Discussion for February - Critical Thinking is Essential - TEDx Talk

Oh my TBR is huge but these sound good too.....

Definitely making sure staff see this TED talk and maybe use it with our students to understand what we are looking for. Next step is to plan a bit more on a lesson for EPQ projects and higher order questions I think.

I did think the demonstration of A to B in exam life as a straight line and A to B in real life as a winding, double-back, loopy line was so true. At least the EPQ allows young people to think more, although the time factor of squeezing this in is probably the reason many schools don't do it.

@dawnwoods2000 Yes I agree. Time will always be a factor which is why it is important that children learn how to do this before they get to the exam stage.

I am currently very lucky to have an EPQ coordinator who lets me run lessons and help students to develop questions and resource finding

@Elizabeth @sjbloomers It's always so much more reassuring when we know we have the resources to demonstrate the point we are making and answer the question we want them to ask.

@dawnwoods2000 @sjbloomers @bathgatew I agree if we know what students might be looking for it makes it so much easier for the school librarian. However it would be impossible for school libraries to have everything our students need so understanding our role as 'teachers of discovering quality' throughout the internet is so important. We need to make sure we understand how to do it effectively and keep up to date. It is so easy to be left behind these days...

I think that any knowledge that librarians can have regarding teaching practices can only be a good thing.

Agree with you this type of learning can only help us as librarians and often this type of knowledge builds teacher confidence in librarians

@sjbloomers @Elizabeth Yes, if we try to get it right and focus on what we need students to get out of any session we have with them, we will look better and teachers can have confidence in us

@Elizabeth Developing good questions is a fundamental research skill and one that all young people going on to Higher Education will need. It's also a skill that helps develop more general information literacy. I think it would be really helpful to build this exercise in to investigative work across the curriculum from an early stage. It's a great opportunity for collaboration between librarians and teachers and a way to open up cross-professional conversations about the learning process.

@Elizabeth We need to concentrate and not be so lazy formulating thoughts and we are probably as guilty as children. I know librarians are always complaining that people ask one question, when what they really need is an answer to another question. If we could get to that point sooner, it would be good. So if we slow down and go through the thinking process it will help everyone. Then perhaps young people will learn to do the thinking first to work out what they need. We need to concentrate to keep ourselves and them on track.

@dawnwoods2000 @bathgatew I agree that formulating the question is such a difficult thing to do. This exercise from FOSIL is a good way to start. It is from the Wonder part where the students have begun to think about what they know already and what questions they now might like to ask. I hope the document is shared properly so you can see it.