Curriculum Brainstorm

Curriculum Brainstorm: Possible ways I could use critical and creative thinking, motivational techniques and cooperative learning in my job setting (teaching and research in university context)
Initial list:
Critical thinking

• observe and analyze instructionalstrategies of other instructors (determining what works well and what doesnot, in what context, what I can adapt for my own teaching)

• analyze and evaluate my own teaching, how can I improve it

• be able to see my role in the classroom from differentperspectives, especially the students' perspective

• help and advise students who are working on their firstresearch projects

• analyze research studies (what are the main findings, what isthe relevance for my particular question, what are specific trends)

• compare and integrate or contrast multiple views andperspectives

• find gaps in what others have found out

• improve ways others have approached a question

Creative thinking

• develop new, surprising ways of teaching

• modify strategies I have seen somewhere else for my owncontext

• construct interesting and meaningful tasks for students

• stay flexible in my teaching

• help and advise students who are working on their firstresearch projects

• develop and pursue new research questions

• be able to reconsider older questions/answers in a newcontext/framework

• develop methods/approaches to answer research questions

• derive questions from my everyday experience and be able tolink findings back to the "real world" context

Motivational techniques

• create an intriguing learning environment(with large and small groups, students with different backgrounds...)

• involve students in the tasks that are discussed in the field

• providing students (esp. in teacher ed.) with ideas how theycan use motivational techniques in school

• make teaching and learning more fun for the students and formyself

• motivate my colleagues

Cooperative learning

• discuss and develop teaching strategieswith other instructors

• create a cooperative learning environment for the students andme

• create tasks that foster cooperation and cooperative learning

• develop instructional strategies that support cooperative learning

• work collaboratively with others on research questions

Second list
Critical thinking

I want touse critical thinking strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
• observeand analyze instructional strategies of other instructors (determining whatworks well and what does not, in what context, what I can adapt for my ownteaching)	• PMI: What are positive/negative aspects of others'teaching, what are interesting points • FIP: What are others' priorities? What aremine?
• analyze and evaluate my own teaching, how can I improveit?	• AGO: Clarifying for myself what I want students to learn in my class • KWL: getting feedback from students abouttheir interests and priorities (this technique will help them at the sametime to clarify why they took my course) • Minute papers/muddiest point: Having thestudents write minute papers would similarly stimulate students reflectionand give me feedback about what points were least clear, what needs to beimproved • Summing up/Journal Log: summarizing after alesson what went well and what did not. I could prepare a summarizing sheet to provide me with a structure of the aspectsI want to reflect on (e. g. activities, feedback to students, moderatin ginteractions in class...)
• be able to see my role in the classroom from different perspectives,especially the students' perspective	• OPV: think about how the course was perceived from the students perspective, fromsomeone with low vs. high prior knowledge
• help and advise students who are working on their first researchprojects	• Graphic Organizers, Idea/Concept/Wordsorts, Classification/Categorization schemes: All of these can help students organize their thoughts and ideas as theyare working on a project • FIP/Main Points: What are the most importantpoints students want to investigate?
• analyze research studies	• FIP/Main Points: What are the main findings • APC: What other explanations are there forthe given results? (I think thinking backwards is another good technique tothink about other explanations for the results of a study) • Of course, the other techniques I listed for helping studentsto do research would help me also
• find gaps in what others have foundout	• Graphic Organizers: How are concepts/research findings related,what is the line of reasoning of an argument • FI-FO: What do I know, what don't Iknow?
• improve ways others have approached a question	• PMI: What are positive/negative aspects ofothers' approaches • Means-Ends-Analysis: What other ways arethere to get to the same answer

I want touse critical thinking strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
Ideas to add to my initiallist: • foster studentsunderstanding for the theories we talk about in class (theories on mediaimpact, communication theories) • support students in evaluating media theories	• Debates, ExamineBoth Sides of the Argument: These can help contrasting conflictingtheories. E. g., I could assign roles of theorists with opposing opinions to two teams of students and having them debate the positive and negativeimpac ts of television on children • Categorize and Organize: Oftentimes studentshave problems with the variety of media and communication theories. Acategorization exercise could help them organizing the theories (e. g. in agraphical way, like a concept map or Venn Diagr ams or according to given categories...) • Case based reasoning: Especially whendiscussing media impact on children it is necessary to understandthat media are only one factor among many others in the child'senvironment. Reflecting upon single cases can help understanding these multiple impacts and how they are interrelated. • Summing up: Theories in a nutshell, what arethe main points, what have we done last time
Ideas that did notquite match: • compare and integrate or contrast multiple views andperspectives	Comment: This is a critical thinking activity in itself that is part of many of thestrategies I have listed above, that is why I took it off the list.

