Many teachers do not differentiate between preparing students to pass pencil-and-paper tests and engaging students to achieve continuous growth. When teachers are focused on teaching for tests, they teach content exclusively. When lesson are unrelated to students experiences, teachers engage them in building a new knowledge base. Here, they avoid reinforcing the previous background. Students learn that their previous experiences or how they obtained them must be disregarded. However, to help students develop capacities for continuous growth, it is not enough to develop a new knowledge base. Teachers must also help them understand how background knowledge relate to or control students’ knowledge development agenda. Background knowledge and lessons have different functions in helping to develop knowledge. To obtain new knowledge, students tap into background knowledge. In the process, they learn to engage and initiate changes in their lives. They develop capacities to modify and reinforce the core elements of their experiences from which they build new ones. When teachers fail to help students reinforce their background experiences, students do not build well. Specifically, to build knowledge, students engage their experiences. Where lessons and students’ experiences are unrelated lessons, they must first independently develop a new backgrounds knowledge. READ MORE
Core Elements of Experience
Teachers who focus exclusively on content often assume that students already have a background knowledge. Therefore, they do not consider what they must be doing to help students reinforce their background knowledge. However, many teachers do not learn how students knowledge base relate to lessons. Dewey (1934) explained that building one’s background knowledge or the core elements of one’s experiences is a continuous activity. The core elements of a person’s experiences are not fixed; they are always changing. In an experience, a person reaches into h/her background experience to obtain empirical materials with which to build new knowledge. The new knowledge is also received into the core elements of experience to reinforce it. Thus, the core of one’s experiences is established to produce elements that help create knowledge. background knowledge helps to create a new experience just as it is modified when it receives new knowledge. Specifically, Allison (2018) explained that to build knowledge, one engages in phases of thinking (knowledge development) activities. Allison (2018) and Wittgenstein (1927) identified phases of thinking activities. They include (1) perception, (2) analysis, (3) synthesis, (4) private, and (5) public thinking activities. The problem with traditional teaching practices is that they recognize only the phase of synthetic thinking activities. That is the phase of thinking where a person applies knowledge to resolve problems. They consider the phase of synthetic thinking activities as the only phase where a person develops knowledge. They implying that other phases of thinking activities are unnecessary and can be excluded. However, Dewey (1934) explained that a person must effectively engage all phases of thinking to achieve enduring progress.
When teachers focus exclusively on content, they do not deliberately engage students in the other phases of learning activities. Thus, a teacher may engage students in content but not in strategy learning. For example, a teacher may engage students in learning about content but not strategy. Therefore, students follow teachers’ leads, and many students do not develop their natural capacities to build knowledge well. Specifically, with traditional teaching, students do not deliberately model activities of the phases of thinking. They do not deliberately learn that their experiences relate to lessons or how to reinforce their background experiences. They also do not learn how to produce formulas to simplify a lesson, etc. On the other hand, CSCTL teachers know that to learn effectively, they must develop strategies. Students engage activities that help them understand connections among experiences, develop strong background knowledge, and derive and apply formulas to simplify lesson activities.
Content and Strategy Centered Teaching and Learning (CSCTL)
Content and Strategy Centered Teaching and Learning (CSCTL) is the teaching practice where teachers structure lessons to reflect students’ experiences. Students learn to model phases of thinking activities. In initial phases of thinking, a person thinks spontaneously and obtains a spontaneous object. In deliberate thinking activities, people engage to clarify and obtain enhanced objects. In structured learning activities, students are engaged in formal learning activities to clarify errors in informal thinking (knowledge development) activities. In spontaneous, deliberate, and structured learning activities, phases of students’ thinking processes and activities are the same. In spontaneous thinking activities, a person (1) perceives, (2) analyzes, and (3) synthesizes appearance to represent an object (Allison, 2018). In deliberate thinking, one models phases of spontaneous thinking activities to obtain enhanced objects. Accordingly, questions about phases of lessons are about the extent phases of lessons reflect phases of thinking activities. a structured lesson is about how much phases of lesson activities reflect phases of students’ thinking (knowledge development) efforts.
Phase of Thinking and Lessons
Allison (2018) explained that to develop and obtain knowledge, a person engages in phases of thinking (knowledge development) activities. He identified and explained the first three phases of thinking activities as (1) perceptive, (2) analytic, and (3) synthetic. Wittgenstein (1927) identified and explained the other phases of thinking activities as (4) private and (5) public. Initially, activities in the first three phases of thinking are spontaneous, not deliberate. A spontaneous object is not fully related to others, understood or does not helps to achieve progress. A person must think deliberately (model phases of spontaneous thinking activities to understand how objects relate to one another and help to achieve progress. The purpose of a lesson is to enhance students’ skills for deliberate thinking activities. However, only a few teachers learn about students’ thinking or how phases of lessons relate to phases of thinking (knowledge development) activities.
