Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (48242)	5/24/2002 7:34:06 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 82486

That depends what you mean by a term of art. It is part of one model of thinking used in education. Here is Degrees of Learning for you: mcrel.org

To: Lane3 who wrote (48242)	5/24/2002 7:36:15 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Here is something I wrote recently to explain DOL to someone else: Dimensions of learning is a model for knowledge acquisition that takes into account current research and thinking about the human brain, and how it takes up, sorts and stores inputs of information. At the most basic level the brain does not accept information well unless attitudes and perceptions are positive. This attitudes and perceptions level is the base of the dimensions of learning. It is the inner most circle or the heart of the diagram. We find this same type of thinking in ELL literature with Krashen (1981) when we talk about the "affective variables" and the "affective filter". When the affective filter is high (when the students feel uncomfortable) learning does not take place effectively. Krashen's affective variables were self-esteem, motivation, and level of anxiety. These correlate very neatly with the dimension of learning level of attitudes and perceptions. So no matter how great the lesson, and how important the knowledge, if the affective filter is high, if the learners do not have positive attitudes and perceptions, learning will not be optimal, if it takes place at all. To create excellent lesson plans and classrooms we must make sure all learners are comfortable, and no learner feels ostracized from the learning experience. As teachers we use empathy and kindness to make the experience of learning positive. We should also be positive, and interesting, and interject humor if possible. We need to draw on the wealth of research available which can tell us what will make our students comfortable. At the second level we have integrating and acquiring knowledge. When we integrate and acquire knowledge we need to "hook" it to something that already exists, for learning to take place most efficiently. This means using anticipatory sets to prepare the "hooks" for our students to hang new knowledge on. This also means helping them take in the new knowledge in organized ways by teaching them how to think about knowledge. Graphic organizers, journals, jigsaws, brainstorming, think-pair-share, numbered heads, teaching study skills like inferencing and notetaking, and on and on, all these tools help children acquire and integrate knowledge. At the third level we extend and refine knowledge. This is the level where comprehension is shown At this level learners can put a story in their own words, or distill an idea into motifs. They can understand what they have learned although as of yet they have not reached the application level. To help students develop at this level we can ask for retellings, or question the students understanding of the topic. Much assessment, unfortunately, stops at this level and never goes further. This is often the level addressed by standardized tests. The fourth level is using knowledge meaningfully. At this level the learners begin to apply their knowledge. If we were designing lessons at this level we would expect students to come up with new ideas, using the third level of extended and refined knowledge as a base. They might be expected to write their own fairy tale, for example, after having read several examples of fairy tales. In mathematics we would expect the learners to be able to solve a new complex problem, using information on simple problems they had extended and refined at the third level. At the highest level we have habits of the mind. This level is the most global, and also the hardest to reach, because in order to reach this level we need to have effectively taught the other levels. At this level we would expect learners to question more generally. For example taking up the fairy tale theme mentioned in level four, we might expect the learners to think about the generic aspects of fairy tales from a psychological viewpoint, or to compare fairy tales from civilization to civilization. This would require taking in the knowledge about fairy tales (level one and two), using level three to extend and refine that knowledge to create a meaningful idea web about fairy tales, which would allow the students to generalize about the elements of fairy tales in level four, so that he or she could write their own, or critique an individual fairy tale. Only after mastering the earlier levels, can the students begin to think broadly, and most meaningfully, about the very nature of fairy tales in level five, the highest level, and get to the enduring value or values of the fairy tale. So the habits of the mind level is basically a search for the enduring value or values of whatever you happen to be studying. To set up a classroom where this can happen a teacher needs to build in ways for the students to question and explore, because it is through questioning and exploration that we reach this highest level. Asking students to explain things, or generalize, or to create new works of art, or to think up new scientific ideas and test them, all of these are ways to get to habits of the mind and enduring values.