What does being educated mean?
30 Universal Learning Ventures That Will Challenge Any Student
All over the world, a. miraculous shift is happening in education, a shift from content to process. To make this easily approachable, we considered what kinds of activities any teacher could familiarize themselves with quickly in order to engage in this shift themselves. It was when we came across 30 Universal Strategies For Learning by TeachThought's Terry Heick that we knew we'd found something special. The activities he shares are geared toward the upper end of Bloom's taxonomy—exactly the kinds of universal learning ventures any global student can appreciate.
When we talk about placing learning at the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy, we're really talking about challenging our learners to develop higher-order thinking and creation abilities. These 30 universal learning ventures provided by Terry do exactly that.
In his article, Terry stresses that the level of challenge provided by any activity we give students is a crucial consideration for us as teachers. It is, after all, about encouraging our learners' highest development as global citizens and lifelong learners:
" ... to improve learning in both self-directed and teacher-centered learning environments, it can be illuminating to look past the activities, projects, and courses to try to see what sort of brain-level actions learners are performing. Like push-ups, wind sprints, and weight training are physical actions that help train an athlete’s body, what kind of cognitive actions train a learner’s mind?"
The universal learning ventures below are aimed at self-directed learning development and exercising the HOTS end of Bloom's Taxonomy. Use some of them as an instant mindset shift, or as bigger projects that can evolve into creating a critical solution to a real-world problem. If you want to know more, read Terry's article 30 Universal Strategies For Learning on TeachThought.
30 Universal Learning Ventures for Your Learners
- Challenge something
- Make an observation
- Draw a conclusion
- Question something
- Revise a question based on observation & data
- Critique something
- Explain the significance
- Revise something
- Transfer a lesson or philosophical stance from one situation to another
- Improve a design
- Identify a cause and effect
- Compare and contrast two or more things
- Create and test models and theories
- Separate causes from symptoms
- Identify the primary and secondary causes of a problem
- Narrate the nuanced history of a concept, theory, idea, problem, or opportunity
- Adapt something for a new need or circumstance
- Make a prediction and observe what occurs
- Examine an idea from multiple perspectives
- Narrate a sequence
- Study and visually demonstrate nuance
- Identify and explain a pattern
- Study the relationship between text and subtext
- Elegantly emphasize nuance
- Emphasize what others commonly misunderstand about an idea
- Critically evaluate a socially-accepted idea
- Extract a lesson from nature
- Take & defend a position
- Record notes during and after observation of something
- Form a theory & revise it based on observation and/or data
Where Universal Learning Ventures Come Alive
The very best platform for applying these activities and others in your everyday teaching is on Wabisabi. It's a place for you to build excitement and appreciation for authentic learning every day. Enjoy real-time reporting against your standards, and sharing evidence of learning in media-rich creative student portfolios they build themselves. Additionally, you can make use of our resources section to supplement your practice, where you'll find dozens of quality guides and posters to enhance what you bring to your classroom.
Wabisabi is more than just a place to teach and learn—it's a community of like-minded educators from around the world committed to students achieving their highest levels of capability. Join the Wabisabi community today and see the possibilities.
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