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

206 Pages·2010·3.551 MB·English
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The Thinking Teacher’s Toolkit Also available from Continuum Teaching Critical Thinking Skills – Mal Leicester Teaching Thinking, 3rd edition – Robert Fisher Teaching Thinking Skills – Stephen Johnson, Harvey Siegel and Christopher Winch 100+ Ideas for Teaching Thinking Skills – Steve Bowkett The Thinking Teacher’s Toolkit Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives Ruth Matthews and Jo Lally Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane Suite 704 11 York Road New York NY 10038 London SE1 7NX www.continuumbooks.com © Ruth Matthews and Jo Lally 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Ruth Matthews and Jo Lally have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4411-2571-2 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Free Range Book Design & Production Ltd Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group Acompanionwebsitetoaccompanythisbookisavailableonlineat: http://education.matthewslally.continuumbooks.com. Pleasevisitthelinkandregisterwithustoreceiveyourpasswordandtoaccess thesedownloadableresources. Ifyouexperienceanyproblemsaccessingtheresources,pleasecontactContinuum at:[email protected]. 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

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