Through careful observation of individual pupils at work, and the collection of appropriate information from a range of sources (ie the pupil, their peers, parents and other colleagues), contexts, (ie formal, informal, group, individual, planned and incidental) and methods (including multi-modal, digital and electronic) teachers can build up a rich profi le of pupils as thinkers and learners, and thus provide timely and appropriate learning opportunities for them. In order to do this teachers need to know how refl ective and metacognitive thinkers think and behave (See Table 2.9), what helps and hinders this thinking, and how to examine and assess each pupil’s thinking capabilities and behaviours in light of this.
Once teachers have become familiar with the different thinking types, skills and dispositions and how these apply to the individual pupils in their class they are in a better position to intervene and enable their pupils to become more effective learners. For example a teacher notices that a pupil is having trouble gaining meaning from a text. The teacher fi nds out that the pupil always uses the same strategy of sounding out and reading the words with no expectation that each sentence should make sense to them. Further questioning reveals that the pupil is not aware of the need to interact with the text and draw on a range of information sources such as the way sounds are represented in words, the grammatical structure of the text, and some background about its subject. Armed with this knowledge, the teacher is then able to help the pupil identify what good readers do, what to do when meaning is lost, and what they need to think about as they read. In this case the teacher is teaching about thinking skills to improve the reading comprehension of the pupil.
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29 Table 2.9 lists the thinking skills and dispositions that we believe are loosely connected to the different types of thinking. Note that a number of the thinking skills, while only listed once, are not exclusive to particular types of thinking or contexts. A thinking process can involve many skills and overlap into different types of thinking. The biggest overlap is generally across the categories of refl ection and metacognition, and skills associated with critical thinking. The overlapping thinking skills are marked with an asterisk.
TABLE 2.9 Thinking types, skills and dispositions
Thinking types Thinking skills Thinking dispositions
analytical, critical, logical, reasoned
analysing
clarifying ideas/concepts classifying
comparing and contrasting defi ning the key issue or problem*
critiquing
detecting bias/points of view/prejudices*
drawing conclusions*
evaluating/judging*
inferring/interpreting
justifying statements or points of view linking cause and effect
ordering
organising information predicting
questioning information ranking/sequencing/prioritising reasoning*
summarising
precise, critical, strategic, systematic Teachers can begin to cater for the abilities and needs of individual
pupils by:
recognising their thinking preferences
providing open-ended activities that require different levels of thinking, and prompt and focus thinking
modelling effective thinking
teaching particular thinking skills, tools and strategies.
CHAPTER 2: Planning for thinking
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30 Smart Thinking
creative, lateral adapting ideas
challenging assumptions creating
exploring options generating new ideas hypothesising
identifying problems and possible solutions imagining
evaluating information and ideas examining ideas
forming questions generalising*
goal setting hypothesising*
identifying other points of view/ethics*
identifying patterns*
linking ideas*
making plans of action modifying ideas organising ideas posing questions*
questioning ideas and self recalling prior knowledge refl ecting
selecting appropriate strategies self-assessing
self-questioning setting timelines
refl ective, metacognitive
* These skills are generally applicable in all types of thinking.
TABLE 2.9 (continued)
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31 While learners may draw upon a range of thinking skills, they may also put these skills into action using different thinking dispositions. When approaching a challenging task, pupils might use an approach that has been successful for them in the past, for example:
analysis and reasoning (skills). These skills are often associated with being precise, strategic and systematic (dispositions). However, the pupils that favour the skills of analysis and reasoning might recognise the need to be open-minded and curious (dispositions), and to explore options and generate new ideas which involve the use of a different (in this case creative) set of thinking skills. Pupils who possess a refl ective disposition are at an advantage when they are required to use metacognition or refl ective thinking, because they are likely to employ a range of skills and dispositions.
When teachers are planning for the development of refl ection and metacognition in their pupils, they can better cater for differences in thinking and learning by:
selecting worthwhile content that varies in its conceptual complexity – i.e. from the concrete to the abstract
explicitly identifying the thinking type or skill that is to be focused on and which suits the purposes of the particular activity
identifying the most appropriate and relevant contexts within which the specifi c thinking type or skill can be taught to and used by pupils
selecting activities, tools and/or strategies that develop the thinking focus and that can be adapted to provide an appropriate level of challenge for all pupils (open-ended, challenging tasks are ideal for this)
incorporating the use of digital and electronic technologies so that pupils’
thinking can be recorded, visualised and analysed in different ways,
for example: photos of the pupils working that have been annotated by the pupils and/or teachers
involving pupils in self-assessment, setting goals and making choices about the strategies they might employ to access, sort and refl ect on content, and their own thinking.