The Foundational Role of Metacognition, Organizational and Elaboration
Strategies in Developing Critical Thinking Skills in RDG 030 and GE 101
RDG 030 and GE 101: One of the main goals for RDG 030 students is to improve their ability to think critically. Remember at JCTC GE 101 is paired with all RDG 030 classes for new students. At the heart of and underlying GE 101 is helping the student learn the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become successful in college, that is to assimilate and adjust to college. Basic to their success is their ability to think critically in order that they can become successful and life-long learners. For the instructor that means that the students needs the knowledge and skills, and attitudes to become independent and self-sufficient learners. This requires that they learn how to make decisions and solve problems if they are to become independent. This is also true of the RDG 030 students for reading the kind of materials that they will encounter in entry-level content courses – primarily the textbook. At the high end of critical thinking in order to learn decision-making skills and problem solving skills is how to apply the information they are learning. Critical thinking is crucial to decision-making and problem-solving skills to become independent learners are the foundation of the course pairings.
Transfer: What research tells us know is that reading skills do not seem to transfer between disciplines for reading using skills and drill approaches in which the student is not taught to think about their thinking as they are reading or taught to combine metacognition with higher-level thinking skills such as application.
First-Things-First: It does little good to begin with higher order thinking skills until a solid foundation has been laid for transitioning the information being learned from the Knowledge level to the Comprehension Level. Until students learn information at a comprehension level (Bloom’s Taxonomy) think with the new information – tie it to prior knowledge, that is they can see the relationship between the pieces of information (organize the information), and can express the information they are learning in their own words (elaboration, here reciting), they cannot apply the information for decision-making or problem-solving.
A Quick Look at The Three
Levels Being Discussed:
KNOWLEDGE
· remembering
· memorizing
· recognizing
· recalling identification
· recalling information
· who, what, when, where, how ...?
· describe
COMPREHENSION
· interpreting
· translating from one medium to another
· describing in one's own words
· organization and selection of facts and ideas
· retell...
APPLICATION
· problem solving
· applying information to produce some result
· use of facts, rules and principles
SOME ASSUMPTIONS: The most notable mistake observed for both students and faculty is skipping building a solid foundation of thinking skills between the Knowledge and Application skills. (look carefully at the three level – knowledge, comprehension, application – above) Until the student has learned Comprehension skills which organize and tie the information being learned to prior knowledge the students cannot proceed to the higher levels of thinking and the main goal of the courses is to be able to apply information being read. Remember that Application refers to the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations – application skills are those skills necessary for transfer to occur and must be combined with learning how to think about ones own thinking. This may include the application of such things as rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws, and theories, but the foundation is understanding the information being learned well enough to express it in ones own words and to be able to think with the new information, that is it has to be tied to prior knowledge at the Comprehension level. Learning outcomes of application require a higher level of understanding than those under comprehension; however, it is crucial that the Comprehension level of thinking has been well established (organization and elaboration skills). The failure to do so is the major stumbling block to advancing thinking to higher-levels in reading and thinking.
KEY STRATEGIES:
The key Comprehension level strategies of organization and elaboration cannot be over done and should continue to be reinforced as the student move to higher levels of the cognitive domain, such as Application. If these thinking strategies do not become second nature, the student will drop back and simply move information from the text to maps reflecting the organization of the text without real comprehension, but rather instead, memorizing or learning well enough to recognize that they have been exposed to the information. It is generally believed that organization and elaboration instruction cannot begin too early and there is no end to it as the student progresses up to higher levels of thinking. That is the second mistake observed (first, is skipping building a solid foundation of thinking skills between the Knowledge and Application skills, and second failing to incorporate the comprehension skills and strategies of organization and elaboration throughout instruction in higher-level thinking. Concept mapping is by all measures regarded as the most effective of the tools for teaching organization skills. Below are the most accepted elaboration skills in the literature:
1. Asking Questions
Asking questions is the key that activates all the other strategies. Questions force us to think. They suggest ways of solving problems. They help us look at things with a critical eye. They push us to think critically, to analyze.
Ask questions continuously as you read, as you observe or watch, as you listen. Make it a habit.
2. Talking About the Material with Yourself
Asking questions leads to the next strategy: dialoguing or talking with yourself. You can do this silently or you can do it out loud. Many people find that actually paraphrasing or summarizing out loud helps them greatly in learning material that may be difficult or very unfamiliar.
3. Comparing and Contrasting (ex. comparison/Contrast, direct coping, p. 402)
In what ways is this material you're studying like something you know about? What does it remind you of? How is it different?
4. Visualizing
Creating a picture in your mind about the idea or subject you're studying
5. Transforming
Representing ideas with a diagram, a chart, a picture, a poem, putting it into a different shape.
6. Explaining the Material in Your Own Words
paraphrasing, summarizing, teaching someone else - the reader captures and puts own words the central ideas of the entire passage