Correspondence Between Phase of Thinking and Lessons
Phases of thinking activities may be informal or formal. Phases of thinking and phases of lesson activities are phases of knowledge development activities. Students develop knowledge through phases of thinking or lesson activities. In both cases, students still think, going through the same phases of thinking to develop knowledge of objects. The only difference is that with informal thinking, students are self-guided. Here, thinking is based on one’s immediate needs, but with formal thinking, teachers structure learning activities to address students’ interests. Accordingly, the phase of (1) perceptive thinking corresponds to the triggered interest phase of lesson. The phase of (2) analytic thinking corresponds to the maintained interest phase of lesson. The phase of (3) synthetic thinking corresponds to the sustained interest phase of lessons. The phase of (4) private thinking corresponds to the personal interest phase, of lesson. And, the phase of (5) public thinking corresponds to the shared interest phase of the lesson. When a teacher structures a lesson to enhance students’ thinking (knowledge development) efforts, students learn more effectively (Dewey 1934).
(1) Perceptive Thinking and Triggered Interest
The phase of perceptive thinking activities is where one interacts with external occurrences, obtains an appearance, and triggers thinking activities. In perceptive thinking, one must be connected to occurrences to obtain an appearance. A connection between a person and an occurrence is necessary to obtain an appearance and trigger thinking activities. Perceptive thinking activities correspond to the triggered interest phase of lessons. There must be a connection between a person and an occurrence to obtain an appearance and starts thinking activities. Similarly, students’ concerns or experiences must be connected to the lesson to trigger students to engage lessons. In perceptive thinking, a person enhances thinking by avoiding distractions. Therefore, in the triggered interest phase of lessons, teachers must help students understand connections between lessons and their experiences. Here, teachers structures lesson activities to help students understand connections between their experiences and lessons.
(2) Analytic Thinking – Maintained Interest Phase of Lessons
The phase of analytic thinking activities is where a person produces elements characterizing an appearance. In analytic thinking activities, a person generates and marks instances characterizing an appearance. Thus, a produces the means to facilitates thinking and represent an object. Analytic thinking activities correspond to the maintained interest phase of lessons. Here, students produce and apply empirical elements (resources), facilitate thinking, and learn effectively. Empirical elements or Instances characterizing an appearance are necessary. They facilitate thinking just as lesson resources facilitate students’ efforts during a lesson. In analytic thinking, a person enhances thinking by reaching into empirical objects and obtaining the means to characterize an appearance. To facilitate a lesson, teachers learn how to engage students in learning about developing and applying resources of a lesson. Teachers learn about various types of resources and how to develop and apply the resources to facilitate a lesson.
(3) Synthetic Thinking – Sustained Interest Phase of Lessons
The phase of synthetic thinking activities is where a person produces rules of instances identifying the objects of an appearance. A person applies rules showing relationships among instances of an appearance. Rules of instances of an appearance are necessary to obtain the object of appearance. Without rules, the instances of an appearance would be unrelated and they would not be instances of the same object. Synthetic thinking activities correspond to the sustained interest phases of a lesson. In the sustained interest phase of lessons, students develop and apply formulas (rules) to understand the object of a lesson. In synthetic thinking, a person enhances thinking by applying rules of instances of an appearance. In a corresponding phase of lessons, teachers derive and apply formulas to simplify ideas to obtain the object of lessons. In informal thinking activities, students produce and apply rules to obtain the object of appearance. In formal thinking activities, students produce and apply formulas to simplify and obtain the object of a lesson.
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Presently, many teachers are still focused exclusively on content teaching. The result is that many children fail to learn effectively. To address this problem, CSCTL experts train teachers in CSCTL practices. Teachers want to implement the CSCTL in their classrooms. They want to engage students in content as well as in strategy learning activities. They also want to help students (1) understand how their knowledge development agenda relate to lessons (engage more effectively). They want to help students create and apply relevant resources to facilitate students’ efforts. And they want to engage students in learning to develop and apply formulas to simplify the object of lessons, etc. However, we have not been able to reach them all. That is because we presently lack the financial means to reproduce the materials and transport them to training sites.
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Free CSCTL Lesson Plan and Lesson Plan Template
We provide the materials in the links below free of charge to teachers interested in CSCTL. Let your teachers know about them. NOTE: While the material may be very helpful to teachers, they are no substitutes for direct training from CSCTL experts. We ask that you encourage your teachers to enroll in our CSCTL training courses.
(I) CSCTL Lesson Plan Template – https://nyites.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1941&action=edit
(II) CSCTL Lesson Plan: Explanation – https://nyite.org/1914-2/
(III) CSCTL Lesson: Classroom Practice – https://nyite.org/1914-2/
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Dr. Martin Odudukudu
CDOIL .org
