Chapter Eight: text review 

This chapter helped me understand the difference between critical and creative thinking. Critical thinking includes analysis and evaluation, while creative thinking involves imagination. The text also gives information about knowledge and recall. I have learned that recall is the ability for students to recall something very quickly with little to no issues. The text explains knowledge is information a student knows, this information is not ingrained into their minds, and if they want to know this information again, they will have to study to understand it. The text states, “At the lowest level of cognition, students are required to show that they remember the information and ideas that they have learned. Older students may be asked to recall difficult or complex knowledge, but the emphasis is on the individual student’s ability to accurately remember what was learned. As knowledge changes and increases, information becomes more complex.” 

The text also gives us information about what comprehension is. The text states, “In order to demonstrate that students know what the information they are learning means, at the comprehension or understanding level, the student shows they understand, often by expressing the material in their own words, sequencing events, or summarizing what they have learned.” It was fascinating for me to define a world teachers use in everyday life finally. 

The text also explains lower-level thinking activities the teacher can use in her classroom. The text states, “The teacher can use a variety of strategies for checking students’ recall and comprehension: putting story events in chronological order, scrambling vocabulary words, organizing information into a memory game, organizing information into a quiz show format, and organizing information using graphic organizers. These strategies can facilitate students working together, if appropriate for the learning task. Flash cards are another way for students to interact as they practice needed information.” This quotation brought back a lot of memories for me. As an Elementary School student using flashcards was one of the main ways, I studied. My teachers also used Kahoot a lot to motivate students. She made it like a quiz show, and whoever had got first place got five bonus points on the quiz we were talking about the next day.

The text also goes very in-depth when talking about higher-level or middle-level thinking. The text states two main ideas. First that “students are expected to retain information over time and to be able to use it meaningfully, it is necessary to move beyond lower levels of cognition. Higher level cognitive objectives require students to be able to a ted to authentic apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. These higher levels of thinking are better suited to authentic assessments such as projects, rubrics, and writing assignments. In the Emporia State University model, application and analysis are classified as middle level objectives. Synthesis and evaluation are classified as higher level objectives.” and secondly that “When students are thinking critically and creatively, metacognition can be helpful. Critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving require that the student use a variety of strategies. This flexibility in thinking is nurtured by helping students identify the strategies they used or attempted to use to solve a given problem, answer a question, or begin to create a new product. Encouraging students to share their strategies with each other can help to increase the students’ repertoire of thinking strategies.” These two ideas that I cited from the text helped me realize how important high-level thinking is to a student and a classroom. 

The text also explained why application is important. Application is less about what you know and how you can apply what you know to answer the question. For example, when taking genetics last semester, we were never given multiple-choice questions. We often had to apply what we knew to questions involving genetics. As well as being able to understand the genetics of a purple lizard with a red and blue parent. The answers were never straightforward and often required a lot of critical thinking to answer, which means the answer still might not be 100% correct. I believe application is critical in a classroom because students should not just know the information. They should also be able to explain why they need to know this information.

The text also explained why analysis is important to students. With analysis, students are looking for relationships between what they learned possibly two months before and what they are learning now. With analysis involves a lot of critical thinking because what they are learning builds on top of each other, and each part of every lesson is interconnected in some way, shape, or form. 

I was surprised to learn how important synthesis was in the classroom. But after reading about it, I understand why it is important or even essential to use in a classroom setting. The Text states, “In order to solve problems and to deal with information and ideas in creative ways, synthesis is a higher level of thinking defined by Bloom. Synthesis involves students in coming up with innovative ways to use the information and ideas they are learning about which may include writing, producing artwork, thinking of new ideas and strategies, or dramatizing concepts in ways that are new and original to the students. Providing opportunities for students to be creative with what they are learning is an important way to build interest and involvement in learning.”

And finally the text talks about Convergent and Divergent thinking. This was very interesting to learn and read about. before reading the text, I was unsure of what convergent and Divergent thinking were. I was also unsure of what they entailed. After reading the text, I realized that divergent thinking is just another way to say creative thinking and that convergent thinking is just another way to say critical thinking. After reading chapter Eight, I have learned different things I can’t wait to use in my own social studies classroom.