Teaching Phenomena

EdTech AI: SocraCircle+ and the Power of Human Connection

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:16:10 GMT

AI’s New Role in the Classroom

Educators today find themselves at the crossroads of a technological revolution. Artificial intelligence is rapidly making its way into classrooms, promising to save time and personalize learning. From AI tools that generate quiz questions on the fly to algorithms that auto-grade assignments, the education technology (EdTech) space is crowded with solutions focused on content generation and automation. These tools largely aim to streamline teaching tasks – helping teachers create materials faster or giving students instant practice and feedback. Yet amid this boom, a critical question arises: are we merely using AI to do more of the same in education, or can it truly transform the environment where students learn?

As Francis Vigeant, CEO of KnowAtom, warns, “In many of today’s edtech tools, AI is used to help teachers or students do more of the same – create faster, polish more, or inject more content and scripted Q&A… but more of the same simply produces more of the same outcomes”. In other words, if we use AI only to speed up or create more traditional tasks, we shouldn’t expect different results in student learning.

Learning Occurs at the Point of Challenge

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 14:25:36 GMT

In our book club discussion on chapter seven of Dr. R. Ritchhart’s book, Cultures of Thinking in Action, we discuss the importance of challenging our students in the classroom, balancing direct instruction versus inquiry-based learning, and helping students change their mindset about failure – by turning mistakes into learning opportunities. We also think more about how our own beliefs about struggle, challenge, and failure impact both teaching methods and student outcomes. Finally, we identify ways to support student-led inquiry and discuss how building critical thinking skills in the classroom is one of the most important opportunities we can provide students to support their success outside of it.

Learning and Thinking as a Collective Enterprise - Mindset 6

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:05:16 GMT

“We are built to collaborate,” writes Dr. R. Ritchhart in his book Cultures of Thinking in Action. In this chapter of the book, the author discusses the importance of promoting authentic collaboration in education. “(I)deas get better when they are challenged, discussed, explored, and generally given a good workout. And yet schools tend to see learning as an individual endeavor built on compliance and competition and punctuated by awards, prizes, and levels of attainment (Elmore 2019).”

In the U.S., traditional teaching methods and perspectives on the roles of students and teachers have made learning seem more like an individual race to the finish than a team sport. How can educators change that in today’s classrooms? One way is to consider a mindset change to: Learning and Thinking Are as much a Collective Enterprise as They Are an Individual Endeavor.

If you haven’t already had a chance to review our discussions on Chapters 1-5 of Cultures of Thinking in Action, you can take a look at the first five sessions of this teacher’s book club series.

Making Learning a Collective Endeavor in our Classrooms

When you enter a classroom in the U.S. today, there’s a good chance you will see students working together on a group assignment. Over the past 10 years, educators have identified the importance of building skills like small group communication and collaboration in the classroom, no matter what subject they teach. But are all group projects providing the same type of collaboration between students? How can we distinguish between a true learning group and a group of students who are just working together to complete an assignment?

Learning is a Consequence of Thinking - Mindset 5

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:41:35 GMT

The description of Mindset 5 from Dr. Ron Ritchhart’s Cultures of Thinking in Action comes from a quote from David Perkin’s book Smart Schools (1992), “Learning is a consequence of thinking. Retention, understanding, and the active use of knowledge can be brought about only by learning experiences in which learners think about and think with what they are learning.”

According to author Dr. R. Ritchhart, the mindset ‘Learning is a consequence of thinking’ offers a good reminder of why teachers and students “should care about thinking.” No matter how long educators spend building curriculums and designing lessons, it’s the disposition and what our students can perform after they leave our classroom that matters most. To help students build the skills and understanding they need to become effective life-long learners, we need to consider two key questions related to Mindset 5: Learning is a consequence of thinking:

How are understanding and knowledge different?
What types of thinking are needed to build understanding?

Before you jump into hearing more about what KnowAtom’s team thinks about Mindset 5, take a look at the detailed teacher discussions of Mindsets 1-4 in this online book club series.

Key differences between knowledge and understanding

With Mindset 5, Dr. R. Ritchhart asks readers to reflect on the importance of thinking in the classroom, and how a focus on thinking leads students towards gaining a better understanding of the subjects we teach. What are the distinctions that can be made between gathering knowledge and gaining an understanding? In this chapter, we find numerous examples and findings from cognitive science that show how thinking deeper connects to understanding.

Students Learn Best When Known, Valued, & Respected by All - Mindset 4

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 15:53:08 GMT

What can teachers do to set their students up for success in the classroom? In the book Cultures of Thinking in Action, educator and researcher Dr. Ron Ritchhart shares the idea that: ‘Students Learn Best When Known, Valued, and Respected by Both the Adults in the School and Their Peers’ as the fourth mindset needed to build a learning environment empowering students to set and achieve high expectations for their learning outcomes.

To Change Learning We Must Redefine Student & Teacher Roles-Mindset 3

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:41:07 GMT

In his book Cultures of Thinking in Action, Dr. Ron Ritchhart sets out eight mindsets that educators must embrace when creating a culture of thinking in their school. The third mindset he speaks to in the book is: To Create a New Story of Learning, We Must Change the Role of the Student and the Teacher.

We Can't Directly Teach Dispositions, Must Enculturate Them-Mindset 2

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:23:36 GMT

In the book Cultures of Thinking in Action, author Dr. Ron Ritchhart builds on 25 years of leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero to provide a practical resource for teachers who are “eager to cultivate a culture of thinking in their schools and their classrooms.” He sets out ten essential mindsets that encapsulate “the core ideas we as educators must seek to develop in ourselves” first. A detailed teacher discussion and review of each mindset explored in this book can be found in this online book club series.

Schools Must Be Cultures of Thinking for Teachers - Mindset 1

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 02:54:54 GMT

In his latest book, Dr. Ron Ritchhart gives educators the tools to go beyond understanding what a culture of thinking looks and acts like, to creating them – in our classrooms and in our professional teaching environments. Ritchhart writes that the book, “first and foremost, it is about the “why?” of our teaching… meant to spark self-examination and collective reflection with both oneself and with colleagues.” While reading Cultures of Thinking in Action: 10 Mindsets to Transform our Teaching and Students, educators are challenged to take part in self-reflection, asking ourselves questions like:

KnowAtom's Blog Students Learning as Scientists and Engineers

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 07:03:35 GMT

Given the right classroom framework and stimulus, students can become scientists and engineers in any setting. Whether it’s an urban environment, a suburban environment, or a rural environment, it is equally possible assuming students have the support they need and curriculum effectively scaffolds on previous learning.

The Importance of Student Planning in STEM Instruction

FVigeant@knowatom.com (Francis Vigeant) — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 05:47:19 GMT

The most basic building block of successful student interaction with STEM instruction in the classroom is students planning their own investigations.

This doesn’t mean that you as the teacher never intervene to help redirect or monitor – after all, it is your responsibility to ensure students are meeting minimum expectations.

However, when students independently or in teams interact with the materials to answer a question or solve a problem, they are developing higher order thinking skills that are so foundational to a STEM education.