ASSOCIATIVETHINKING
Rationale: Tosparkstudentinterestinatopicbeforereading;togeneratestudent prior knowledge; to understand the four components of thought (words, images, feelings and physical sensations).
PROCEDURE: Theteacherintroducestheconceptofassociativethinking.“When Isay, ,whatisthefirstthingthatcomestomind?” Encourage students not to censor their first thoughts or to look for what they consider to be the correctresponseorwhattheteacherwants.Collectstudents’thoughtsandbuildfour categories according to the four quadrants of thought (physical sensation, feelings, imagesandwords).Afterthreewordsaskstudentstonoticeiftheyhaveapatternof associations.Readthetitleofthetextstudentswillreadandgenerateassociationsin all four categories.
STEPS:
1.Introduce the concept of associative thinking to students, “When I say the word , what is the first thing that comes to mind?”
2.Collectstudents’thoughtsandbuildcategoriesaccordingtothefour quadrants of thought.
3.After three words ask students to notice if they have a pattern of association.
4.Read the title of the text you selected to share with your students.Then ask them to generate associations in the four quadrants.
EXAMPLES:What comes to mind when you think of revolution?
What comes to mind when I say the title of the novel,The War of the Worlds?
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BuzzGroups
Rationale:generateideas/answers,re-stimulatestudentinterest,gaugestudentunderstanding
Procedure:Thesegroupsinvolvestudentsengagingin short,informaldiscussions,ofteninresponse toaparticularsentencestarterorquestion.Atatransitionalmomentintheclass,havestudentsturn to1-3neighbourstodiscussanydifficultiesinunderstanding,answera preparedquestion,defineor giveexamplesofkeyconcepts,orspeculateonwhatwillhappennextintheclass.Thebest discussionsarethoseinwhichstudentsmakejudgmentsregardingtherelativemerits,relevance,or usefulnessofanaspectofthelecture(BrookfieldPreskill,1999).Samplequestionsinclude,“What’s themostcontentiousstatementyou’veheardsofarinthelecturetoday?”or “What’sthemost unsupportedassertionyou’veheardinthelecturetoday?”Reconveneasa classandhaveageneral discussioninwhichstudentsshareideasorquestionsthatarosewithintheirsubgroups.
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CAROUSELBRAINSTORMING
Rationale: Isaquestioningtechniqueusedtogeneratelotsofideasinresponseto differentstylequestions,topromotegroupworkandtoallowforphysicalmovement.
PROCEDURE: Theteachergeneratesanumberofdivergentthinkingquestions- five or six questions that require more than one possible response (i.e., How is the atmospherelikeablanket?). Eachquestioniswrittenonalargepieceofpaper, leavingplentyofroomforstudentresponses.Papercaneitherbepostedaroundthe roomorcanbeplacedatatable.Thestudentsarethenputintosmallgroups(3to5 studentspergroup).Eachgroupisassignedamagicmarker.Thegroupthenmoves to one of the papers and begins to generate responses to the question. One student can record the group’s responses. After two or three minutes the teacher asks the students to finish and instructs the students to move to the next question. Students shouldfirstreadthepreviousresponsesandthenusetheirtimetogenerateandrecord newideasortoexpandonexistingideas.Studentsareencouragedtothinkquicklyto changerecordersateachstation.Aftereachgrouphasvisitedallofthestationsand hasreturnedtotheiroriginalstation,theysummarizetheideaswrittendownbytheir classmates.Analternativepossibilityforstudentsindividuallyistowalkaroundthe gallery and reflect on the generated ideas.
STEPS:
1. Teacher generates questions for students to answer.
2. Students divide into small groups. Each group uses a different color marker to record ideas.
3. Each group is positioned at each station for 3 - 5 minutes during which time students generate and record responses.
4. When the time ends, groups rotate to the next question (or the question rotates to the group). Students read the new question, read the previous responses and either develop new ideas or expand on existing ideas as quickly as possible.
