Teaching thinking skills Aims and objectives Creating time

Teaching thinking skills

Aims and objectives • Creating time to think. • Using logic as a thinking tool. • Effective pre-study. • Obstacles to thinking and how to deal with them.

Can students be taught to think? Discuss: • Can you teach a student to think? • Is the ability to think a natural aptitude? • Is learning to think better a by-product of learning a subject?

Learning by thinking • One of the clearest findings of educational research is that there is a close connection between thinking and learning. • ‘Learning happens when people have to think hard. ’ (Professor Robert Coe) • ‘Memory is the residue of thought. ’ (Professor Daniel Willingham) • Discuss: • How important is thinking as part of the learning process? • Do our students have time to think? • What do we need to change if we are to encourage more thinking within our classrooms?

Using logic as a thinking tool • Logic is the study of the structure of arguments. • A simple logical model of the argument process goes like this: • point of view • argument • counter-argument • response. Discuss: • How can logic be used as a tool for facilitating classroom discussions? • How can logic be used to provide a framework to assist students with their essay writing? • What exercises could you use in the classroom to help students develop their logical reasoning skills?

Effective pre-study • Study prior to classroom discussion has a valuable role to play in helping students learn to think better. • Contexts for pre-study include: • student-led seminars • work-in-progress seminars • student presentation. Discuss: • Choose a unit of study and discuss how you could incorporate pre-study as a technique for enriching students’ thinking. What types of subject matter lend themselves to this approach?

Obstacles to thinking and how to deal with them Discuss: • Make a list of the things that impede thinking in the classroom (e. g. time pressure, lack of confidence, complexity of the material…). • Organise the list into order, with the most pressing difficulties at the top. • Discuss each in turn. Have you had any experience of dealing with the difficulties? What strategies would be worth trying?