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Nov 21, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terry HeickWhat are the different types of questions? Turns out, it’s pretty limitless. I’ve always been interested in them–the way they can cause (or stop) thinking; the nature of inquiry and reason; the way they can facilitate and deepen a conversation; the way they can reveal understanding (or lack thereof); the stunning power of the right question at the right time. There’s a kind of humility to questions. Someone who doesn’t know asks someone who might.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terry Heick Reflection is a fundamental tenet of learning; it is also, therefore, a fundamental part of teaching. Why it happens is a matter of humility. But how and when it happens–and with whom–is less clear. This is partly because there are multiple sides to reflection–length, width, and depth. A Z-axis. It is whole.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terry HeickI first encountered the 40/40/40 rule years ago while skimming one of those giant (and indispensable) 400 page Understanding by Design tomes. The question was simple enough. Of all of the academic standards, you are tasked with ‘covering’ (more on this in a minute), what’s important that students understand for the next 40 days, what’s important that they understand for the next 40 months, and what’s important that they understand for the next 40 years?
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learningby Terrell Heick In 20 Words That Can Affect How Students Think,, we said “Tone affects how students see themselves and their role in the learning process.
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Oct 12, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
We make lasting connections through play, but the role of play in learning is an idea that continues to meet resistance. Part of the reason could be tone. We like our learning serious, intentional, and academic. This is reflected through a parallel insistence on an outcomes-based learning system where learning objectives are determined and assessments are written before hand, and subsequent instruction is revised based only on data taken from said assessments.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terry HeickIn a profession increasingly full of angst and positioning and corrective policy, there are few ideas as easy to get behind as equity. Equal. Equality. Equity. Equilibrium. Equate. These are all fine ideas—each tidy and whole, implying their own kind of justice while connotating the precision of mathematics. Level. Same. Twin.
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Sep 3, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
Bertrand Russell’s 10 Essential Rules Of Critical Thinkingby Terry HeickFor a field of study that explores the nature of knowledge, Philosophy has had a surprisingly small impact on education. Most formal academic ‘platforms’ like public schools and universities tend to parse knowledge into content areas–what is being learned–rather than how and why it is being learned. This, to a degree, reduces the function of pure philosophy.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
Critical thinking is the ongoing application of unbiased analysis in pursuit of objective truth. Although its name implies criticism, critical thinking is actually closer to ‘truth judgment‘ based on withholding judgments while evaluating existing and emerging data to form more accurate conclusions. Critical thinking is an ongoing process emphasizing the fluid and continued interpretation of information rather than the formation of static beliefs and opinions.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terrell HeickIt isn’t clear what the original goal of social media was. No single person, organization, or platform could have possibly decided this. Once the framework of publishing content–in any constantly changing but not always evolving forms–was established, new standards for engagement emerged. At its best, the primary goals of most kinds of print publishing in the past were sharing ideas (new, unique, credible, propaganda, etc.) and creating revenue.
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Jul 31, 2024 | 
teachthought.com | Terrell Heick
by Terry HeickEducation is a series of learning experiences informed by policy, and actuated by teachers. Policy, by its very nature, is sweeping and ambitious. It is designed to work on various scales, is well-intentioned, and often difficult to fault on paper. The teachers aren’t really much different. They are ambitious, designed to work on various scales, and are commissioned (quite literally) to enact the policies that govern the institutions (schools) they work in.
