Originality is usually determined by statistics, fluency is the number of garnered responses, and flexibility is the number of categories the new solution can shift between.

As an educator it is imperative that creativity be encouraged in the classroom. Talking about unusual answers and modeling divergent thinking will help other students be more open about new ways to find answers.

Critical Thinking: Think long and hard on it.

Critical Thinking: Evaluating conclusions by logically and systematically examining the problem, the evidence, and the solution.

Enculturation: the process by which an individual adopts the behavior patterns of the culture in which he or she is immersed. I.E. just as a student/child learns from his or her home environment the basics of language and certain conduct, the student/child will learn about thinking and interaction with peers and superiors.