AEE 412 Weekly Writing: Taking Content to a Higher Level of Thinking

In the text, Myers discusses how classroom content is put to reality by utilizes field trips. Field trips are successful when the logistics behind the field trip are well planned and appropriate instruction is provided prior to the trip. I feel it is timely but most effective to really time take to plan and formulate the trip in good plans. Myers refers to making sure the trip takes place in good sequence to make the information learned in the classroom make sense. I found it interesting how it was stated that students should be as familiar or exposed to the trip location through media for pictures as much as possible to reduce anxiety. I never thought about the added stress from a different learning environment effecting the students exposure.

Groseta discusses how a higher level of thinking is explained when the student needs to use the information for a purpose. A purpose such as, teaching another student or discovering the information and then having to explain it. I feel by working with the material in a different way than just hearing it more information is retained. The regurgitation and repetition of information makes a more impactful use of knowledge. A great way to incorporate this in the classroom is through cooperative learning in groups. The group dynamic brings a variety of backgrounds and approaches to the knowledge. Information is processed and looked at differently with new prospective. However, with group work complications can arise. Making groups smaller will help reduce these issues. I feel it is also important to state that the cooperative learning is also related to the hands on visual approach gained from field trips.

Questioning students during a lesson also helps to process information and reach those higher levels of thinking. Teachers can quickly facilitate questions to the students as a whole or individually. Not only does this keep students on their toes and thinking but also evaluates where they are at. Questions can be lower levels of thinking or higher. Depending on how the question is formulated a student may need to think more or less. I feel the level of question depends on how much knowledge the student has prior and where they are at with the lesson. With questioning it is important Dyer says not to move to quickly. It takes a student three seconds to comprehend a question but a teacher should not wait more than seven seconds for a student to start to answer.