EDUC Exam #2

Dr. Andrew Robert Baker (Rockstar Educator)

"Critical and creative thinking skills are perhaps the most fundamental skills involved in making judgments and solving problems." This can enrich college students' learning experiences.

"Habits of Mind"

"Habits of mind" are the personal commitments, values, and standards you have about the principle of good thinking.

Lawrence Bland (Rockstar Educator)

"Learning skills helped to move us towards self reliance... and this is never true than with Critical Thinking." "If you've never failed, you've never lived!"

Steven Johnson (Rockstar Educator)

"We take ideas from other people, stitch them together into new forms, and create something new."

Hybrid style

: Instructors with a hybrid teaching style use a combination of the learning styles above. For example, during an hourlong class session, they might schedule twenty minutes for a lecture, twenty minutes for class discussion, and twenty minutes for a class activity. While this teaching style can potentially appeal to all learning styles, some students may have trouble adjusting to the shifts in format or activities. Still, such classes—especially the group activities—provide opportunities for different learning styles: Visual learners might take notes or record everyone's ideas, auditory learners could facilitate their group's conversation, and the kinesthetic/tactile learners could be responsible for creating any props or presentations to share the group work with the rest of the class.

Interpersonal

Ability to discern others' nonverbal feelings and thoughts. Sensing when to be tactful. Sensing a "subtext" or implied message in a person's statements.

Atkinson-Shiffrin model

According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory, information passes through three distinct stages in order for it to be stored in long-term memory. In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, stimuli from the environment are processed first in sensory memory: storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes. It is very brief storage—up to a couple of seconds. We are constantly bombarded with sensory information. We cannot absorb all of it, or even most of it. And most of it has no impact on our lives.

Acrostic

Acrostic: you make a phrase of all the first letters of the words. Verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message.

Creative Thinker

As a creative thinker, you are curious, optimistic, and imaginative. You see problems as interesting opportunities, and you challenge assumptions and suspend judgment. You don't give up easily. You work hard.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy divides the cognitive domain of learning into six main learning-skill levels, or learning-skill stages, which are arranged hierarchically—moving from the simplest of functions like remembering and understanding, to more complex learning skills, like applying and analyzing, to the most complex skills—evaluating and creating. The lower levels are more straightforward and fundamental, and the higher levels are more sophisticated

Chunking

Chunking is where you organize information into manageable bits or chunks. Combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in short-term memory.

Conscious incompetence

Conscious incompetence: This stage can be the most difficult for learners because you begin to register how much you need to learn—you know what you don't know. Think about the saying "It's easier said than done." In stage 1 the learner only has to discuss or show interest in a new experience, but in stage 2, he or she begins to apply new skills that contribute to reaching the learning goal.

Thinking Modes

Constant state of back and forth critical/creative thinking.

Walter Pauk (Rockstar Educator)

Created Cornell Notes. The Cornell method was developed in the 1950s by Professor Walter Pauk at Cornell University. It is recommended by most colleges because of its usefulness and flexibility. This method is simple to use for capturing notes, is helpful for defining priorities, and is a very helpful study tool. The Cornell method follows a very specific format that consists of four boxes: a header, two columns, and a footer. The header is a small box across the top of the page. In it, you write identification information like the course name and the date of the class. Underneath the header are two columns: a narrow one on the left (no more than one-third of the page) and a wide one on the right. The wide column, called the "notes" column, takes up most of the page and is used to capture your notes using any of the methods outlined earlier. The left column, known as the "cue" or "recall" column, is used to jot down main ideas, keywords, questions, clarifications, and other notes. It should be used both during the class and when reviewing your notes after class. Finally, use the box in the footer to write a summary of the class in your own words. This will help you make sense of your notes in the future and is a valuable tool to aid with recall and studying.

Claire Ellen Weinstein (Rockstar Educator)

Created the Model of Strategic Learning. Created LASSI: Learning and Strategies Inventory. LASSI measures Skill, Will, and Self-regulation in an academic environment.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is an invaluable skill for college students because it helps you look at problems and situations from a fresh perspective. Creating thinking is a way to develop novel or unorthodox solutions that do not depend wholly on past or current solutions. It's a way of employing strategies to clear your mind so that your thoughts and ideas can transcend what appear to be the limitations of a problem. Creative thinking is a way of moving beyond barriers and it can be understood as a skill—as opposed to an inborn talent or natural "gift"—that can be taught as well as learned.

