Tony Ryan: Thinking About Thinking Ulearn08

Tony Ryan – Thinking about Thinking

Meta level

Big 5 for thinking

“thinking as an optional extra?”

learning is thinking is learning

o self-talk
o code
o focus question – key question that draws everything in
o assessment tasks
o thinking strategies

strong digital literacy component

colour partners


signal – hands up but talking – not listening

Paired interview – max of 3 questions
Intellectually loaded – not glib
A interviews B

How do you think?

B then interviews A
NO interruptions

Anal – logical sequencial

2 types of time – chronos – ceros?

Developing an awareness for their thinking
What are you thinking at any moment?
What are you feeling?

Becoming self reflective and aware

“sky is blue”
say it loud in their mind
MUST BECOME AWARE

AHA!!

Nod along
Impassive face
Say it five times using fingers

49x5
245
how did you do that?

LOTS of ways of looking at learning – no one single theory

Model your thinking – say it out loud
You model everything

“think buddies” – up to age 10. Bring a toy in (about size of hand) talk to your thinking buddy ( a physical thing – talk aloud for a start then think it – 3rd step is to remove the physical thing

become deeply aware of self talk

lazy intellectually – doesn’t think – instead use self talking

curriculum - what
pedagogy – how (4-18)
assessment – how well we have done
reporting –

get kids to code your practice – have them code themselves

handwriting example

bad good
blunt sharp
dirty clean
slopes bad slope good

brain stuff/ memory


synapes 10-15 years most important time to work on synapse - impulsing as strong as poss
get alcohol AWAY

stretch the brain
sparkle questions
assessment tasks should be intellectually rigorous