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?