A THINKING CLASSROOM

Prof Carol McGuinness, Queens University Belfast, Ireland

While academics have tried to make sense out of these buzzwords, and much has been discussed about them, critical thinking skills are perhaps a more challenging concept. ``Thinking is a hidden skill in your head,'' says Professor Carol McGuinness of Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. ``Sometimes, it's also hidden from our students. So, when we tell them to think harder, they don't know what we mean,'' she adds.

Earlier this month, Prof McGuinness was in Bangkok to give a talk on thinking skills, part of the British Council's Thai-UK Education Festival 2007. Thinking skills, she says, is an equally challenging concept to educators as well as to learners.

``It's a radical claim to say that we can learn to think or teach thinking,'' McGuinness says, ``because it points to a contrast between the bright ones who can think and dull ones who can't.'' In addition, thinking in and of itself is a skill that many teachers believe occurs naturally. ``We tend to believe that children learn to think spontaneously and that teachers don't need to teach them,'' she adds.

Uphill task

In a knowledge-based society, however, experts agree that the ability to turn ideas into practical applications determines how well prepared students are for their future work life. Thus, the ideas of student-centred learning, critical thinking, and brain-based learning have become central to education reforms in many countries. But how to actually implement the concept remains a challenge to many educators.

Dr Chinnapat Bhumirat, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education

``Thai educators have tried to reform education for the last seven years,'' says Dr Chinnapat Bhumirat, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education. ``But recent assessments showed us that Thai students still lag behind in their thinking skills.''

Last August, the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa) released a report on external quality assessments of 30,010 schools nationwide. The report's findings are based on data collected between the years 2001 and 2005 from 30,010 schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission, Office of the Private Education Commission, local administrative bodies, Department of Education Buddhism, Border Patrol Police Bureau, and Demonstration Schools.

Among seven quality standards that Onesqa used to assess the students, critical / creative thinking skills are the most rare in Thai schools. On the contrary, students display the highest quality in physical and mental well-being.

To Prof McGuinnes, teaching students to have thinking skills is not easy. Rather than aiming to teach thinking skills, she says, teachers will be better off teaching the students to think more skillfully by creating a framework that allows students to push thinking beyond memorisation and designing thinking lessons that ensure that students use the desired skills.

What kinds of thinking?

In a thinking classroom, Prof McGuinness says, teachers can encourage the students to think by asking them to reflect on what they have been doing or apply what they already know to a situation they encounter.

``To know your students are thinking, you have to look through a different lens,'' Prof McGuinness says. ``When you ask them to give a reason, for example, do they come back with a thoughtful answer? Or did they take time to think about the answer?''

In addition to carefully listening to the students' responses, teachers should also notice the level of interactions within the classroom. ``You may find that often students don't want to create their own point of view for fear of not getting it right. To get around that, you may put the students into pairs or groups, so that they can check their responses first,'' she says.

The key to creating a thinking classroom, she adds, is through classroom activities that ``move [the students] beyond their level'' by applying such techniques as problem solving, decision making, and lessons that require them to search for a meaning by comparing or contrasting and finding similarities or differences.

In terms of lesson design, Prof McGuinness says, teaching each lesson with two purposes in mind, or 'infusion' technique, enables teachers to arrive at both thinking and content outcomes. Basically, these lessons have four elements, including learning objectives, thinking activities, reflection or evaluation, and making connections of what they have just learned.

While teaching poetry, for example, students can learn the poem's content _ the language, style, and mood _ through such thinking techniques as finding patterns, identifying similarities and differences, and reaching conclusions.

``Teachers can also create visual tools or thinking diagrams to force thinking,'' Prof McGuinness says. ``Brainstorming, for example, can force learners to take a step further in their thinking because it asks the students for more ideas and possibilities.'' Other visual tools include Venn diagrams, compare and contrast activities, and argument analysis. The latter tool, says Prof McGuinness, is more suitable for older students because it requires them to state their opinion, while providing supporting reasons, opposing thoughts, and defensive arguments.

Collaborative learning

Besides applying thinking techniques and tools, teachers can simply provoke the students to think simply by teaching thinking vocabulary, such as solve, sort it out, estimate, make a plan, predict, discuss, conclude, guess, and decide. To ensure that the whole class participates and puts effort into thinking, Prof McGuinness says, teachers should encourage students to work together in pairs or groups.

``When children work together for the first time, one may dominate the conversation. As teachers, we have to assign them roles and mix them around so that all get a chance to participate,'' she says. In a working group, for example, students can be assigned a task of summarising, clarifying, predicting, or questioning the texts, while teachers feed them with questions to encourage on-going dialogue.

After each activity, Prof McGuinness says, it is also important to have the students evaluate the roles they have played in the group. The self-evaluation not only helps to pinpoint what each student is good at, but also paves the way for future improvement.

As important as the students' contributions are, a thinking classroom requires a teacher with expertise to guide the class through conversations, lessons, and activities. Teachers of any academic discipline can apply Prof McGuinness' tools and techniques to create a thinking classroom.

This is not to say that the task of producing students with skillful thinking lies with only the teachers. Rather, it requires an effort of everyone, from school administrators and education service area officers to parents and policy makers, to re-examine the role of education. In order to prepare students for future employment in a knowledge-based society, the focus of school education must, Prof McGuinness says, shift away from strict academic discipline and the products of learning to the process of learning.

For more information on the Thai-UK Education Festival 2007, visit http://edfest.britishcouncil.or.th/ .