Getting Students to Think About Their Thinking


Teaching is an activity that requires a good understanding of the students and structuring of teaching methods that suit them. The best way of instilling knowledge to the students is making them develop an independent medium where they can think by themselves. This essay from https://essays-panda.com/ provides an analysis of how one can make students think about their thinking.

Today with the advancement in technology, many young people have resorted in computer games and videos. TEDEd teaching method is developed by way of video and animation illustration. Unlike the traditional teaching methods where students were required to read books, TEDEd videos are friendlier, since they encourage the students to watch more of them and hence acquire much knowledge. They also pose questions that make the viewer want to find more about the topic. Through the animations, students become excited about learning new things. For that reason, students can assess their learning as the videos do not make education complex. By such an approach, the videos challenge a learner to think critically and be inquisitive.

TEDEd videos are mostly short. To have a 50-70 minute video that is interesting and at the same time educative, one can create the videos by combining animations and other methods instead of having one mode of presentation. The video should also engage the students by giving prompts that require their input before progressing to the next part. As an example, one may see John Cameron’s video, which aims at establishing the causes of hiccups (Cameron, n.d.). The video which is presented by way of animations is entertaining, engaging, and educative. It also provides diagrams, which aim at stressing a particular point for the learner to understand what the narrator is saying.

Rubric creation is one of the methods that tutors use to make students easily understand lecture notes. The rubric is a series of choices that identifies the important points of a text. Instead of reading randomly, rubric helps a student to read with a purpose to note the key points hinted in the rubric. Every piece of learning scholarly writing has its objective. A rubric helps the leader establish the goal of the reading material and engage their mind on whether the text has met the objective or whether they could have followed a different line of thought of the author (Lerch, 2011).

Authentic assessment helps the students think beyond what is required of them in the classroom. Multiple choice tests are the activities that mimic lifestyle activities. Authentic assessment is a reflection more of what one is expected to do. These two methods also help find out whether the new students are making progress in learning or whether they have mastered the context. The methods help the students understand the real goal why they are learning and what they are studying. Authentic assessment provides an opportunity for students to assess themselves and be able to determine their level of understanding.

Tutors need to adopt teaching methods that help the students be more active in class. As Zvacek (2013) argues, teachers should use real-time activities such as blogging, online ideas, and wikis. These methods allow students to think about what they want to write. The other method would be a group work as it gives students an opportunity to communicate, reflect on the topic in issue, and organise their thinking. Synchronizing activities, such as discussion overboard, help students think about what they are saying as opposed to the traditional in-class activity. Zvacek (2013) argues that rubrics are essential for alternative assessment. They help in consistent scoring for whatever the students have created. To the teacher, rubrics help fasten the grading of students.

In conclusion, engaging students using real-time activities allows them to be much active and think broadly beyond the topic they are studying. With the use of a rubric, students can study with a purpose and work towards the objective of what they are learning. TEDEd videos and teaching methods are a confirmation of arguments as for applying teaching methods that enable students to use much thinking in the topic.

References

Cameron, J. (n.d). Why do we hiccup.[Video file]. Retrieved from http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-hiccup-john-cameron

Lerch, C. (2011, October 25). Creating rubrics [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgjBylERjV8

Zvacek, S. (2013, October 20). Authentic assessment and rubrics. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nNj27lPkY