5. Either ask each group to summarize the response at their first station or encourage students to walk around the gallery reading and reflecting on the ideas.
EXAMPLES:Chart forStation One (Metaphor)
Select one; give three reasons why.
How is a natural resource like a video store? How is a natural resource like a roller coaster?
Chart for StationTwo (Visualizing)
Icons are visual symbols which represent ideas. Forexample,apictureofawheelchairrepresents ahandicap.Identifythreenaturalresourcesand create two icons for each.
Chart for StationThree (Classifying)
Group and Label - examine the following list. Place the things in groups and label them.Use your grouping and labeling to develop a classification system which will explain different categories and natural resources.
air sand / sunshine oil / waterfalls wingwhales
gas / humans
iron ore / trees
flowers
river / tuna / copper
beavers
aluminum / deer
timer / buffalo
waterfalls
kaolin
shrimp / lakes
rain / nickel
beaches
snow / magnesium / oysters
Chart for Station Four (Creativity)
Write a cinquain poem for one natural resource. The form is as follows:
Noun
Two adjectives
Three action verbs
Four word sentence
Noun
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Circleof Voices
Rationale:generateideas,developlisteningskills,haveallstudentsparticipate,equalizelearning environment
Procedure:Thismethodinvolvesstudentstakingturnstospeak.Studentsformcirclesoffouror five. Givestudentsatopic,andallowthemafewminutestoorganizetheirthoughtsaboutit.Thenthediscussionbegins,witheachstudenthavinguptothreeminutes(orchooseadifferentlength)of uninterruptedtimetospeak.Duringthistime,nooneelseisallowedtosayanything.Aftereveryone hasspokenonce,openthefloorwithinthesubgroupforgeneraldiscussion.Specifythatstudents shouldonlybuildonwhatsomeoneelsehassaid,not ontheirownideas;also,atthispoint,they shouldnotintroducenewideas(BrookfieldPreskill,1999).
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Creative Scenarios and Simulations
Rationale: To encourage students to extrapolate beyond the information they receive in class. To stimulate creative and original thinking by forcing students to look at their knowledge from a new perspective.To foster a greater awareness of the interdependence of theories and facts. Creative scenarios and simulations can also be used to make students more active in their learning and to increase their research skills.
Procedure: Creative scenarios and simulations are connected by the fact that they both depend on counter-factual assumptions. In addition, both often combine several aspects of role-playing and case studies. In creative scenarios, students are familiarized with a particular configuration of knowledge and reality. The instructor then specifies a hypothetical change to this configuration and asks the students to discuss the effects of this change on a specific area of interest. In simulations, students are put in situations which are set up to be analogous to “real” situations of interest to the course. Students are then asked to act out the simulation as if it were the real thing.
Examples of Scenarios: In a public health class on hospitals, the class studied the various factors influencing the economics of their operation. The class was then asked to work out what the effects would be on those economics if a cheap vaccination against AIDS were developed tomorrow.
Students in a geography class were studying the impact of nuclear radiation on ecosystems. They were asked to predict what the effects would have been had Chernobyl’s reactor melted down into the ground water underneath the reactor core.
Examples of Simulations: Students in a business class were studying entrepreneurship. As their final project for the semester, they were asked to simulate how they would go about starting their own company. Students were put into groups and told that they had a set amount of venture capital to work with. They then took whatever steps they thought wisest to establish their own company and turn it into a profit-making entity. They had to develop a comprehensive plan which included what product they would manufacture, who would manufacture it, how much it would cost, how they would finance production, how they would hire personnel, how they would market their product, and how they would manage their company. In one class, the professor arranged with a private venture capital company to actually provide funding in the specified amount to the group that came up with the best plan.
Students in an upper division engineering class were asked to write up their final projects as if they were being submitted to a journal for publication in order to practice professional writing within the discipline. They were allowed to choose which journal they would like to submit their results to; then they had to study that journal to discover what kinds of articles it accepted and what the rules concerning format and submissions were. Finally, they wrote their article following the standards they themselves had discovered.
