How Will They Know? Increase Transparency And Reflection

Presenter Information

Timothy P. Henkel, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Presentation Type

Workshop

Location

Harbor Hall Community Room

Start Date

10-3-2019 10:30 AM

End Date

10-3-2019 11:45 AM

Abstract

Are students aware that they are engaging in creative or critical thinking? We’ll examine strategies to increase student success though reflective learning and transparent design.

Description

A common goal across higher education is the development of creative and critical thinkers, even though various audiences may disagree on the details. Critical thinking requires an individual to use their understanding to evaluate new information in order to inform a decision. One engages in a process of reasoning moving from a starting point to a new and novel destination. Students often can go from point A to point B, yet may be completely unaware of the process. This can result in frustration by both the student and instructor the next time such a trip is necessary. Thus a key component in developing critical thinkers is explicit training in the process of learning and reasoning. Transparent design provides a framework in which the process is laid out and discussed. Explicitly identifying the purpose and process for meeting a specific task allows students to contextualize the activity and see relationships beyond the individual assignment. While transparent design gives the instructor a framework to increase awareness of the learning process to students, reflective activities give the student the opportunity to acknowledge the process and obtain feedback to become more self-regulated learners. Again, through explicit activities students can be guided through the process of planning, monitoring and evaluating their own learning. Research supports that increasing metacognition increases student success and development of critical thinking skills.