Increasing Students' Recall and the Patterns of Thinking Method

A couple of teachers using the Patterns of Thinking Method wanted to share some classroom anecdotes about how this method to teach thinking skills has impacted their students' ability to recall information.

1. One Head Start teacher explicitly uses part/whole (Systems) when introducing new topics or reviewing them later. She puts a large ThinkBlock in the middle of the circle and gives each student one medium ThinkBlock. She asks students to tell her one thing about the idea (farm, store, or family, for example). They go around the circle, each student placing their block inside as they name an idea AND naming the ideas that have already been placed inside. This becomes a game similar to "I'm going on a picnic, and I'm taking..." The teacher reports that her students recall of each other's parts more than they did prior to learning about parts and wholes.
   
   This is a great activity for accessing students' prior knowledge in a non-threatening way. Even left-field answers that don't pertain to the topic have a place in the NOT pile (identity/other; Distinctions) outside of the large ThinkBlock. Because every response has a place, students feel that their responses are validated and are motivated to stay engaged in the activity.
   
   The ThinkBlocks also facilitate classroom management in this activity. At the start of the activity, every student holds one ThinkBlock. They know that they'll be called on eventually and devote less attention to being called on and more attention to their classmates' responses.
   
   
2. Another Head Start teacher uses the Patterns of Thinking Method to transition from group discussion to individual work. For example, students create a birthday book for their classmates by drawing a picture of a birthday. The teacher wasn't satisfied with their drawings and challenged them to include more details in their drawings. She used Systems (part-whole) to talk about the parts of a birthday celebration. Her students had lots of ideas to contribute. Before she sent them off to draw their next birthday picture, the teacher reminded them that the parts of the birthday they talked about as a group should also be the parts of their pictures. When the students began their individual work, she heard fewer complaints of "I don't know what to draw" and saw less off-task behavior. The drawings included more details from their group discussion.

Have a story about how the Patterns of Thinking affected students' recall (or motivation, creativity, etc)? Drop us a line!

Neuromarketing, DSRP and Manipulation

Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies how your brain responds to ads and brands. Information on response to stimuli (e.g. marketing messages) is gathered through the use of medical equipment that measures: Heart rate (EKG), brain waves (EEG), and brain activation (fMRI).

Many companies are taking advantage of this new field of knowledge and performing their own research of consumer response to their products. What they are finding is that consumers generally respond to products and services that activate a strong emotional response. The implications are quite substantial.

To find out more about how this research is being used to influence our spending and reactions to messages, see our news article.

New to the Blogroll: First Grade Superstars

Check out this new blog, First Grade Superstars.  This teacher uses her blog to keep parents up-to-date on what's happening at school.  Keep up the good work, Superstars! 

If you've seen an innovative education blog, please add the URL in the comments below.

Ever wonder how DSRP fits into the "Big Picture?"

Peter Mason, Director of Marketing and Communications for Water For People  recently published an article in which he uses the Patterns of Thinking Method to deconstruct the potential problems faced with organizing and successfully building capacity for a community in West Bengal, India. 

When asked about the importance of thinking skills to solve any problem, Mason commented, "There is often a fine line between success and failure; but by monitoring, asking hard questions, evaluating, and most importantly thinking critically, you can create solutions for present and future success.  In this case the Patterns of Thinking Method enabled my team and the community to work hard and smart when completing this important project."

From the classroom to the boardroom...all the way to a rural village in the developing world, the Patterns of Thinking Method can be used to deconstruct ideas, identify problems and discover solutions that will work.

The full news piece is available online, along with links to the original article and additional resources.

Knowledge Changes...so does Breakfast

Here is an interesting distinction taken from a commercial about Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches.

Notice the number of planets, initially lethargic and sluggish, orbiting the sun?  How many do you see?  Eight?  You counted correctly.  This is a perfect example of how knowledge changes.

Originally discovered in 1930, Pluto was considered the ninth planet in our solar system.  This distinction changed in 2006, when the formal definition of a planet was changed.  Pluto, once a planet now not-planet.  Glad someone told Jimmy Dean before airing this commercial.