In a math course, the students often played Math Jeopardy in lieu of a quiz. The instructor provided a list of three math topics such as Wacky Integrals, Simple Proofs, and Limits, as well as one non-math topic such as Bay Area Trivia or Famous Dead Rock Stars. Math questions were assigned dollar values of $10, $25, $50, or $100, while the non-math questions were worth $1, $5, $10, or $15. Students would take turns picking questions, then everyone would be given five minutes or so to write down an answer. The game would end after ten questions were picked and answered. The instructor found this game helpful not only as a fun learning tool for the students, but as an informational device for his teaching. If all of one topic disappeared quickly, then he was confident that the students understood that subject. If another topic remained virtually untouched, then he knew what he needed to discuss in the next section.
In an upper division biology class, students were assigned journal articles to read either individually or in small groups. They were then asked to design the next step of experiments that would further this research topic and present their work in the form of a mini-grant proposal.
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FACTSTORMING
Rationale: Like brainstorming it is a technique used to generate as many facts as one can related to a particular divergent thinking question.
PROCEDURE:The students are organized into small groups.The teacher poses a question, i.e., names of natural resources. The students select a recorder for the group and generate as many responses as they can in a designated period of time.
STEPS:
1. The teacher organizes students into groups of 3 to 5.
2. The teacher reviews the rules for brainstorming.
3. Each group selects a recorder (or two).
4. The teacher asks a divergent thinking question with many possible correct responses.
5. Students generate as many facts as they can.
EXAMPLE:List all that you know aboutWorld War II. How many geoic shapes can you name?
How many geometric shapes can you name?
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Fishbowl
Rationale:observegroupinteraction,providerealillustrationsforconcepts,provideopportunity foranalysis
Procedure:Thismethodinvolvesonegroupobservinganothergroup.Thefirstgroupformsa circle andeitherdiscussesanissueortopic,doesaroleplay,orperformsabriefdrama.Thesecondgroup formsacirclearoundtheinnergroup.Dependingontheinnergroup’staskandthecontextofyour course,theoutergroupcanlookforthemes,patterns,soundnessofargument,etc.,intheinner group’sdiscussion,analyzetheinnergroup’sfunctioningasagroup,or simplywatchandcommenton theroleplay.Debriefwithbothgroupsattheendina plenarytocapturetheirexperiences.SeeJaques(2000)forseveralvariationsonthistechnique.
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GIVEONE,GETONE
Rationale: Isatechniqueusedtoinitiatephysicalmovementtopromotestudents to think divergently and to generate many ideas quickly.
PROCEDURE: Theteacherposesaquestionandasksthestudentstorecordtwo responses.Theteacherthenasksthestudentstostandupandmovearoundtheroom tomakeconnectionswithotherstudents’responses.Eachtimeastudent“connects” withanewstudent,heneedstogivethestudentadifferentideaandgetanotheridea in return (new ideas should be added to student’s original list). If both participants havethesameideas,theyneedtoworktogethertogenerateanewidea.Theythen cancontinuetheirjourneyconnectingwithotherstudents.Theteacherprovidesthe students with a goal for the number of different ideas to collect and a time limit withinwhichtheyhavetocollectthem.Itisimportantthatstudentsareremindedto workwithonlyonestudentatatime(beforetheymovetoanotherstudent).Students shouldnotformsmallgroupstocollectideas.Thepointofthestrategyisforstudents to meet other students and to move from one person to another sharing and revising ideas.
STEPS:
1. Teacher poses a question.
2. Students generate two ideas.
3. Teacher establishes a goal (number of ideas and a time limit - time to collect ideas).
4. Students stand up and “connect” with another student only to give an idea and get a new idea.
5. If they both have similar ideas, they need to brainstorm together to generate a new idea.
6. Students return to their seats (they can share ideas in small groups and try to generate two or three additional new ideas).
7. Teacher collects and records ideas to be examined and explored.
EXAMPLE:Howisa leaflikeafactory?Generatetwoideas.Movearoundthe roomsharingideasuntilyouhavegivenandcollectedsix additional ideasintwominutes.
