2010.06.29

Critical Thinking Skills was the beginning topic for today. It deals with following up the ladder of mental processes, each step up deals with a slightly higher order of mental engagement, as in higher order cognitive skills to make for a fuller, richer integration and use of the knowledge that is being gained. A crux of this method works with the hierarichal arrangement of cognitive abilities as established, or at least named, after a Mr. Bloom. This is referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy, which includes a Process Area and Alternative Terms. This is the type of material that has a huge amount of order and detail in order to be clearly understood. The six basic categories from simple to complex are as follows. Level 1: Knowledge/ Facts: collection of information Level 2: Comprehension: explaining this understanding of what information has been collected Level 3: Application: using the information and demonstrating the learned skill in another application or manner Level 4: Analysis: critical evaluation of what has been learned to this point Level 5: Synthesis: taking this built up information and creating something new with it. Level 6: Evaluation: the final test and assessment of the theme. Agreement with initial question, criticism of original question, variation or enhancement to original question. This alone of course does not clearly explain it all, for it is a many-tiered situation. We were able to do an example question search up this ladder in reference to a family tree of some cartoon characters that many people know (something like a Japanese version of "The Simpsons", only with many more related family members involved.). This is a most interesting process, and mind-numbing in the sense of I don't know how the students actually learn how to speak or write the language, for in this example there is copious kanji, complicated family connections beyond the basic (vocabulary I don't know: -in-laws, twins, triplets, quadruplets, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great grandfather/mother, only child, childless, divorced, widowed, life partner, bastard child, foster parents, adopted child, adoptive parents, biological parents, second cousins twice removed, patron, matron, generation, 'kissing' cousins, extended family, nuclear family, estranged spouse, etc. And I wonder if there are two or more terms for each item, in reference to uchi no or otaku no, but where will I find this information?), and it sounds like a huge amount of information for the basic knowledge level before one can proceed. If instead of giving students all this information it is up to the teacher's discretion, or else requires the student who needs this information to ask for it and the have teacher present it does require more knowledge than I certainly have. It came up as question of how many mochi balls will one of the cartoon figures ( a grandmother) make for her grandchildren when they visit on New Year's Day. Then It turns out she will make them for everybody else as well. And I guess for herself. Oh, then it makes a difference if you go to one's father's home or mother's home, and apparently in Japan it may be more common to go to the father's side, but maybe that is not always the case, and I really have to ask, how do I fit all this knowledge into these kid's brains and get them to say a correct sentence, much less write an opinion paper, or skit or heck, anything else? What does the test look like that I write? Am I subjectively evaluating them when I look at a poster three people put together, am I giving a separate test on all the kanji of the family terms, what? I suppose this is all obvious once one has done this for a decade or so, but it sure is a nebulous, uncertain and scary realm to be in. As they say, to be developed. We moved on to looking at a recycling sheet and discussed how we might put this into a teaching format. I am not sure how long a unit like this would or should take. I am not sure how the students got to this level of proficiency to be able to work easily with the structures and vocabulary, though part of the point is to get them engaged in the process. I am not sure what kind of a test format I would give them, and yet I guess we will find out as time goes by. In the afternoon we got together in our groups to continue working on our thematic unit that we are developing. The topic is discrimination. We are well matched in that we are both technologically challenged, so this will keep us both fully engaged while we scratch our heads.