Students using e-learning tools to enhance and support critical thinking
By Kate Dare
St James students have been developing an understanding of and actively using e-learning tools to enhance and support their critical thinking. (Teachers have been participating in professional development opportunities in Terms 2 and 3 to support them in intergrating thinking skills into thier learning programmes).
Children actively using e-learning tools to support critical thinking is mainly occuring in the Year 5 and 6 classes in the school. For example:
- In Room 3, children have been using the thinking hats and voice thread (and its doodle tool) to develop their critical thinking about their writing learning (http://threedimensionalthrees.blogspot.com/2011/07/walt-clearly-and-logically-explain.html).
- In Room 2, children have used WallWisher in conjunction with the ‘Chalk Talk’ thinking strategy. For ‘Chalk Talk’ children must answer a question without speaking to others, but they also are not allowed to repeat any answers. This required them to think more deeply and critically about the question asked. This has been during the ‘Tuning In’ stage of their current inquiry (http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/OKK3NQqvrA).
