Tim Henley

Questions:

Is SWH/SI something you should strive to do every day?

Are there an influx of continuing education programs geared towards strengthening SWH/SI

concepts?

How much of the collaboration between teachers is negatively affected by differences in the

practice of SWH/SI? How does one influence a vested instructor who has done it her way for 30

years?

Connection:

Text to World/Self- This chapter dissects what we (as instructors) need to be aware of in

ourselves to recognize where we are in the implementation if SWH/SI. The stages of progression

in the 4 major skill areas of SWH strategies. Recognizing where one fits into the schematics of

these areas allows us to identify the growth needed to utilize SI to its upmost potential.

Concepts:

Dialogical Interactions: This is a critical element of SWH/SI. The ability for students to discuss

and debate and negotiate meaning is vital to the process. The building processes of information,
the restructuring of claims and evidence as well as the acceptance or non-acceptance of evidence

is key to developing the tools for students to become active learners

Focus of Learning: What we as instructors need to recognize is the point of what we are trying to

educate our students on: the big idea. When we plan our lessons, our framework needs to have

that end-goal in mind. We need to provide opportunities for our students to discover and process

the lesson within their own abilities and not provide them with too much guided instruction as

much as not providing them with enough answers, or the tools to discover the answers we want

them to find.

Connections: The correlation of what is necessary for successful SWH/SI translates to many

other areas and can be used with a plethora of other aspects of education and life. Language and

assessment and negotiating, amongst other aspects, when used proficiently and correctly allows

for greater understanding and developmental building blocks for life and education. The ability

to reason and argue and challengethe ability to speculate and theorize based on the proper

understanding, derived from the proper usage of language and communication and apply that

reasoning to completely different scenarios is what makes connections so important

Scientific Argument: This is the core of SWH/SI at its most basic level. Posing questions,

debating claims, refuting evidence all go hand in hand and the more the students practice this

type of complex thinking, the stronger they will become in the ability to do so.

What Did I Learn:

I learned that I need to practice all the time to better be able to instigate a proper SWH/SI

environment for my students. I learned that it is a process and I will never be perfect, and the fact

I can recognize that will keep me striving to better myself so I can better educate my students.
The more apt I am to providing the proper tools and environment for my students, the more they

will get out of any given lesson. I learned the value of feedback from my peers and that we will

work better, and grow more if we rely on education communally than we will individually.

Practice and constructive criticism, trial and error and experience is something to be embraced.

Summary:

One must evaluate ones-self accurately, and honestly, in order to obtain a proper diagnosis of

where they are at when it comes to the ability to create a SWH/SI supporting classroom

environment. Recognizing where you are at will guide you on where you need to go. Nobody

is/will be perfect, but always striving for a better understanding and better usage is the perfect

mentality to be the best we can be for our students. We owe them that.