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You will start the processing of answering the following questions:
1. What is learning?
2. What is understanding?
3. How do we learn?
4. What are the different types of thinking skills?
5. How can I be a more effective learner?
6. How can we think about our thinking?
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Assignment 1: What is learning? What is understanding?
One definition of Learning: (Mark K. Smith from Säljö)
Learning as a quantitative increase in knowledge. Learning is acquiring information or ‘knowing a lot’.
Learning as memorizing. Learning is storing information that can be reproduced.
Learning as acquiring facts, skills, and methods that can be retained and used as necessary
Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge. (quoted in Ramsden 1992: 26)
Learning as making sense or abstracting meaning. Learning involves relating parts of the subject matter to each other and to the real world.
A simpler definition by Maine Department of Education:
“An exercise of constructing personal knowledge that requires the learner to be mentally active rather than passive; interpreting rather than recording information.”
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When we talk about learning at a deeper level, we talk about having understanding. Your teachers want you to achieve understanding that goes beyond remembering facts. To help you think about your learning to the point of knowing when you truly understand not only the knowledge but also the big ideas and skills, will perform the learning activities listed below. In Task A, you are going to “unpack” several parts (components) of learning to help answer the following questions.
•How do you know when you truly understand how to do a skill like play tennis or write and essay?
•How do you know when you truly understand what made the American Constitution such an important document for the future of mankind?
•When do you truly understand a concept such as why there are revolutions?
One response to each of these questions is that you really understand a skill, a fact and/or a big idea when you connect it to some other aspect of your experience and thinking while being able to apply it in a new situation. Being able to generalize to see connections and patterns also can be seen as evidence of understanding.
Task A> Learning || Read the above definitions for learning and understanding. Your teacher will “unpack” what the information means to help you gain understanding.
Add a new section to your “Learning & Thinking” mind map with a node for “Learning”. You will be adding information to help you understand what learning is.
Add a new node connected to “Learning” for “Skills”, one for “Knowledge”, one for “Ideas” and another for “Understanding”. Start your learning by asking friends, teachers and your parents to define each word. Specifically ask the question: When do you know you really understand?
Add a node with each person’s name into your mind map connected to your Skills, Knowledge, Ideas and Understanding nodes. Use the note tool to record each person’s definition. Then use the following sites to learn more about these terms. You have to use your “key word” search skill to identify important words that can help you gain understanding. Add your findings to the mind map. The last step is for you is to add a node to your mind map with “What I truly understand” in the center. Add new connecting nodes listing your responses. Then use the note tool for each node to fully explain how you fully understand.
•Definitions of Skills
•Definitions of Knowledge
•Definitions of Understanding
•Definitions of Ideas
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Assignment 2: How do we learn?
A big part of learning is taking new information and connecting it to previous learning. We look for patterns in new information that connects to what we already organized in our minds. True understanding often occurs when we can apply new learning to different situations.
Task B> The Process of Learning || Think of the last time you learned a new software skill. An example might be learning how to add bullet points to a list in Pages. Really think about how you learned the new skill. What steps took place as you worked with the software to really learn how to use it?
Think about what you did with your hands, your eyes and with your thinking step by step.
Start a new node in your “Learning & Thinking” mind map.
Put the word “Step 1:” in the node.
Use the note tool to briefly write what step 1 was in the first node. Example: Step 1: Opened Pages software.
Add a node to the “Step 1” node. Name it “Step 2:” and put briefly what the step was.
Continue adding nodes until you reach the step when you learned the new skill. Remember to add steps that involved your thinking. These might be additional nodes that branch off in another direction.
What is a life lesson that maybe your parents have been trying to teach you? Think along the lines of a conclusion you reached in dealing with family, friends, etc. around a certain situation. This life lesson might be seen as a “big idea” if it can be used in similar situations and possibly leads you to adapt it to a different situation. Follow the same procedure that you just did with the steps leading to your attaining the skill. In other words, what was the process of learning that lead you to the understanding of the big idea?
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Task C> Applying New Learning to New Situations || We really understand new learning whether it be knowledge, skills or ideas when we use it in a new situation. Think of when you learned a new public presentation skill for one class and then used it again in another (e.g., good eye contact). What about that software skill of saving and naming a Word document file that you now use for saving images, videos, sound files? Think of all the new English words you learn from reading books but then use in different ways in your daily life. Yes, you really have true understanding when you use recent learning in a different setting.
Your task is to write a blog post that explains how you learned one skill, one piece of knowledge and one new idea and then used them in new situations. We call this process a "transfer task". You really are going to need to reflect before you write the post.
