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| Thinking Skills - Keys to Fusing Talents |
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| Author : Karin Morrison
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| Created : 03 Jul 2002
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| Last Revision : 03 Jul 2002
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In a world where change is the only certainty, where major technological advances are made everyday, the clearly defined borders between subject areas are becoming less distinct with overlaps that were never even dreamt of in the past. Music composition often relies on complex computer simulation; elementary social studies programmes access Internet. The content of units of study is no longer of prime importance - this is now available at the touch of a keyboard! The abilities to think creatively, to analyse, synthesise, apply and evaluate information are the skills needed both for today and even more so for the future.
When planning for Children of High Intellectual Potential in the classroom, curriculum differentiation needs to occur to give these children greater opportunity to develop their potential. To quote Borland, " those we label gifted possess special characteristics that affect their ability to learn to a significant degree, and they will not reach their full educational potential unless we modify their curricula substantially." (Borland, 1988. p.2.) The direct teaching of thinking skills provides processes for modifying curriculum that are practical and easily accessible to classroom teachers. It provides them with structures that further develop skills in problem solving, creative thinking and higher level thinking skills in the children in their classes. The direct teaching of thinking skills provides children with a means of linking different areas of knowledge and develops skills that can be applied right across the curriculum.
The teaching of thinking skills takes on particular significance when looking at the needs of preschool and children in their first years of school. Many of the activities planned for these children require a large amount of fine motor activity including cutting, pasting, construction and drawing, and often the children work in groups. It is not unusual for a child with advanced cognitive development to have poor fine motor development, or to be physically or emotionally less developed than chronological peers. This uneven development is referred to as asynchrony and is defined as follows:
Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm this asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. (Columbus Group, 1991, cited by Morelock, 1993)
The potential of a child can easily be underestimated if a teacher does not have an understanding of asynchrony, and for a child of high intellectual potential the teaching of thinking skills can be one way the teacher can provide for this child where the child can be acknowledged for ideas that are complex, original and well thought out and not only noticed for his poor cutting skills! We will discuss how the models of teaching thinking skills we are looking at today can be used with young children.
The first of five conceptions of curriculum that have shaped the thinking of gifted educators as presented by Eisner and Vallance (1974) is Curriculum as the development of cognitive process.
This orientation in the education of the gifted has focused on process skill development and has led to the adoption of curriculum materials organised around higher - level thinking skills. Having its roots in faculty psychology, it has fostered a content - independent model of curriculum that uses cognitive skills as the centrepiece of all learning activities. Implicit in this view is the assumption that learning cognitive skills will translate across, apply to, and enhance any field of inquiry a student may encounter
(Van Tassel-Baska, 1994. p.4)
This conception has led to many programmes for the gifted emphasizing the teaching of thinking skills as the substance of their curricula, treating the process skills of critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving as content dimensions in their own right.(Van Tassel-Baska, 1994).
This workshop will focus on the direct teaching of thinking skills to preschool and primary school children with practical examples of programmes currently in operation. Where do you begin? As Braggett writes, despite the fact that schools readily admit that the development of the skills of problem solving, critical thinking and higher order thinking is a basic responsibility of the classroom teacher, there are very few well- formulated programmes to develop such skills in a systematic fashion over a long-term period. The individual teacher is usually left to his or her own devices with no guiding policy. (Braggett, 1994
While De Bono suggests that thinking skills are most effectively taught when taught directly and deliberately (De Bono, 1992), Glaser states that
the process of teaching thinking skills is coterminous with the teaching of concepts and principles, for both must go on simultaneously. there is no teaching of thinking skills in isolation from a knowledge base, nor is a knowledge base developed without a dynamic, thinking type of interaction with the content.
(Van Tassel-Baska, 1994, p.302.)
Whether you decide to teach thinking skills directly as specific skills and then apply them to the curriculum, or whether they are taught as part of the existing curriculum, or as a combination of both, there is no doubt that thinking skills should be developed to the highest possible levels.
