Critical thinking is often talked about as a stand-alone activity. Like some other individual activities, thinking critically may just feel good. Yet, critical thinking seems most useful when it aids other cognitive processes, such as applying critical thinking in decision making. Anne Helsdingen … [Read more...] about Critical Thinking in Decision Making
Using Students’ Questions to Check for Understanding
You'd like a quick way to check for understanding without a formal test. Something formative. Different. And maybe a little fun. As it turns out, Art Graesser and Brent Olde at the University of Memphis have discovered a great way to tell whether a person really understands … [Read more...] about Using Students’ Questions to Check for Understanding
Cultural Norms: Do they Matter?
In some countries, women are expected to cover themselves from head to toe. In others, bikini bottoms are plenty sufficient. In some places, baskets are carried in the arms. In others, they are placed on the head. Cultural norms are the standards we live by. They are the shared expectations and … [Read more...] about Cultural Norms: Do they Matter?
Do You Struggle with Indecisiveness? Maybe it’s in Your Culture
Indecisiveness is bad. Indecisive politicians are a bunch of wishy-washy flip-floppers. Decisive entrepreneurs grow great businesses (or at least fail spectacularly while trying). If a decision is a commitment to a course of action, then “indecision” is a failure to commit. Indecisiveness … [Read more...] about Do You Struggle with Indecisiveness? Maybe it’s in Your Culture
How to be Smart: A Simple Approach
Smart is in… And that’s intimidating. Most thinking people quietly belittle their own great brains. They envy the geniuses around them, wanting to know how to be smart like "those guys"? There’s currently a lot of confusion about how to be smart, what it means to be smart, and whether … [Read more...] about How to be Smart: A Simple Approach
What if Pigs Really Could Fly? Get Creative to Predict Future Events
Thinking through incredible scenarios can be productive if you’re writing a fiction story. But, surely it won't help you predict future events? Or, will it? Research has shown that thinking about outcomes you believe to be unlikely, yet possible can help you anticipate things to come. When we … [Read more...] about What if Pigs Really Could Fly? Get Creative to Predict Future Events