THINKING ABOUT THINKING
CONSTRUCTING LOGICAL SUPPORT
By Kay M. Sagmiller
OSU Center for Teaching and Learning
What thinking skills do your students
lack and why does this concern you?
Workshop Objectives
1. There are many different types of thinking
2. Each type of thinking must be taught and practiced
3. Students’ development of thinking is within teachers’
locus of control…but will require shifts in practice
What are types of critical thinking?
• Socratic questioning
• Analysis within any discipline
• Ethical reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
Comparison
Classification
Abstracting
• Deductive Reasoning
• Detecting bias and propaganda
• Reading to discover information and ideas
• Writing
• Self-awareness
• Problem solving
of motives, bias, assumptions
What influences whether students think
critically?
• Attitudes and perceptions about the learning
environment
• Habits of Mind
• Content knowledge
• Prior experience with critical thinking
• Degree of clarity about what is expected or
needed
Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions
1. The classroom climate
• Do they have a sense of comfort and order?
• Do they feel accepted by teachers and peers?
2. Classroom tasks
• Are the tasks valuable and interesting?
• Do they believe they have the ability and resources to
complete the task?
• Are the task requirements clear?
Habits of Mind
• Is aware of own thinking
• Makes effective plans
• Is are of, and uses necessary resources
• Is sensitive to feedback
• Is able to evaluate the effectiveness of personal actions
• Is accurate and seeks accuracy
• Is clear and seeks clarity
• Is open-minded
• Restrains impulsivity
• Takes a position when the situation warrants it
• Is sensitive to the feelings and level of knowledge of
others
How do people learn to think?
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Internalize
Shape
Model
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Complex problems require more than one
type of thinking…
• Analysis
Problem Solving
• Constructing Support
• Comparison
Classification
•
Teaching Thinking
1. Make thinking explicit by “thinking aloud”
2. Model and demonstrate the steps in the thinking
process
3. Scaffold students’ practice
4. Provide specific feedback: reinforce critical steps and
identify difficult aspects of the thinking process
Let’s try it!
Constructing Logical Support
1. Identify a claim that requires support (an opinion)
2. Provide sufficient or appropriate evidence
(logical reasoning)
3. Elaborate and qualify the evidence
4. Incorporate other appeals of persuasion: personality,
tradition and rhetoric
Air travel is the safest mode of transportation. Each day,
over 2,000 domestic flights occur in the United States
without incident. From a statistical perspective, you could fly
every day for 29 years before ever encountering a
life-threatening situation during a flight. Each year 50,000
people are killed in automobile accidents, whereas only 250
people are killed in airplane accidents. The percentage of
people killed in railway accidents each year is at least five
times the percentage of people killed in airplane accidents.
Although airplane travel is safe, there are some conditions
that must be met to keep it safe: all aircraft older than 20
years must be inspected twice as frequently as those
planes less than 20 years old and the frequency of flying
cannot exceed its present level at the major airports in five
cities: Denver, Newark, Chicago, Atlanta and L.A.
Teaching Students to Construct Support
1. Use “think aloud” strategy to illustrate a wellconstructed argument-clearly indicate strategies used to
persuade readers: facts, evidence, examples and
appeals
2. Create opportunities to practice analyzing and
constructing supportive arguments using a variety of
tasks
3. Scaffold support. Provide specific feedback on how to
improve
To truly reform education, teachers need work
environments that allow them to discuss,
collaborate, and practice new strategies without
fear of professional repercussion. At present,
school districts have as many as seven days of
inservice education scheduled during the school
year. On these days teachers are often held
captive listening to a hired consultant whom they
will never see again. If we are serious about
enhancing the quality of teaching and learning,
teachers, administrators and policy makers must
become aware of broader conceptions of
professional development.
What standards do you use when
evaluating thinking?
Workshop Objectives
1. There are many different types of thinking
2. Each type of thinking must be taught and practiced
3. Students’ development of thinking is within teachers’
locus of control…but will require shifts in practice