Monday, December 11, 2017

Examining Errors in Reasoning

Examining Errors in Reasoning Element #18

Examining errors in reasoning is one of the more challenging instructional practices for educators.  It is difficult to teach students how to examine and self-regulate their own thinking processes as well as evaluate the logic of information that is presented to them.  In a recent study of the frequency of various observed content strategies, fewer than 2% of observed instructional episodes contained opportunities for students to engage with new content by either learning how to think more logically and critically from direct instruction about reasoning or applying reasoning to content texts and discussions (Marzano & Toth, 2014). 

Here are some teacher actions or behaviors that have been associated with an effective implementation of examining reasoning:
  • ·         Identify critical content for examination by students
  • ·         Teach students how to examine and analyze information for errors-or informal fallacies in content or in their own reasoning-through directly instructing, modeling, and facilitating
  • ·         Provide ongoing opportunities for students to identify common errors in logic
  • ·         Teaching students how to state and support a claim with grounds, backing, and qualifiers through directly instructing, modeling, and facilitating
  • ·         Provide ongoing opportunities for students to state and support a claim with grounds, backing, and qualifiers
  • ·         Teach students how to examine and analyze the strength of support presented for a claim in content or in their own reasoning through directly instructing, modeling, and facilitating
  • ·         Teach students how to analyze errors so they can identify more efficient ways to execute processes through directly instructing, modeling, and facilitating
  • ·         Provide ongoing opportunities for students to learn how to support claims and assertions for those claims in relationship to the evidence

There are many common mistakes that can take teaching and therefore learning off course:
  • ·         Failing to identify and utilize appropriate materials
  • ·         Failing to connect to related instructional strategies
  • ·         Failing to provide the necessary instruction
  • ·         Failing to show rather than tell
  • ·         Failing to provide ongoing opportunities
  • ·         Failing to allow students the time to process and deepen understanding

Examining reasoning cannot be rushed, especially when students are first learning how to stop and think about what they have said or heard.  Time is needed for reflection, and when you fail to provide appropriate wait times during which students can process and deepen their understanding of a response or claim, you deprive them of an opportunity to consider the appropriateness of that claim and how it relates to what they have learned. 

Please take time to review the desired result and rubrics that accompany this element.  The following link has more in depth information related to this element.  There is also a video at the bottom of the document that will show you element 18 in action in a kindergarten classroom.  There are also a few pdf’s linked to that document that you may find helpful. 
 

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