Developing thinking and creativity in young learners BETA 2009 Syana Harizanova, NBU

What are thinking skills?  The habits of intelligent behaviour learned through practice  Ways in which humans exercise the sapiens part of being homo sapiens  The particular ways in which people apply their minds to achieve certain purposes

Some of the thinking processes humans undergo include  remembering  questioning  forming concepts  planning  reasoning  imagining  solving problems  making decisions and judgements  translating thoughts into words

Why are thinking skills important?  Information is expanding by the hour  Information comes from multiple sources  The individual cannot ‘store’ sufficient knowledge in memory  Modern society requires people who can comprehend, judge and apply information efficiently

Implications for education  Schools (and family) to face the knowledge revolution  Teachers (and parents) to encourage children to think and reason  National curricula to approve relevant standards and classroom practices  Creative and independent thinking to be promoted at school and at home

Areas of concern re teaching thinking  Is it more effective to teach thinking skills as a separate activity from the rest of the curriculum, or should this teaching be embedded in the teaching of curriculum subjects?  Should we teach thinking skills explicitly or implicitly?

Some learning-to-think activities  Finding/ Drawing solutions to an imaginary problem  Intellectual puzzles  Co-operative learning  Thinking aloud  Reciprocal teaching  Games

The time factor If we encourage children to think, then we should:  provide them with thinking time.  show appreciation for thinking deeper into a problem rather than getting on with a task fast.  refrain from requiring quantity at the expense of quality.

Thinking and language  Insist on variety in speech  Insist on clarity and precision By forcing greater depth in expression we foster greater depth in thinking!

Resources:  Buzan, T. (1974/1993) Use your head, London: BBC Publications. See also  Fisher, R. (2005) (2 nd ed) Teaching Children to Think, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes  Fisher, R. (2005) (2 nd ed) Teaching Children to Learn, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes  Fisher, R. (in press), ‘Expanding Minds: Developing Creativity in Young Learners ', CATS: The IATEFL Young Learners SIG journal. Spring 2006  Lipman, M. (2003) (2nd Ed.) Thinking in Education Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  Edited by Whitebread, D. (2000) The Psychology of Teaching and Learning in the Primary School Routledge  Wood, D. (1997) How Children Think and Learn (2 nd ed.) Oxford: Blackwell