1.
The 21st century is increasingly demanding a new balance between "knowing
what" and "understanding how" to think. The shift in
this continuum towards "understanding how" is one of the great
education trends, which has gathered significant momentum in the past
15 years.
- Google©
- 'Knowing what'
does not necessarily imply understanding
- Much of our teaching
and assessment in the 20th century was focused on knowing what
- Being able to
take what students know, and apply that to their ability to be creative
was almost accepted as a given right.
In the past it simply
was not necessary for everyone to have the ability to think; in a conscious
sense.
Unless
we educate our young people to work through decision-making processes
effectively and concisely, and boost their capability (and hence their
self esteem), they will continue to take their own lives, "opting
out of the system" rather than fulfilling their true potential,
and choosing gladly to let marketing companies and their peers make
their decisions for them.
2.
The UK experience http://www.nc.uk.net/learn_think.html
- Information-processing
skills
These enable pupils to locate and collect relevant information, to
sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast, and to analyse part/whole
relationships.
- Reasoning
skills
These enable pupils to give reasons for opinions and actions, to draw
inferences and make deductions, to use precise language to explain
what they think, and to make judgements and decisions informed by
reasons or evidence.
- Enquiry
skills
These enable pupils to ask relevant questions, to pose and define
problems, to plan what to do and how to research, to predict outcomes
and anticipate consequences, and to test conclusions and improve ideas.
- Creative
thinking skills
These enable pupils to generate and extend ideas, to suggest hypotheses,
to apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovative outcomes.
- Evaluation
skills
These enable pupils to evaluate information, to judge the value of
what they read, hear and do, to develop criteria for judging the value
of their own and others' work or ideas, and to have confidence in
their judgements.
The capacity to
think critically is . . . . critical. The role of collaboration in "knowing
how" cannot be underestimated. Last year we presented a simplified
diagram (available from http://www.i-learnt.com/Thinking_What_is_2.html)
which provided an overview of the thinking process(es).
Encouraging
collaborative environments within the classroom can be achieved in many
different ways.
1.
Setting tasks and questions that allocate a variety of roles to individuals
within a group. The sum of the individual activities and actions contributes
to the success of the group.
2. Encouraging groups to report back the sum of their actions and activities
(their findings) to their peers.
3. Using effective software environments that encourage collaboration
(http://www.knowledgenetworks.co.nz)
.
4. Putting powerful but simple and effective communication tools into
the hands of students.
3.
Historically much of what is called "teaching thinking" has
focused on procedural skills within artificial contexts or even without
context at all. To quote a recent paper from NESTA http://www.nestafuturelab.org/reviews/ts04.htm
(May 22 2003)
"In fact successful thinking skills programmes promote a variety
of apparently quite different kinds of things including, strategies,
habits, attitudes, emotions, motivations, aspects of character or
self-identity and also engagement in dialogue and in a community of
enquiry. These thinking skills are not united by any single psychological
theory."
To
quote Rupert Wegerif from "Designing Technology to Promote Thinking"
(essential reading) http://www.nestafuturelab.org/reviews/ts01.htm
[May 23 2003]
"The research
evidence seems to suggest that transferable thinking skills will not
result unless activities are embedded in teaching and learning dialogues,
either with a teacher or with other students. In other words the activity,
however creative or fun, needs to be framed in such a way that learning
goals are made explicit and bridges are built between contexts."
To make the contexts
as authentic as possible it is important that the information that is
being accessed is "primary source information" rather than
secondary.
4.
The statistical results of this shift show that boys are no longer achieving
the same percentile academic success as girls. The
new style of assessment is much more focused on the capacity to read
the question effectively and to create a considerable written response.
In the past boys were able to answer questions succinctly, without the
use of too much language and in general the answers they were presenting
were based primarily on recall of known facts. Boys are far more competitive,
in general, than girls, and so working in groups often results in conflict
and a competition for who is in charge.
Changing assessment
tasks to better suit boys is not going to solve the issue.
5.
Engagement in collaborative learning is one of the recognised elements
that encourage transferable thinking skills. The capacity of individuals
to work in teams and collaborative groups allows good reflective practice
which in turn encourages the development of new ideas, possibly resulting
in innovation. The 21st century, with it's plethora of very inexpensive
forms of global communication and access to information, enables these
teams and talent groups to function successfully without having to reside
in a common location.
Distributed
groups relying on discrete skill/talent sets are now commonplace, and
once again this hinges on new sets of communication skills and a considerable
increase in the amount of communication that now takes place. The stark
reality is that in 2003 it takes less than one day to make the same
volume of phone calls as were made throughout the world in the whole
of 1984,and this does not include chat, instant messaging, e-mail and
list group discussions! We are in the middle of the most spectacular
social and workplace revolutions ever. The big question is: Will our
education system propel this revolution or be dragged along by it?
Complete
AAIBS Conference notes
