Limbrick Wood Thinking Skills

THE ROLE OF THINKING IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

• Learning, thinking and understanding are inextricably linked.

• In depth thinking about an issue is not a guarantee that we will understand and learn it, but it greatly enhances our chances.

• Thinking is the gateway to understanding.

• Thinking involves a series of skills that can be taught and learnt.

• Few pupils readily associate thinking with lessons.

• Thinking is a cognitive activity and not a low level task. It equips the learner to go beyond the information given, to deal systematically yet flexibly with novel problems and situations, to adopt a critical attitude to information and argument as well as to communicate effectively.

• The extent to which children are challenged to think and helped to understand is directly related to the nature of the activity they are involved in. open ended activities enable learners to impose meaning and make judgements.

• Learning is an active not passive activity, therefore there must be direct learner involvement.

Thinking in general encompasses three areas:

SKILLS: available and effective tools and techniques that the capable thinker employs in order to solve problems.

DISPOSITIONS: tendencies and preferences that inform, direct and motivate our thinking. These dispositions motivate us to apply thinking skills; indeed a person may have many thinking skills but not be disposed to use them.

UNDERSTANDING: the flexible 'possession'of knowledge, which allows the application of that knowledge in new situations. A person may know something yet not understand it, that is, not be able to use this knowledge in shifting contexts.

Quality thinking is efficient. critical and creative.

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