Creative thinking

I want touse creative thinking strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
• developideas for new, surprising ways of teaching	• Morphological Synthesis: how can I combine old ideasto find new solutions? • SCAMPER Method: What ways are there tomodify existing techniques and ideas
• modify strategies I haveseen somewhere else for my own context	• Attribute listing: What are thekey attributes of a teaching style/strategy, how can these be transferredto my teaching situation?
• develop ideas forinteresting and meaningful tasks for students	• Brainstorming and ReverseBrainstorming: What would be an intriguing task, what would be themost boring task I could think of? • Creative Writing/Story Telling: Would helpme develop a scenario/cases for case based reasoning tasks I want studentsto engage in

I want touse critical thinking strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
• help and advisestudents who are working on their first research projects	• Idea SpurringQuestions: What happens when you reverse your hypotheses? What if the results meant the contrary? • Second Best Answer: What otherinterpretations can be found for a phenomenon/research result? • see also the techniques in the nextcell
• develop and pursue new research questions	• Attribute Modifying/Checkerboarding: How can a given study be improved, what questionsremained unanswered • What if? What if there were no schools? Whatif multiple choice questions had never been invented?
• be able to reconsiderold questions/answers in a new context/framework	• Metaphorical thinking: How is Web-learning like aboarding school? How is a lesson in school like an indigenous ritual? • Breaking Set: What would a universitylecture look like for a Martian?
• develop methods/approachesto answer research questions	• Attribute Modifying/Checkerboarding: How canI combine methods and approaches to find an answer to a given question? • Idea Spurring: What else can I find out witha method/test? How can I adapt an approach for my purpose?
Ideas to add to my initial list: • engage students in thinkingabout television impacts in my tv class	• What if? What if there was no television? What if our television program wasregulated by a central educational institution? What if there was noviolence/no commercials on TV? • Wet Ink: My children would/would not beallowed to watch tv because... • Six hats/Role-play: Students could assumeroles like: a tv producer, a parent who is opposed to/in favor of watchingtv, a kid, a teacher, a school psychologist • Creative dramatics: Role-playing of a case(maybe as introduction to case based reasoning...)
Ideas that did not quite match: • derive questions from my everyday experience and beable to link findings back to the "real world" context	Comment: • I think this is more acritical thinking activity that involves analysis and linking abstractknowledge with concrete experiences Techniques I could use are journal logs, findingpatterns, relationships
• stay flexible in my teaching	• I think all of the above techniques will help me staying flexible andconstantly changing and improving my teaching. I hope the students willbenefit from that because they don't see me reel off the same lecture thatI have given fo r 6 years.

Motivational techniques

I want touse motivational strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
• create anintriguing learning environment (with large and small groups, students withdifferent backgrounds...)	• I think by using the critical and creative thinking techniques, my class will alreadybecome much more intriguing than it was when I used only little of theabove mentioned techniques. Other ways I could think of to make learningmore intriguing are: • have students bring in their own cases, e.g. problems related to tv they have experienced in class or with their ownchildren having them develop a lesson on tv for school kids • use competition, e. g. dividing the class inteams and having them compete which team can think of more arguments in apro/contra private tv debate • have students apply research methods in smallresearch projects (e. g. content analysis of a tv show,interviewing elderly people about their use of tv...)
• involve students in the tasks that are discussed in the field	• having students carry out their own researchprojects could also help getting them involved in theories andquestions • inviting experts in the field (or at leasthaving students email them...)
• make teaching and learning more funfor the students and for myself	• include games and game-likeactivities (e. g. a communication theory Bingo, research/theoriesas a puzzle, development of communication theories as a scavenger huntactivity ) • use variety: e. g. show video clips, gettingan expert/someone from outside the class for a class discussion, havingstudents present topics they want to focus on
Ideas added to my list: • create a friendly trustful environment/community	• use icebreakers so that students and I get to know each other • give positive feedback before negative feedback • start every lesson with the opportunity to express issues,concerns • knowing and calling everyone by name
Ideas that did not quitematch: • provide students (esp. in teacher ed.) with ideas howthey can use motivational techniques in school	Comment: • Teaching instructional strategies will most probably not bethe content of my courses. I hope however that I students pickup some ideas from my courses. If I had to give a seminar on motivationalstrategies it would likely look like our class: Introducing motivationalstrategies, trying them out, discussing them, trying more, talking aboutbackground and context...