Critical Thinkers

Critical thinkers are usually curious and reflective people. They like to explore and probe new areas and seek knowledge, clarification, and new solutions. They ask pertinent questions, evaluate statements and arguments, and they distinguish between facts and opinion. They are also willing to examine their own beliefs, possessing a manner of humility that allows them to admit lack of knowledge or understanding when needed. They are open to changing their mind. Perhaps most of all, they actively enjoy learning, and seeking new knowledge is a lifelong pursuit.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is clear, reasonable, reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. It means asking probing questions like "How do we know?" or "Is this true in every case or just in this instance?" It involves being skeptical and challenging assumptions rather than simply memorizing facts or blindly accepting what you hear or read.

Accuracy

Determining where information comes from, if the evidence supports the information, and if the information has been reviewed or refereed can help you decide how and whether to use a source. When determining the accuracy of a source, consider the following: Is the source well-documented? Does it include footnotes, citations, or a bibliography? Is information in the source presented as fact, opinion, or propaganda? Are biases clear? Can you verify information from the references cited in the source? Is the information written clearly and free of typographical and grammatical mistakes? Does the source look to be edited before publication? A clean, well-presented paper does not always indicate accuracy, but usually at least means more eyes have been on the information.

Librarians at California State University at Chico (Rockstar Educator)

Developed the CRAAP test.

Howard Gardner (Rockstar Educator)

Devised theory of multiple intelligences: logical-mathematic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, naturalistic.

34 percent

Effective note-taking helps students retain what they learned in class so that they can use the material to study and build their knowledge and tackle more complex concepts later on. In fact, research indicates that there's a 34 percent chance that students will remember key information if it's present in their notes but only a 5 percent chance if it's not.

Benjamin Bloom (Rockstar Educator)

Established a hierarchy of educational objectives that attempted to divide cognitive objectives into subdivisions ranging from simplest to most complex behavior. Bloom's Taxonomy.

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Forgetting occurs in a systematic manner, beginning rapidly and then leveling off.

Herman Ebbinghaus (Rockstar Educator)

He was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve.

Automatic processing

If someone asks you what you ate for lunch today, more than likely you could recall this information quite easily. This is known as automatic processing, or the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words. Automatic processing is usually done without any conscious awareness. Recalling the last time you studied for a test is another example of automatic processing.

Successful intelligence

In Robert Sternberg's framework, the optimal form of cognition, involving having a good balance of analytic, creative, and practical intelligence.

Remembering Stage

In the listening process, the remembering stage occurs as the listener categorizes and retains the information she's gathered from the speaker for future access. The result-memory-allows the person to record information about people, objects, and events for later recall. This happens both during and after the speaker's delivery.

Multimodal Learning

Incorporating several different learning styles into a single lesson plan or activity.

Delegator style

Instructors with a delegator approach prefer to structure their classes around student-run projects and presentations—their own teaching takes a backseat to students teaching one another. While this learning style may be beneficial for auditory and kinesthetic learners, visual learners may need to take notes throughout the projects and presentations so that they have study guides they can visualize.

Demonstrator style

Instructors with a demonstrator style of teaching prefer to lecture, also, but they prefer to "show" students what they're explaining, often by using visual aids such as Powerpoint presentations, handouts, and demos. While this teaching style may appeal to visual learners and auditory learners who can simultaneously hear and visualize the information, this approach may not be as appealing to kinesthetic learners.

Facilitator style

Instructors with a facilitator style rely heavily on class discussion, asking students to participate a lot while they provide prompts and guiding questions. While this learning style is effective for auditory learners, visual students may want to create concept maps in their notes, which they can review later, while kinesthetic/tactile learners may want to write their notes on index cards to use for studying outside of class.

Authority style

Instructors with an authority style of teaching prefer to give lectures while standing in front of the class, often doing a combination of talking and writing information on the board. Students are expected to listen and take notes. While the authority style may work for active/reflective students who can take notes to review later, it may be difficult for kinesthetic learners.

Robert Sternberg (Rockstar Educator)

Intelligence; devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (academic problem-solving, practical, and creative). "Smart Fools".

Purpose

Knowing why the information was created is a key to evaluation. Understanding the reason or purpose of the information, if the information has clear intentions, or if the information is fact, opinion, or propaganda will help you decide how and why to use information: Is the author's purpose to inform, sell, persuade, or entertain? Does the source have an obvious bias or prejudice? Is the article presented from multiple points of view? Does the author omit important facts or data that might disprove their argument? Is the author's language informal, joking, emotional, or impassioned? Is the information clearly supported by evidence?

Learning Objectives

Learning objectives specify what someone will know, care about, or be able to do as a result of a learning experience. When your professor states a learning objective, it describes what you can expect to get out of a particular class, assignment, or reading.

