announcement…

sorry 4 those who visited dis blog & became disappointed bcoz of my shortage of posts..i’m creating dis blog jz 4 da purpose of education last semester.. dat’s  why i don’t update dis blog anymore..but i might use dis id to comment on my fren’s blog..if u wish 2 read more, u can visit me at my friendster’s blog through dis link: 

http://z-zirconia.blog.friendster.com/

do reply to me there if u’re free..thanx..

reflections on higher-order thinking skills

higher-order thinking skills require students to transform the ideas and infromation. the process of transformation occurs when the students combine the facts and ideas, then synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize or arrive at some conclusions and interpretations. this process allows the students to solve problems, gain understanding and discover new meaning.

higher-order thinking includes experimenting, inventing, deciding, creating and etc. besides that, a thinking classroom will allow oppurtunities for higher-level thinking, complex problem solving and opem-ended responses. in this way, the thinking skills are explicitly taught in a meaningful way.

reflections on critical thinking

besides creative thinking, there is another thinking skill highlighted in this course. i have learnt about critical thinking, the characteristics of critical thinker and the obstacles in critical thinking from this lecture.

according to Robert Ennis, critical thinking can be defined as ‘reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or what to do.’ the individual classified as a critical thinker posses the characteristics as follows:

• clarity
• precision
• accuracy
• relevance
• consistency
• based on logic
• completeness
• fairness and unbiased

meanwhile, the obstacles in critical thinking are:

• egocentrism
• self-regulated thinking
• self-biased
• sociocentrism
• group biased
• herd instinct
• stereotype and illogical predictions
• wishful thinking

reflections on creative thinking

from this lecture, i’ve learnt about the creative skills in the Secondary Shool Integrated Curriculum (KBSM), generic skills and the relationship between them. the creative skills in KBSM include:

• generating ideas
• making relationships
• inferencing
• making mental pictures
• predicting, making hypothesis
• synthesizing
• making analogies
• creating

meanwhile, the generic skills include:

• finding and expanding ideas
• generating and producing various ideas
• creating analogies
• creating metaphores

these two skills are related to one another. the generic skills need to be planted and the process will enhances the development of other thinking skills especially the skills stated in the KBSM. 

reflections on making thinking explicit and visible

from this lecture, i’ve noticed that there are some ways of making our thinking explicit and visible. as thinking process occurs within our mind, we can use appropriate strategies to visualize our thoughts. for example, by using graphic organizers. there are various types of graphic organizers but before i state some of them here, let me define what are graphic organizers. graphic organizers are ‘visual representation that show relationshiops among concepts, odeas, topics or story elements’ (Ross, 1998). that’s why it can be used to visualize our thoughts. besides that, it also:

• enables us to grasp main ideas easily and quickly
• enables us to see connections between ideas and concepts
• cause us to think in new ways
• develop higher level thinking
• helps us to think creatively, logically and analytically

here are some examples of graphic organizers which can be used in making thinking explicit and visible:

• Venn diagram
• word lines
• matrices
• concept maps
• pyramids etc.

reflections on creative thinking skills

from the lecture on this topic, i’ve learnt about some definitions of creative thinking skills, the facts that are always connected with creativity, the characteristics of creative people, the steps needed in creative process and the obstacles in creative thinking..

creative thinking can be defined as ability/efficiency of using mind to explore various possibilities to create something new, natural, extraordinary and precious, either it is concrete, abstract or combination. there are some facts which are always connected to creativity. they are:

• ‘doing your thing’ – it’s not a sign of one’s creativity
• creativity does not need high intellectual talent
• creativity is the outcome of one’s mental performance

apart from that, the individuals which can be calssified as creative pose characteristics as below:

• dynamic
• brave
• resourceful
• hardworking
• independent

meanwhile, the steps needed in the process of creativity are preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. there are also some obstacles in creative thnking which are;

• afraid of failure
• no self-confidence
• lack instrinsic motivation
• extreme judgement
• fail to incubate

 

still working…

i’m confused whether i need to complete this task or not..blogging is interesting but the problem is, we don’t have wireless connection in our room..it’s hard to find the time to manage this blog but i’ll try my best..i haven’t write anything for the reflections but i will, soon..