Classroom environment - it is important to provide an environment that will recognise and nurture the developing skills. An atmosphere of complete acceptance is essential. When a child is able to express thoughts and ideas without the possibility of ridicule or rejection, she is free to take risks. A climate where all ideas are encouraged and valued is the ideal starting point.
Activities to develop thinking skills can be the implementation of strategies as simple as the use of open-ended questions to brain-storming sessions, progressing to specific skills such as comparisons, classification. concept mapping, synectics, cause and effect, to structures such as Six Thinking Hats, Creative Problem Solving, Bloom's Taxonomy and CoRT.
We will now look at some of these structures and how they can be implemented in the classroom.
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Six Thinking Hats
This is a programme devised by Edward de Bono and divides thinking into six different and specific modes. It removes the limiting factor of ego in thinking, thus enabling greater objectivity. It provides a framework, the questions to ask, that make it possible to explore an idea from six different perspectives. In accordance with de Bono's philosophy, it is very effective and easy to put into place in the classroom. "Simple methods used effectively are more valuable than complicated methods that are difficult to understand.' (De Bono, 1992. p.6.) This method is based on de Bono's very extensive experience in the field of the direct teaching of thinking across different ages and abilities and can be effective with school beginners and senior corporate executives! (De Bono, 1992)
(We will now discuss how the six thinking hats programme can be implemented in the classroom.)
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Creative Problem Solving
Creative problem solving is a more complex form of creative thinking developed by Parnes (1967) and later modified by Parnes, Noller, and Biondi (1977) for use by children. The six step model of creative problem solving provides a systematic procedure for children to use to solve problems in a creative way.The six steps of the model are as follows:
Mess finding
Data finding
Problem finding
Idea finding
Solution finding
Acceptance finding.
It is important to follow the above sequence as each step is an outgrowth of the preceding step and follows in sequential order.(Eberle & Stanish 1990)
(We will now look at practical classroom examples of creative problem solving.)
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Concept Mapping
Concept mapping provides a way to organise thoughts about a specific topic showing relationships between different concepts. It can be effectively used to represent understanding of a field of knowledge and can also show a student's understanding of a particular topic. (Austin & Shore, 1993.)
In this workshop we will briefly look at concept mapping and at a study by Austin and Shore that reinforces earlier research showing that
highly able students use different thinking processes to different degrees from average ability students, and that their performance closely resembles that of experts in the domain. These differences in problem representation appear to reflect differences in the organisation of the knowledge that experts and novices bring to a problem. (Austin & Shore, 1993. p.180.)
(We will create a concept map and discuss the value of teaching and learning this skill.)
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Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's taxonomy is a model for conceptualizing higher level thinking skills that has been widely adopted as a model for use with gifted learners. Van Tassel-Baska, 1994.)
It is a classification of thinking with six different levels, with each successive level increasing in complexity. The first three levels: Knowledge, Comprehension and Application are often referred to as lower level thinking, while the second three levels: Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation are referred to as higher level thinking.
(We will look at a unit of work and see how Bloom's taxonomy can be utilised.)
These structures and programmes are only a selection of those available to teachers keen to introduce a more formalised approach to the teaching of thinking skills in their classrooms. It is well worth while trying them out! By introducing a thinking skills programme in your school or classroom, you will be equipping children with skills that will increase the depth and scope of their learning and the confidence to approach new challenges with creativity and specific abilities.
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References
Austin, Lydia B., & Shore, Bruce M. (1993). Concept mapping of high and average achieving students and experts. European Journal for High Ability, 4, 180-195.
Braggett, Eddie J. (1994). Developing programs for gifted students. A total school approach. Australia. Hawker Brownlow.
Borland, J.H. (1988). Planning and implementing programs for the gifted. New York. Teachers' College Press.
De Bono, E. (1992). Six thinking hats for schools. Australia. Hawker Brownlow.
Eberle, B. & Stanish, B. (1990). C.P.S. for kids. Australia. Hawker Brownlow.
Morelock, M.J. Imposing order on chaos. A theoretical lexicon. Understanding Our Gifted. July/August, 1993.
Van Tassel-Baska, J. (1994). Comprehensive curriculum for gifted learners (Second edition). Needham, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
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