http://www.edutopia.org/blog/3-strategies-promote-independent-thinking-margaret-regan
I agree with this article that planning labs, posing questions, and recreating mistakes to further process what went wrong can help a student better process what is being asked in a group setting. This is similar to what we do in our Wiki group collaborations when answering questions by adding and editing what someone else has already written. I like this form of thinking because it allows mistakes to be made and learning to become easier through team work. Lab work takes the pressure off of the teacher to have all students to complete the lab work and instead they are able to observe what others found and explore their thinking more clearly instead of starting from scratch by building on what someone else's work. These three strategies allows students the opportunity to learn at their own pace.
Great article!
ReplyDeleteI think promoting independent thinking/learning is so important in a classroom, especially at a young age. If children are exposed early to independent thinking, it may come easier the older they get.
I some sort of independent thinking/learning should be incorporated into every classroom. For the younger children, I think group labs would work the best because it gets them all working together to a solve a problem.
Ashleigh