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A Ladder of Thinking

The Science Teacher—April 2004

Introducing students to metacognition, or thinking about one’s thinking, allows them to discover the value of reflection. Courses related to thinking theory are often included in the curriculum for high-achieving students, but these methods can also be used effectively to enhance the learning of average or below-average students. This article presents a lesson on top-down and bottom-up processing, two of the main ways in which people handle information. It is designed to help students understand why they should proceed slowly and deliberately when making observations in a science lab or when answering questions on a test.
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