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KINDLING
Rationale: Isatechniqueforpromotingparticipation,deepthought,communication, and cooperative work.
PROCEDURE: LikeT.P.S.theteacherposesaquestionforstudentstothinkabout. Instead of sharing with neighbors, however, students “jot down.” scribble, or draw theirresponsestothequestionintheir“WritetoLearn”or“ThinkingLogs.” The studentsnowsharetheirideaseitherwithneighborsorwithasmallgroup.Thestudents can compare their ideas with others, critique their ideas, generate new ideas, or draw conclusionsfromeveryone’sresponses.Theteachercollectsandrecordsstudentideas on the board so they can be examined and explored further.
1.Teacher poses a question.
2.Students think about the question.
3.Students record ideas in “write to learn” or “thinking log book.”
4.Students share their responses in pairs or small groups.
5.Students look for similarities between responses, critique ideas, generate new ideas or draw conclusions.
6.Teacher collects and records ideas so they can be examined and explored further in class.
EXAMPLES:
- Imagine you came back to America 300 years later to discover it was no longer a great power. What dosuppose caused this change of power? Share your ideas withaneighborandgenerate one new idea together.
- Thinkaboutatimewhenyou were really scared. Share your ideas with a neighbor. Whatcanwelearnfromyour experiencethatwecanuseas writers to make fear grow in our stories.
- Think for a moment about what you know about the circulatory system and what youknowaboutblood.Share yourideaswithaneighbor.+ same idea; different idea
- Here are two factoringproblems(give2). What differences do you notebetween the two? Jot down thoughts and ideas. Meet withaneighborandcompare your ideas and explain how you would solve theproblems.
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RotatingTrios
Rationale:introducestudentstomanyoftheirpeers,generateideas
Procedure:Thisstrategyinvolvesstudentsdiscussingissueswithmanyoftheirfellowclassmatesin turn.Beforehand,preparediscussionquestions.In class,studentsformtrios,withthegroupsarranged inalargecircleorsquareformation.Givethestudentsaquestionandsuggestthateachpersontakea turnanswering.Aftera suitabletimeperiod,askthetriostoassigna0,1, or2toeachofitsmembers. Thendirectthe#1storotateonetrioclockwise,the#2storotatetwotriosclockwise,andthe#0sto remaininthesameplace;theresultwillbecompletelynewtrios.Nowintroduceanew,slightlymore difficultquestion.Rotatetriosandintroducenewquestionsas manytimesasyouwouldlike (Silberman,1996).
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SnowballGroups/Pyramids
Rationale:generatewell-vettedideas,narrowatopic,developdecision-makingskills
Procedure:Thismethodinvolvesprogressivedoubling:studentsfirstworkalone,theninpairs,then
in fours,andsoon. In mostcases,afterworkingin fours,studentscometogetherforaplenarysession inwhichtheirconclusionsorsolutionsarepooled.Provideasequenceofincreasinglycomplextasksso thatstudentsdonotbecomeboredwithrepeateddiscussionatmultiplestages.Forexample,have studentsrecorda fewquestionsthatrelatetotheclasstopic.Inpairs,studentstrytoanswerone another’squestions.Pairsjointogethertomakefoursandidentify,dependingonthetopic,either unansweredquestionsorareasofcontroversyorrelevantprinciplesbasedontheirprevious discussions.Backinthelargeclassgroup,onerepresentativefromeachgroupreportsthegroup’s conclusions(Habeshawetal,1984;Jaques,2000).
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Think-Pair-Share
Rationale:generateideas,increasestudents’confidenceintheiranswers,encouragebroad participationinplenarysession
Procedure:Thisstrategyhasthreesteps.First,studentsthinkindividuallyaboutaparticularquestion orscenario.Thentheypairuptodiscussandcomparetheirideas.Finally,theyaregiventhechanceto sharetheirideasinalargeclassdiscussion.
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