The Thinking Classroom ( from ALPS..Active Learning Practice for
Schools)
Accessed for RAFA teachers March 18 2009
From http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/thinking/intro.cfm
The Thinking Classroom is committed to the following beliefs:
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Learning is a consequence of good thinking.
Good thinking is learnable by all students.
Learning should include deep understanding, which involves the
flexible active use of knowledge.
What's does the Thinking Classroom look like?
The Function
The Thinking Classroom is designed to help you put the theory behind
teaching thinking into practice. Not only will you become familiar with
several approaches to teaching thinking, but you'll also learn how to put
your learning into action in your own classroom in straightforward and
practical ways.
The Features
What You Can Find Inside the Thinking Classroom
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downloadable sample lessons, units, and activities for cultivating
thinking skills and dispositions
forums for teachers to collaborate on the design of thinking-centered
projects
downloadable articles and reference materials on the teaching of
thinking
thinking-centered instructional tools and materials
introduction to several approaches for teaching thinking
instructional tools and resources for assessing thinking
an innovative region designed specifically to foster transfer and
reflection
General Goals & Expectations
Creating a classroom with a strong thinking culture encourages students to develop
good thinking dispositions, skills, and habits of mind. Instruction focuses on 1)
providing accessible and diverse models of thinking, 2) explicitly explaining the kinds
of thinking you want to foster, 3) gearing instruction to support pro-thinking
interaction between students, and 4) providing feedback that directly informs
students on the thinking standards you set.
Good Uses
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Teaching thinking decreases impulsive, fuzzy, sprawling, and narrow
thinking.
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Teaching thinking can be used as a way to cultivate thinking
dispositions.
Teaching thinking can be used to deepen understanding.
Teaching thinking can be used to foster self-regulated learning.
Big Messages in the Thinking Classroom
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Thinking takes time. Build think time into lessons, discussions, and
activities.
Intelligence is learnable. Communicate that we can all learn to think
smarter.
Models matter. Provide students with lots of models of good thinking.
Language creates meaning. Enrich students' thinking vocabulary for
greater precision and understanding (e.g. use words like speculate,
reason, deduce, infer, guess, summarize, analyze, etc.)
Explanations clarify expectations. Directly introduce, describe, and
explain the types of thinking that you are looking for.
Detection creates opportunity. Encourage students to be alert to
occasions to identify potential problems, to deliberate about a decision,
to pursue a new line of inquiry, to consider an alternative cause,
explanation, or reason.
Investment pays. Create an environment that fosters students' natural
inclinations to invest and pursue the thinking opportunities they detect.
Feedback informs learning. Self-assessment, peer-evaluation, and
teacher evaluation all provide students with valuable information and
insight on how well they are thinking and learning.
Connections secure knowledge. Encourage students to connect new
ideas and learning to things they know about inside or outside of
school.
Reflection deepens understanding. Provide students with skills and
opportunity to become better at observing and managing their thinking.
Attitude is everything. Create an educational environment that
promotes productive patterns of intellectual conduct.
High-order knowledge goes beyond the facts. Focus on the knowledge
and know-how of solving problems, using evidence, and discovering
lines of inquiry within the disciplines
Why teach thinking?
Rationale
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New standards are listing critical and creative thinking as required educational
criteria for learning across the curriculum.
Many standardized tests are being restructured to examine students' capacity
to actively use and apply knowledge.
The teaching of thinking has been a persistent and noble educational goal for
centuries and remains so today.
Students do not tend to acquire thinking skills and habits of mind simply by
studying regular subject matter in traditional ways.
Good thinking leads to deeper understanding within and across the
disciplines.
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Intelligence is learnable, hence it is teachable. As teachers, we are obligated
to teach thinking.
Deeper Rationale
Despite the wide range of perspectives and frameworks in contemporary
learning theory, two key messages about the nature of learning stand out.
First, effective learning tends to be self-regulated. Effective learners actively
take charge of their own learning processes by drawing on their own interests,
prior knowledge, and experiences.
The second message is that effective learning involves "going beyond the
information given." Students must use new knowledge actively to construct
meaning (Bruner 1973). In other words, students must move beyond the role
of passive receiver of information and into the role of active participant in their
learning. In order to "go beyond what is given," students must think critically
and creatively about the topics they are studying. Going beyond the
information given might mean students generate an explanation, challenge an
assumption, make a comparison, or apply ideas to new contexts. Thinking
critically and creatively contributes to effective learning because it helps
learners develop deeper and more cognitively integrated understandings of
ideas and concepts.
More about Self-Regulated Learning
Theoreticians are unanimous. The most effective learners self-regulate their thinking
and learning. (Butler & Winne, 1995, p. 245.) Research overwhelmingly suggests
that learning is most effective when learners have some control over what and how
they learn (Zimmerman, 1994). Having some control does not mean students go off
and choose any topic at random and do whatever they want with it. Over time, selfregulated learners develop certain critical and creative thinking skills and
characteristics that enable them to identify and investigate all sorts of topics in
meaningful and fulfilling ways.
A Few Key Points:
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self-regulated learning can be cultivated
students can become proactive about regulating their own learning
self-regulated learning helps students develop better understanding of
the content they are studying
Self-regulated learners tend to:
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be purposeful and goal oriented (Linder & Harris, 1992)
monitor the effectiveness of their learning
respond to both internal and external feedback by adjusting learning
behaviors (Butler & Winne, 1995)
know that their learning is at least partially driven by their own interests,
ideas, or interests
be active participants in their own learning process (Zimmerman, 1989)
More about active use of knowledge
Cognition is a constructive process. Students do not simply take in information and
then act on it. More precisely, they perceive and learn through a process of active
connection-making. Students build new understandings by weaving what they
already know with new information. Overwhelmingly, educational researchers argue
against a passive conception of learning. Research recommends a "constructivist
conception of learning that recognizes the role of the learner as an active, inquiring,
connection-making agent." (Bruner, 1993; Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Gardner, 1991).
What the research says about cultivating an active conception of learning…
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an active conception of learning fosters deeper understanding, even if the goal is
straightforward retention of information
knowledge retained by "passive" learners tends to be inert, only recalled when asked
for directly (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1985; Perfetto, Bransford, & Franks, 1983;
Perkins & Martin, 1986.)
active learners tend to transfer and apply what they learn to new situations (Salomon
& Perkins, 1989).
What Does Good Thinking Look Like?
Here are few examples of the types of thinking skills and behaviors evident in a
Thinking Classroom. Notice how each point involves some sort of deliberate "action"
around an idea, concept, or topic. The key to teaching thinking is to get students to
take cognitive action. Thinking Classroom students tend to:
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Take think time
Generate lots of options when making a decision
Look beyond the obvious toward a richer conception of a topic
Challenge assumptions and question the validity of given information
Find problems and solve them
Wonder about deep issues or structure
Seek alternative solutions and perspectives
Pay attention to detail to achieve deeper understanding
Make connections to ideas and subjects students already know about
in or out of school
Seek hidden causes and explanations
Give examples and evidence to make a point
Produce reasons and arguments from multiple perspectives
Find new and effective ways to apply knowledge
Anticipate potential consequences
Demand and provide proof
Make plans, set goals and standards
Anticipate obstacles
Use diagrams, graphs, and organizers to illustrate ideas and concepts
Detect patterns of thinking
Describe strengths and weaknesses in learning