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The acceptance of teaching thinking
The state of knowledge: explosion, obsolescence, accessibility
The picture of knowledge: relative The knowledge societyThe democratic societyEffective learning The rise of the cognitive scienceThe charm of teaching thinkingThe savior syndrome
Diagnosis of the field: inflation and cacophony
“There are an awful lot of theories around.” (Robert Sternberg)
“With so much controversy in the air, it’s understandable that only a few teachers and schools make the attempt.” (David Perkins)
“Mind Workers Unite!” (Arthur Costa)
A possible Cure: A Conceptual Map
The Clue“Critical thinking seems to involve attitude plus knowledge of facts plus some thinking skills.”(David Russell, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, 1960, p. 651).
The Formula of Teaching ThinkingGood thinking = thinking skills + thinking dispositions + understanding (of relevant
knowledge)
Approaches to Teaching Thinking
Each element of good thinking in the “formula”constitutes an approach to the teaching of thinking:
The Skills ApproachThe Dispositions Approach The Understanding Approach
(Each approach is an answer to The Main Question: what is the foundational element of good thinking and how is it taught?)
Some Definitions
Skill: An implementation of thinking means (strategies, heuristics, graphic organizers, etc.) in fast and precise way.
Neutral Skills (come to render more efficient thinking processes that people do anyway – classify, grade, compare, generalize, compare, conclude, decide, etc.)
Normative Skills (come to mold thinking processes considered worthwhile that people do not naturally tend
to carry out – breaking thinking patterns, devising problems, exposing basic premises, discovering biases in your own thinking, etc.)
Disposition: An intellectual trait stemmed from a reasoned stance.
Thinking Dispositions (dispositions with direct effect on thinking – dispositions to think critically, creatively, systematically, deeply, metacognitively, etc.)A disposition to Think, to invest and being invested in thinking (Dewey: “reflective thinking: the kind of thinking that consists in turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious constructive consideration.”)
Some Definitions
Understanding: location in a relevant and rich context and/or performance – intellectual moves with knowledge.
Substantive Understanding (understanding the substance of thinking – in a pre-disciplined, disciplined or meta-disciplined way)
Reflective Understanding (understanding thinking or the conditions that make it good thinking)
Some Definitions
Approach to teaching thinking = element of good thinking + pattern of instruction
• The skills approach: skills + the pattern of impartation
• The dispositions approach: dispositions + the pattern of cultivation
• The understanding approach: understanding + the pattern of construction
Some Definitions
The elements of teaching thinking
Teaching: education through knowledgeThe elements of teaching: Teacher + Knowledge + Students
The pattern of impartation (direct) = demonstration (teacher) + taxonomy (knowledge) + practice (students)
The pattern of cultivation (indirect) = personal example (teacher) + explicitness (knowledge) + identification (students)
The pattern of construction (semi-direct) = stimulating (teacher) + “big ideas” (knowledge) + inquiry (students)
The Approaches as Worldviews
The Ideological Aspects
The Educated Person = The Good Thinker = An ideological definition
The skills approach: The Good Thinker is efficient thinkerThe dispositions approach: The Good Thinker is wise thinkerThe understanding approach: The Good Thinker is learned thinker
The Interpretive Aspect
Thinking ShortfallsThe skills approach: faults (lack of thinking skills or their faulty application)The dispositions approach: weaknesses (character flaws or “weak ego”) The understanding approach: misunderstandings (lack of understanding)
MetacognitionThe skills approach: skillsThe dispositions approach: dispositionsThe understanding approach: understanding
Intelligence The skills approach: skillsThe dispositions approach: dispositions (IC – Intellectual Character –instead of IQ)The understanding approach: understanding
The Metaphorical Aspects“The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.”(Lakoff & Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 1980)
“Thinking in general is thought, experienced and done by us through four fundamental metaphors: thinking as moving (wandering, reaching a conclusion, arriving at a point, etc.); thinking as perceiving (seeing, shedding light, deaf to opposite ideas, etc.); thinking as object manipulation (playing with an idea, turning over an idea, exchanging ideas, etc.); thinking as eating (swallowing an idea, digesting, chewing, etc.)” (Lakoff & Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh, 1999)
The Metaphorical Aspects
The main metaphor of the skills approach:thinking as a toolbox
The main metaphor of the dispositionsapproach: thinking as deep currents
The main metaphor of the understandingapproach: thinking as a net
The practical aspect
Thought ExperimentWhat happens to each approach when it attempts to infiltrate school? Or what will happened when the approach’s patterns of teaching will meet the pattern of teaching which dominates school?
