1. Finding Solutions Jim Valkenburg Delta College ATP Online Workshop Fall 2008

2.  The “real” issue for Humanities and Social Science students  Getting to the basics  Active/Critical Reading  Highlighting and marginal notes  Linking to learn  Eliciting responses

3.  Welcome to my nightmare  “ET go home…”  Initial contact  Why is the student here?  Establishing goals  Creative and Critical Thinking

4.  Creative thinking is defined as the use of divergent thinking, resulting in the generation of original ideas or solutions.

5.  Critical Thinking may be defined as the cognitive process of actively questioning assumptions, and analyzing, synthesizing and/or evaluating data, evidence or points of view to solve a problem.

6.  Creative and critical thinking engage the student  They increase awareness of possibilities  While goals in themselves…

7.  Check the book for use

8. Highlighting and Marginal Notes  Why highlight?  The benefits of marginal notes

9.  Did the student take notes  Were the worthwhile?

10.  A basic idea  Why take notes?  When are there too many? Too few?  Connecting to the textbook.

11.  Having the stuff is not necessarily learning  Using the stuff is closer to it

12. Electrical/Chemical Process At the Synapse Memory as a molecule

13. Hemispheric Dominance Right Brain – “Global” See patterns – the “big picture” Simultaneous Overview Synthetic Visual-Spatial Intuitive Timeless Motion/Music Left Brain – “Analytic” -Detail Oriented -Step-by-Step/ Sequential Processing -Verbal/Symbolic -Computational -Rational -Time-Centered -Language Front

14.  Sensory means used to learn new information  Four Primary types  Visual  Auditory  Kinesthetic  Tactile  Kinesthetic and tactile styles are also called haptic styles

15. Primary Visual Processing Primary Auditory Processing Primary Auditory Processing Primary Haptic Processing (Front) Primary Processing Areas

16.  Learning by seeing  Read to learn  Recognize relationships of objects in space  Can visualize information (words, charts and graphs or both)

17.  Learn by hearing  Auditory memory  Tape lectures  Low auditory preferences indicate use of other strengths  Learning visual cues or hands-on techniques

18.  Mind-Body Connection  Learn by doing  Flash Cards (self- made)  Must be physically engaged  Frequently move around while learning

19.  Mind-Body Connection  Learn by touch  Using the hands

20.  Focus  Comfort in the way one learns  Focus  Linking styles for more depth  Focus  Accessing Information  Put it in  Get it out

21.  The more ways information is put in – the more ways to get it out  Think about how one might access information via computer  Now forget it!

22.  The Brain “thinks” omnidimensionally  Connections – Linking Styles (Changing Formats) Audio Visual Tactile/Kinesthetic

23.  Visual and Auditory  Visual and Haptic

24.  Auditory and Haptic

25.  Haptic and any other style

26.  Open ended questions  The value of silence  Rewarding responses  Getting more out of the student

27. As you can see, I believe that most of the issues about tutoring the Humanities and Social Sciences revolve around basic learning strategies. Once the student begins to use good learning strategies, s/he should be better able to process the information.