I want touse critical thinking strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
Ideas that did notquite match: • motivate my colleagues	Comments: • Training faculty also I think would not be one of my mainresponsibilities (at least not now). If one of my colleagues asked me for ideas, I would be happy to share my experience of what worked and whatdid not. I might even invite him/her to m y class...

Cooperative learning

I want touse motivational strategies to:	Strategies and techniques I could use to achieve this goal
• create acooperative learning environment for the students and me	• basically, I think almostall of the techniques we have talked about in class could help me here. Iwill pick out a few though that I am pretty sure I will apply: • Think-Pair-Share: very useful because it isquick, easy, low risk and works with groups of all sizes. I will certainlyuse this strategy in periods where I present information more in a lecture format or torecap last week's lesson. • Group Investigation/Coop coop: I have usedthis technique earlier although I did not consider it as a strategy. Ithink it is a great strategy to learn collaborative problem solving. I amsure I will use it again but provide more structur e and guidance to students as to how they cancollaborate successfully (e. g. assign roles, talk about group processes,have them reflect and give more feedback on how they do as a group) • Jigsaw: I have never really tried it butsince Curt promoted it as such a powerful technique, I want to see how itworks... • Debate: I think media psychology is a greatfield for debate because there are so many controversial issues (e. g.impacts of television on children, pro's and con's of violent action movies (one of children's favorite genre), commercial s, cartoons etc.)
Ideas that didnot quite match: • discuss and develop teaching strategies with otherinstructors	Comments: • This is not really acollaborative learning activity but more a general collaborative activity,that is why I eliminated it from my list.
• create tasks that foster cooperation andcooperative learning	• Since creating acooperative learning environment also involves creating tasks forcooperative learning, this point is only arepetition of what I have said already. So, I took it off my list.
• develop instructional strategies that support cooperativelearning	• This also is the same what I have already said.
• workcollaboratively with others on research questions	• Again, this is less of a collaborative learning taskthan a general task that involves collaboration.

Reflection Notes

My initial list is rather general. There are some repetitions amongthe statements (esp. collaborative learning statements) and some statementsthat did not quite fit in with the rest. When I looked at Curt's commentson my initial list I also realize d that I had probably misunderstood the task: I had brainstormed onwhy I want to learn more about critical and creative thinking strategies,motivational techniques and collaborative learning strategies, what thegoals are I could achieve using these techni ques. Curt commented more on how I was using these strategies,or how I could use them. In fact, this was an important question I had notanswered withmy initial list: How specifically do I want to apply CT, CR, motivationaland collaborative techniques I wa s talking about in my initial list? Whattechniques in particular seem useful to me and why? With my second list I try to answerthese questions. I took my initial list and for each of the goals I hadlisted, I thought of ways how I could achieve that goal. I felt that manyof the techniques we had talked about in class would help me realize the goals I had stated.Sometimes, I thought I needed to modify a strategy for my context andaudience. Sometimes, I had spontaneous ideasfor activities I would like to try with my class, so I jotted them down.

I left the main organization of my ideas in "critical thinking","creative thinking", "motivational techniques" and "cooperative techniques"as it was in the first list, althoughit is a little bit problematic because there are so many overlaps (e. g. acritical thinking technique most often also has creative aspects and viceversa, creative techniques can be employed for motivational purposes, andof course, many of them can be used in collaborative groups...). I kept the categories nevertheless because it is the organizational scheme we have used in class, and I think I willremember the techniques by this scheme, knowing that they are closelyinterrelated.

Finally, I added two new categories to my initial list: "Ideas addedto my initial list" and Ideas that did not quite match". The first one Ihad to add because I had not focused enough on how the strategies wouldhelp my students and enhance learning for them. In this category, I highlightedthe techniques and strategies I found particularly useful and that I thinkI will try when I teach my next class. The second category I added because I realized that there were just some ideas that did not match my newcategorization: Either it were not really goals I could achieve using one of the technique or it were repetitions of what I had saidalready, or I just felt they did not match for some other reason. For eachof the items I have taken from my initial lis t and put into this category,I have given a short comment, to help me remember why I took it off the list.