The prospects of teaching thinking in school –“standard deviation”
The practical aspect
ResultsEach approach will become integrated in the school pattern of teaching and will be subject to a “standard deviation” – a deviation of its standard pedagogical logic: The skills approach “standard deviation”: tamingThe dispositions approach “standard deviation”: preaching The understanding approach “standard deviation”: lecturing
The practical aspect
ConclusionThe prospects of teaching thinking in school are doubtful. Making the school a “Home for the Mind” is turning it to a different educational environment. This environment still waits for its creators.
Two Essential Questions
1. What to believe –why three?
2. What to do –which approach is best?
1. “The ontological proof”
Three elements of good thinking against three components of thinking:
Thinking skills Processes of thinking
Thinking disposition Qualities of thinking
Understanding Contents of thinking
2. “The tragic choice”
The tragedy of the human existence: the good things are in
conflict. We can’t combine the three approaches because of
ideological and practical reasons. We have to make a “tragic
choice”.
My choice is the understanding approach: understanding is the
basis of good thinking (“All qualities of thinking a parasites on
knowledge.” John McPeck) .
Reducing the “tragedy”: teach skills and dispositions within the
framework of the understanding approach and the pattern of
construction!
Give the child knowledge of the fishing field!Give the child bait!Give the child a fishing rod!
Slogan
LecturingPreachingTaming“Standard deviation“
NetDeep currentsToolboxMetaphors for thinking
Skill and disposition are included in understanding
Skill and understanding are included in disposition
Disposition and understanding are included in skill
Attempt at reductionism
Intelligence is constituted of understandingsIntelligence is constituted of dispositions
Intelligence is constituted of skills
Intelligence
Metacognition is understandingMetacognition is dispositionMetacognition is skillMeta-cognition
MisunderstandingsWeaknessesFaultsTypical Thinking shortfalls
Learned thinker Wise thinkerEfficient thinkerIdeologies: "the good thinker"
The pattern of construction The pattern of cultivation The pattern of impartation
Patterns of teaching
Substantive understanding; Reflective understanding
Thinking dispositions; Disposition to think
Neutral skills; Normative skills
Types of foundational elements
Understanding: The ability to locate a concept in a context of other concepts, to implement concepts in new contexts and perform thinking processes with knowledge.
Dispositions: Motivation for good thinking which is formed by reasonable choices.
Skills: Thinking tools used efficiently -quickly and precisely -in given circumstances.
The foundational element of good thinking
The Understanding ApproachThe Dispositions ApproachThe Skills Approach
ApproachesCharacteristics
Perkins - Understanding performances Gardner -Understanding in the disciplines
Wiske - Teaching for understanding Wiggins & McTighe - Understanding by design Paul - Critical thinking in the strong sense McPeck -The reflective critical thinker Brown - Community of learners
Smith - Understanding as good thinking Brooks & Brooks - Constructivist instruction Lipman -Philosophy for children Harpaz & Lefstein - Community of thinking
Perkins - Dispositions theory of thinking Tishman - Thinking dispositions Costa -Habits of mind Baron -Theory of rationality Langer –Mindfulness Barrel –Thoughtfulness Facione - Critical thinking dispositions Passmore - Critical thinking as a character trait Siegel - The spirit of the critical thinker Sternberg - Successful intelligence Golman - Emotional Intelligence Lipman- Philosophy for children
De Bono – CoRTEnnis - Taxonomy of critical chinking Beyer - Direct teaching of thinking Perkins -Thinking frames Perkins & Swartz -Graphic organizers Swartz & Parks –Infusion Sternberg -Intelligence implied Treffinger, Isaksen & Dorval - Creative problem polvingJohnson & Blair -Informal logic Chaffee - thinking critically Whimbey & Lochhead -Problem solving Feuerstein. -Instrumental Enrichment Lipman -Philosophy for children
Theories, programs, ideas - examples
The Understanding ApproachThe Dispositions Approach
The Skills ApproachApproachesCharacteristics
The dispositions
approach
Dispositions-
thinking qualities
thinking dispositions
a disposition to
think
The understanding approachunderstanding - content
substantive understandingreflective understanding
Thinking =processes + qualities +
contentGood thinking =
skills + dispositions + understanding
The skills approach
skills - processes
neutral skills
normative skills