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Task D> Asking Questions || Have you noticed that this WebQuest is all about asking and answering questions? Why is that ? :)
Questions make us engage and think for ourselves. You ask them all the time in your mind but probably don’t realize it. Think of the last time you met someone new. You probably were asking yourself “What is her name?” “Where is he from?” “Why is she smiling at me?” You get the picture.
Our curiosity and desire to learn leads to questions that start with: Who? What? Why? When? Where? They help us determine what we call “cause and effect”. In social studies we study the effects of laws, business decisions, religious leaders’ activities, etc. upon society. One of our main goals is to find out what caused those effects. Asking questions helps us do this.
Your task is to find a news story from one of the following sites. You are to carefully read the article looking for the effects of some action or potential inaction. Then reflect and then in your own words answer the questions of Who? What? Where? When? Why? in a detailed blog post. Once you have your answers, then use your skills of analysis and synthesis to theorize the cause(s) that lead to the reported outcome. List the author of the article and provide a link to it.
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Assignment 3: What are the different types of thinking skills?
We use different types of thinking skills to help us gain deeper understanding. A researcher named Dr. Bloom came up with a hierarchy (levels) that we call Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills that places all the levels into a pyramid diagram with the simplest at the bottom and most complex at the top.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Thinking Skills
The highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy involve the use of what we call “Higher Level Thinking Skills” or HOTS that make up the thinking skills of analysis, evaluation and creation. Our HIS Learning Outcome of critical thinking involves these skills.
Task E> Bloom’s Taxonomy || You are to review the following Web resources to began your process of understanding Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills. Add a new node to your mind map typing “Bloom’s Taxonomy” into the node. From this node, create nodes for Remembering - Understanding - Applying - Analyzing - Synthesizing - Creating. As you do your research, write notes using your own words fully defining and explaining each thinking skill. This helps you “make meaning” of what you read.
•Bloom’s Taxonomy
•Cognitive Taxonomy Circle (go down the page to review the circle for ways we use each skill)
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Task F> Your Thinking || Create a table in Word/Pages with four columns and seven rows. Starting at the top left cell, type in “Creating” and then go to the next lower cells to write in each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the second column at the top, write the word “Definition”. Then go to the right to the next cell to write “Example” and for the fourth write “How”.
Go to the “Definition” column to write the definition for each of the thinking skills. Go to the “Example” third column to add an example from your learning for each type of thinking. In the fourth “How” column fully explain how your learning example represents the thinking level it is listed in.
Write a blog post called “Thinking Skills” where you list two thinking skills, define them, give an example and then explain how your learning examples represent the thinking skills.
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Assignment 4: How can I be a more effective learner?
A big part of being a more effective learner means being more organized. We will cover this topic in the “Organizing Time” section of this WebQuest. To be a better learner, we also need specific skills in how we study. Your teacher will share specific study skills with you and you will research them as well.
Task G> Study Skills || Carefully read the following resources and add a new node called “Study Skills” to your “Learning & Thinking” mind map. Develop a list of skills that you put into your own words using the Note tool. Create new nodes for each skill to be connected to “Study Skills”.
•ASPIRE Study System
•Concentration Skills
•Homework Tips
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Assignment 5: How can we think about our thinking and learning?
There are two very important processes that help us think about our thinking (cognition). One is called Metacognition and the other Reflection. Metacognition is the thinking we do about how we are thinking. Are we analyzing, synthesizing, and/or creating? The first part of reflection covers more of what our learning is about. It is usually about the content and facts from an activity, book, conversation, etc. The second part of reflection leads to our thinking about what new ideas do we have after doing the activity, reading the book, talking to someone, etc.
Blogs are terrific tools for writing, reflection and metacognition. Many people find that reading blogs, making comments and writing in their own blogs is their best tool for learning.
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Task H> Blogging || Your teacher already help you set up your own blog using Blogger. You are to now read the following blog posts, reflect about what they mean for you and write your a post about what you learned from reading these resources. Name the post “Reflections About Blogging”. Remember that a big part of writing blog posts is about sharing your ideas in response to someone else’s. So don’t copy and paste except to directly quote. You also need to add a link to any Web site and/or blog post that you respond to.
Being safe online in your blog, electronic portfolio or e-mail is very important. As you write your post think about and list the rules you think students should follow to be safe online.
•Why Blog?
•How to Blog
•Getting Started
•Good Netiquette
•Internet Safety
•How to Comment
•More on Commenting
•Student 2.0: Student Bloggers
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Task I> Reflection About Thinking || Look at all the learning you did in this “Learning & Thinking” section of LearningQuest. Go through each task you worked on. Really think about what you learned. Write a very complete post about what you learned about “learning”. Name it “Reflections on Learning”.
Now go to Organizing Time
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