Student-led teaching

Many instructors believe that a true test of whether students understand concepts is being able to teach the material to others. For that reason, instructors will sometimes have students work in groups and research a topic or review assigned readings, and then prepare a mini-presentation and teach it to the rest of the class. This activity can help students feel more accountable for their learning and work harder since classmates will be relying on them.

Memory

Memory is an information processing system that we often compare to a computer. Memory is the set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time.

Metacognitive regulation

Metacognitive regulation builds on this knowledge and refers to a person's ability to regulate cognitive processes during problem-solving. You use metacognitive knowledge to make decisions about how to approach new problems or how to effectively learn new information and skills.

"Smart"

Multiple intelligences suggest that there is (or may be) more than one way to be "smart," and that you can benefit from identifying your personal strengths and preferences. The theory of multiple intelligences proposes that intelligence is multi-faceted, that each learner has a unique set of strengths, and that there are many ways to be "smart."

Neil Fleming (Rockstar Educator)

Neil Fleming's VARK model (which expanded on three modalities originally proposed by Walter Burke Barbe and colleagues) proposes four learning modalities, which relate learning to the senses: Visual learning Auditory learning Read/write learning Kinesthetic learning

Currency

One of the most important and interesting steps to take as you begin researching a subject is selecting the resources that will help you build your thesis and support your assertions. Certain topics require you to pay special attention to how current your resource is—because they are time sensitive, because they have evolved so much over the years, or because new research comes out on the topic so frequently. When evaluating the currency of an article, consider the following: When was the item written, and how frequently does the publication come out? Is there evidence of newly added or updated information in the item? If the information is dated, is it still suitable for your topic? How frequently does information change about your topic?

Practical thinking

Practical thinking covers the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to shape the environment so as to maximize one's strengths and compensate for one's weaknesses. It emphasizes intelligence in a practical sense. People high on this dimension quickly recognize what factors influence success on various tasks and are adept at both adapting to and shaping their environment so that they can accomplish various goals. Practical intelligence is not reflected in test scores.

The Learning Cycle

Prepare - Absorb (Listening) - Record (Taking Notes, Memorizing) - Review/Apply.

Relearning

Reacquiring knowledge that we'd previously learned but largely forgotten over time.

Read/write learning

Read/write learners have a preference for written words and gravitate toward readings, dictionaries, reference works, and research.

Recall

Recall is what we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval: it means you can access information without cues. For example, you would use recall for an essay test.

Reflective Thinking

Reflective thinking involves "consideration of the larger context, the meaning, and the implications of an experience or action." In other words, reflection doesn't just mean jotting down what you did or plan to do. It means considering why what you did or plan to do matters; it means writing to help you better understand something; it means exploring emotions, feelings, reactions, and knowledges; and it can even mean catharsis. Think of reflection as exploring the "so what" instead of just the "what."

Self-regulation

Self-regulation is how the learner recognizes and manages each of these factors. To be strategic about learning, you may exert self-control in the form of time-management, emotional control, seeking assistance, and/or monitoring progress; a learner who does so is more likely to be successful than one who fails to self-regulate.

Intrapersonal

Sensitivity to one's own thoughts and feelings. Noticing complex or ambivalent feelings in oneself. Identifying true motives for an action in oneself.

Sensory Learning Styles

Sensory learning styles, or modalities, focus on which senses learners tend to rely on and/or respond to best while learning. Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic.

Instructor Handouts and Note-Taking

Some instructors hand out or post their notes or their PowerPoint slides from their lectures. These handouts should never be considered a substitute for taking notes in class. They are a very useful complement and will help you confirm the accuracy of your notes, but they do not involve you in the process of learning as well as your own notes do.

CRAAP Test

The CRAAP test is a series of common evaluative elements you can use to evaluate the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of your sources. The CRAAP test was developed by librarians at California State University at Chico and it gives you a good, overall set of elements to look for when evaluating a resource. Let's consider what each of these evaluative elements means. You can visit the ACC Library's Web page for a tutorial on Evaluating Information using the CRAAP test.

John Ridley Stroop (Rockstar Educator)

The Stroop Effect, named after John Ridley Stroop, is a demonstration of the reaction time of a task and is often used to illustrate the nature of automatic processing versus conscious visual control. A basic task that demonstrates this effect occurs when there is a mismatch between the name of a color (e.g., "blue", "green", or "red") and the color it is printed on (i.e., the word "red" printed in blue ink instead of red ink). When asked to name the color of the word it takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink does not match the name of the color

Rehearsal

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.

Acoustic encoding

The conversion of information, especially semantic information, to sound patterns in working memory. Acoustic encoding is the encoding of sounds, words in particular.

