A good classroom teacher looks like a well-oiled student feedback machine. Student responses are analyzed, feedback is given, and the loop repeats. Whether this is done verbally in an all class discussion, or in marginalia scrawled on a stack of quizzes, good teachers know that giving students ...
Five Metacognitive Strategies to Change Your Mind
Everyday learning often starts with a surprise. Something unexpected happens and you use that to change your understanding. You learn the most when you use metacognitive strategies to adapt your mindset. Metacognition is what you know about how you think and learn. It includes knowing what you ...
Why Overconfidence Occurs and How to Overcome It
Overconfidence happens to all of us. Ever have a plan that just couldn’t go wrong? And then you get a kick in the butt. Ever know that something must be true, only to find out later that you had it backwards? Overconfidence is when you think you are more likely to be right than you actually ...
Critical Thinking in Decision Making
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 ...
How to Learn from the Internet
More and more we reach out to the web to get answers to our questions about the world. When we’re seeking to understand why oil spills, financial crises, and other major events take place, it seems natural to go to the internet for the latest analyses and reporting. The desire to get a grip ...