The Thinking Teacher's Toolkit: Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives

208 Pages·2010·3.55 MB·english

by  Ruth Matthews

The Thinking Teacher’s Toolkit
Also available from Continuum
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and Christopher Winch
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The Thinking
Teacher’s Toolkit
Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills
and Global Perspectives
Ruth Matthews and Jo Lally
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Ruth Matthews and Jo Lally 2010
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Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this work.
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ISBN: 978-1-4411-2571-2 (paperback)
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Contents
KeytoIcons vi
Introduction 1
Part 1: Tools for Teaching 5
IntroductiontoPart1 6
1 TheStartingPoint 8
2 ApproachestoTeachingThinkingandReasoningSkills 28
3 PlanningaCourse 51
4 PlanningaLesson 69
5 ResourcePlanning 90
Part 2: Tools for Enriching Achievement 108
IntroductiontoPart2 109
6 BackgroundandBenefits 110
7 IntegratingtheSkills 129
Part 3: Tools for Assessment 161
IntroductiontoPart3 162
8 PreparingforAssessment 163
9 ManagingtheAssessmentProcess 184
Endnotes 192
References 194
Index 197
Key to Icons
Online
Log book
Discussion
Comment
Activity
Introduction
In the course of our work with hundreds of teachers and examiners
involved in the delivery and assessment of thinking skills, we have
identified the need for a practical guide. This book has been designed to
provide a toolkit for teachers who teach thinking skills, reasoning and
critical thinking to 14–19 age groups. If you’ve just discovered you’re
now your school’s thinking skills specialist, this book will answer your
basic questions and help you to build on your existing expertise. If you
have greater experience of this curriculum area, it will help to enhance
your professional skills.
This book starts from the presumption that, even if you have never
knowingly taught thinking skills before, you already possess relevant
expertise, but may not be fully aware of how best to apply it. The toolkit
approach means possibilities – the tools – are presented, from which you
can select the tool for a given task. The sections do not need to be read
in sequence: they stand alone so that you can dip in as you need.
Everything you require to become a thinking teacher is packed into
the toolkit, including guidance on setting up a thinking skills course
from scratch, strategies for delivering thinking and reasoning skills
as a discrete subject, approaches to integrating thinking skills within
other subjects, ideas for selecting and designing resources, and advice
on preparing students for external assessment. In addition, there are
online resources to accompany this book, including material for student
activities, CPD activities and FAQs.
At the time of writing, the authors had between them over twenty years’
experience of working for awarding bodies operating within the UK and
internationally. They have unique thinking skills subject knowledge and
understanding of course design, together with unparalleled experience
of assessment methodologies and insight into the difficulties teachers
face in teaching thinking skills and critical thinking.
This book is primarily for the classroom teacher who is delivering
– and possibly also planning – courses and qualifications that contain
a significant element of thinking and reasoning skills (including the CIE
Global Perspectives syllabuses and the Diploma qualifications) within
the 14–19 curriculum. It will also be of interest to anyone who wishes
to improve their understanding of strategies for planning and teaching
thinking skills, including practising teachers, teacher trainers, trainee
teachers, curriculum managers, 11–19 teachers and higher education
lecturers in a range of disciplines.
How Does this Book Help?
The book’s focus is the design and implementation of activities which
enhance students’ thinking and engage their interest and enthusiasm. It:
• contains strategies for course and lesson planning;
• includes ideas for activities, tips and tricks for teaching, and
ways in which the subject can be taught effectively in a reduced
timetable slot;
• provides guidance on how to select and use an appropriate
examination syllabus;
• considers how students’ achievement in examinations can
be maximised, whilst ensuring that students are enthusiastic,
motivated, and fully aware of the purpose of developing these
skills;
• draws on relevant research findings, to provide a starting point
for further continuing professional development.
Part 1 sets out tools for teaching. The teacher who is a complete novice
will find the skills outlined in Chapter 1, together with lesson plans and
suggestions for their first ever lesson on thinking skills. If you are an
experienced teacher you could skip straight to Chapter 2 (see page 28),
but you may still find the ideas in Chapter 1 interesting and useful.
Chapter 2 considers approaches to teaching thinking and reasoning
skills and discusses how to find a balance between practising skills
explicitly in order to improve them and practising skills embedded in a
meaningful context. Chapter 3 discusses the issues involved in planning
a course that includes a significant element of thinking and reasoning
skills, including applying approaches from Chapter 2 in the context of
real schools and colleges. Chapter 4 considers lesson planning, lesson
ideas and practical approaches. It explains how a variety of approaches
can be adapted to work in real situations. Chapter 5 provides ideas for
developing your own original resources, selecting and adapting source
material. It considers what makes resources or a passage work as a class
exercise.
2 The Thinking Teacher’s Toolkit
Part 2 sets out tools for enhancing achievement. Chapter 6 provides
supporting, background information for the teacher who wishes to raise
the profile of thinking skills within their institution. The benefits of teaching
thinking skills are outlined. There is a brief history of the development
of thinking skills approaches and an explanation of what thinking skills
are and what they are not. The chapter introduces the central theoretical
approaches that underpin successful teaching strategies. Thinking skills
both support the wider curriculum and offer countless opportunities
for curriculum enrichment. Chapter 7 considers the advantages and
disadvantages of different approaches: critical thinking as a discrete
subject; the infusion approach where critical thinking is taught across the
curriculum; and integrating critical thinking in a specific subject. There are
ideas for integrating critical thinking within subject teaching, with sample
activities for vocational subjects, English literature and religious studies.
Part 3 sets out tools for assessment. Education is increasingly assessment-
driven, and tests of thinking skills and critical thinking have burgeoned
in the last 20 years. Chapter 8 explains the main public examinations
that students encounter and gives guidance on preparing students for the
particular demands of these assessments. It gives pointers towards ways
of enhancing students’ performance in thinking skills or critical thinking
examinations. Chapter 9 explains what you should expect from an
examination board and discusses possible courses of action if students’
results do not meet expectations.
Part 4 is available online at http://education.matthewslally.
continuumbooks.com and sets out tools for developing your professional
expertise. It provides a quick reference where answers can be found to
frequently asked questions about setting up new courses and teaching
thinking skills and critical thinking. It includes suggestions for wider
reading in the field of thinking skills and information on popular and
useful resources. These will save you the time and tedium of searching for
good resources.
The authors are writing from the standpoint of considerable experience
of teaching and assessing thinking skills, but – as critical thinkers writing
for critical thinkers – they do not claim that all the ideas in this book will
work in every classroom situation. The best tool for any given lesson
needs to be picked out of the toolkit, and then used correctly.
Key Definitions
Since John Dewey developed the concept of reflective thinking around a
hundred years ago, education researchers and teachers have been attempting
Introduction 3