Receiving Stage

The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage, which involves hearing and attending. Hearing is the physiological process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum. As obvious as it may seem, in order to effectively gather information through listening, we must first be able to physically hear what we're listening to. The clearer the sound, the easier the listening process becomes. Paired with hearing, attending is the other half of the receiving stage in the listening process. Attending is the process of accurately identifying and interpreting particular sounds we hear as words. The sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in context. Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.

Self-reference effect

The self-reference effect is the tendency for an individual to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance.

Thinking

Thinking is the mental process you use to form associations and models of the world. When you think, you manipulate information to form concepts, to engage in problem-solving, to reason, and to make decisions.

Evaluating Stage

This stage of the listening process is the one during which the listener assesses the information they received, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Evaluating allows the listener to form an opinion of what they heard and, if necessary, to begin developing a response. During the evaluating stage, the listener determines whether or not the information they heard and understood from the speaker is well constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, true or false, significant or insignificant. They also ascertain how and why the speaker has come up with and conveyed the message that they delivered. This may involve considerations of a speaker's personal or professional motivations and goals.

Daniel Goleman (Rockstar Educator)

Thought of Emotional Intelligence : able to manage own emotions, is capable of self-motivation and self direction, recognizes emotions in others, and is able to handle various types of relationships.

Unconscious incompetence

Unconscious incompetence: This will likely be the easiest learning stage—you don't know what you don't know yet. During this stage, a learner mainly shows interest in something or prepares for learning.

Authority

Understanding more about your information's source helps you determine when, how, and where to use that information. Is your author an expert on the subject? Do they have some personal stake in the argument they are making? What is the author or information producer's background? When determining the authority of your source, consider the following: What are the author's credentials? What is the author's level of education, experience, and/or occupation? What qualifies the author to write about this topic? What affiliations does the author have? Could these affiliations affect their position? What organization or body published the information? Is it authoritative? Does it have an explicit position or bias?

Relevence

Understanding what resources are most applicable to your subject and why they are applicable can help you focus and refine your thesis. Many topics are broad and searching for information on them produces a wide range of resources. Narrowing your topic and focusing on resources specific to your needs can help reduce the piles of information and help you focus in on what is truly important to read and reference. When determining relevance consider the following: Does the item contain information relevant to your argument or thesis? Read the article's introduction, thesis, and conclusion. Scan main headings and identify article keywords. For book resources, start with the index or table of contents—how wide a scope does the item have? Will you use part or all of this resource? Does the information presented support or refute your ideas? If the information refutes your ideas, how will this change your argument? Does the material provide you with current information? What is the material's intended audience?

Teaching Style Versus Learning Style

Understanding your learning style(s) can help you study more effectively. Most instructors tend to develop their own teaching style, however, and you will encounter different teaching styles in different courses. Students can benefit from having instructors who teach in different ways because it can help them become more versatile as learners and able to work and communicate with a variety of people. Variety can be a challenge for students who prefer to learn in specific settings. However, learning to recognize different teaching styles can help students adjust to them and still be successful.

Symbols and Note-taking

Use arrows and symbols to capture the relationship between the ideas. For example, an arrow may be used to illustrate cause or effect, a double-pointed arrow to illustrate dependence, or a dotted arrow to illustrate impact or effect.

"att"

Use signals and abbreviations. Which ones you use is up to you, but be consistent so you will know exactly what you mean by "att." when you review your notes. You may find it useful to keep a key to your abbreviations in all your notebooks.

Encoding

We get information into our brains through a process called encoding, which is the input of information into the memory system. Once we receive sensory information from the environment, our brains label or code it. We organize the information with other similar information and connect new concepts to existing concepts. Encoding information occurs through both automatic processing and effortful processing.

Effortful processing

What about the actual test material you studied? It probably required a lot of work and attention on your part in order to encode that information. This is known as effortful processing.

Remembering

When you are skilled in remembering, you can recognize or recall knowledge you've already gained, and you can use it to produce or retrieve definitions, facts, and lists. Remembering may be how you studied in grade school or high school, but college will require you to do more with the information.

Signals and Note-taking

Your instructor is not going to send up a rocket when she states an important new idea or gives an example, but she will use signals to telegraph what she is doing. Every good speaker does it, and you should expect to receive these signals. For example, she may introduce an example with "for example". "There are three reasons why...." "First...Second... Third...." "And most important,...." "A major development...."

Logic

logic comes from the Ancient Greek logike, referring to the science or art of reasoning. Using logic, a person evaluates arguments and reasoning and strives to distinguish between good and bad reasoning, or between truth and falsehood. Using logic, you can evaluate the ideas and claims of others, make good decisions, and form sound beliefs about the world.