The phrase ‘think about it’ is often heard in the classroom, but if learners are not taught how to think, how do they know what is expected of them?
Thinking skills are comprised of different types of cognition; information processing, enquiry, creative thinking and reasoning.
Schools take different approaches to teaching thinking skills, either introducing them within the curriculum as a discrete unit, or instituting them through the use of a specific methodology. The best approach however, is one that stimulates learners to use and apply thinking skills across the curriculum and upon their learning.
Offering learners opportunities to apply their higher order thinking skills gives stretch and challenge and can reduce the boredom experienced in conventional lessons.
The teaching of thinking skills can be grouped into three broad categories.
- Brain based
- Philosophical
- Cognitive intervention
RELEVANT DOCUMENTS AND LINKS
- Philosophy in Primary Schools: fostering thinking skills – Report on the Philosophy in Primary Schools project which encourages philosophical discussion to add value to work in literacy.
- Complexity – Find out how you can effectively introduce complexity into students’ thinking and learning.
- What is necessary for successful thinking? – Checklist of what is needed to encourage successful thinking.
- From thinking skills to thinking classrooms – Article on research by Carol McGuinness focusing on thinking classrooms.