developing thinking skills in the young learner classroom peter lucantoni

Developing Thinking Skills

in the Young Learner

ClassroomPeter Lucantoni

Overview

• What does ‘think’ mean?• What are thinking skills?• Can thinking be taught?• What is the teacher’s role in

teaching thinking skills?• Activities• Conclusions

What does ‘think’ mean?

• Think about the word ‘think’. What does it mean to you?• Make a list of at least five

synonyms for ‘think’• Draw a picture to represent

‘think’


Discuss these questions with your partner:1.How did you approach the previous activity? What did you do first, and how did you continue?2.Were you successful? Why/not?3.Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?


• Look at Handout 1• Complete each of the ten synonyms

using the correct vowels• Are any the same as the ones from

your own list?


Discuss these questions with your partner:1.How did you approach the previous activity? What did you do first, and how did you continue?2.Were you successful? Why/not?3.Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?

What are thinking skills?• Children need more than curriculum

knowledge• Important for them to develop

problem-solving and decision-making skills at an early age

• Need to assess new information and understand unexpected problems, and find solutions and evaluate their success

• [Adapted from: Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams, Helbling Languages, 2011]

What are thinking skills?

• Thinking Skills are the mental processes we use to: solve problems, make decisions, ask questions, make plans, pass judgements, organise information, create new ideas, etc

• Often we are not aware of thinking - it happens automatically

• [Adapted from: http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills.aspx]


• Look at Word Trees Handout 2• What is the language focus?• Which age and level do you think the

activity would be appropriate for?• Which thinking skills are practised?• How could you vary/extend the activity

for different teaching/learning contexts?

• language focus?• age / level?• thinking skills?• vary / extend?

Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams, Helbling

2011


• But if we think about thinking, then we can become more efficient and more creative with our minds

• Researchers at Newcastle University in the UK identified over 50 different classifications of thinking skills:

• [Adapted from: http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills.aspx]


information

basicunderstanding

productive

gatheringthinking


Cognitive Thinking SkillsInformation Gathering

Basic Understanding

Productive Thinking

Organising gathered informationLinking ideas together

Creating, deciding, analysing, evaluatingUsing information and understanding

Forming conceptsSensing: seeing, hearing, touchingRetrieving: memory skills

[Adapted from:

http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills

.aspx]


Cognitive Thinking SkillsInformation Gathering

Basic Understandin

g

Productive Thinking

Sensing: seeing, hearing, touchingRetrieving: memory skills

Organising gathered informationForming conceptsLinking ideas together

Using information and understandingCreating, deciding, analysing, evaluating

[Adapted from:

http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills

.aspx]


• How does the theory work in practice?• Look at these examples from Super

Minds 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

• Notice how the examples move through the stages of information gathering, basic understanding and productive thinking

Information Gathering

Sensing: seeing, hearing, touching

Retrieving: memory skills

Super Minds 2

Basic Understanding

Organising gathered

information

Forming concepts

Linking ideas together

Super Minds 2

Productive Thinking

Using information and understanding

Creating, deciding, analysing, evaluating

Super Minds 2

Can thinking be taught?• Yes!• Carol McGuiness (1999) working for

the Department of Education, England, concluded: ‘Pupils benefit from being coached in

thinking … success was due to good teaching methods … learning thinking works well when supported by the teacher …’

[Adapted from: Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams, Helbling Languages, 2011]

What is the teacher’s role?• Value ALL ideas and where necessary

help the learners to express their ideas

• Accept everything from everybody: Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ford, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Wozniak, …

What is the teacher’s role?

• Obviously, your role is crucial• Encourage free, ‘off-the-wall’, creative

thinking, without criticism• Do not allow learners to feel inhibited

due to lack of language confidence• Errors are part of language learning

process


• Give learners time to think about what they are doing, to study the data, to plan an approach …

• Quick-fire responses can lead to impulsive guesses or simplistic answers rather than creative solutions

• Important for teacher to remind learners to take time to think


• Take all answers, ideas, suggestions from learners seriously

• Use challenges: Why do you think this?, How do you know?, How did you get this answer?, Where did you look?, Does everyone agree with you?

• Aim of thinking class is to seek ‘best’ answers and not always ‘right’ ones

What is the teacher’s role?• Set real tasks – learners use data,

planning, explanation• Get reflection on thinking strategies

used – What caused difficulties? How were you successful?

• Establish learning points – learners give general advice on how to succeed, strategies used and naming them

• Build a bridge – apply to other contexts

Did we …

… decide what ‘think’ means?

… discuss what thinking skills are and if they can be taught?

… look at the teacher’s role?

… did we do some activities and make some conclusions?

Any questions?

[email protected]

www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org

http://www.facebook.com/Cambridge

UniversityPressMiddleEast

developing thinking skills in the young learner classroom peter lucantoni

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