Thinking Skills for Littlies

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Thinking Skills for Littlies

• Presented by Denise Tarlinton
• Kurwongbah State School
  kurwongbss.eq.edu.au

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Outline

• What skills will your preschoolers
• need for the future?
• What are thinking skills?
• Preschool-friendly Thinkers Keys
• Edward de Bonos Six Hats
• Blooms Revised Taxonomy
• Resources

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• A good teacher makes you think even when you
  dont want to.
• (Fisher, 1998, Teaching Thinking)

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The students of the future should be able to

• Solve problems
• Think creatively
• Think critically
• Make decisions
• Generate new ideas
• Analyse information
• Plan for the future

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What is thinking?

• Thinking is a mental process.
• Thinking skills are the intellectual skills such
  as the skills of memorizing and recalling facts
  and information, clarifying, making analysis,
  generating ideas, making decisions, problem
  solving, and planning.
• Different authors of thinking skills have
  proposed different models and approaches in
  teaching thinking skills.
• http//www.ppk.kpm.my/sphsp/masteryguide/asri1.htm
  skills

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Critical thinking

• Critical thinking refers to reasonable,
  reflective thinking that is focused on deciding
  what to believe or do. Critical thinkers try to
  be aware of their own biases, to be objective and
  logical.
• http//www.adprima.com/thinkskl.htm

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Creative thinking

• Creative Thinking refers to the ability to form
  new combinations of ideas to fulfil a need, or to
  get original or otherwise appropriate results by
  the criteria of the domain in question.
• http//www.adprima.com/thinkskl.htm

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Metacognition

• Metacognition refers to awareness and control of
  one's thinking, including commitment, attitudes
  and attention. Simply it is the ability to think
  about ones own thinking.
• http//www.adprima.com/thinkskl.htm

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What does the Thinking Classroom look like?

• There are significant opportunities for
  higher-level thinking, complex problem solving
  and/or open-ended response. Thinking skills are
  explicitly taught in an authentic and meaningful
  context.
• http//www.sricboces.org/Goals2000/rubric1.htm

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Convergent and Divergent Thinking

• In convergent thinking, the thinking skills are
  focused on a particular thing, problem, or issue.
  For example "The tyre had a nail and some
  scratches. What caused the tyre to puncture?"
  Here, we are looking for evidence about what
  caused the tyre to puncture
• In divergent thinking, we want to generate many,
  varied and new ideas. For example "What are the
  use of old tyres?"

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Preschool Friendly Thinkers Keys

• Question Key
• Picture Key
• Reverse Listing Key
• Construction Key
• Interpretation Key
• Different Uses Key
• What If ? Key
• (developed by Tony Ryan)

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Benefits of Thinkers Keys

• Easy to use and explain
• Familiar object- unlocking thinking
• Encourage children (and adults) to
• Look at things differently
• Think divergently
• Think creatively
• Brainstorm ideas
• Listen to others ideas
• Share their ideas
• Be organised

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Question Key

• Start with an answer and list questions that
  give that answer.
• Eg. Think of questions to give the answer
• Midnight
• Seaweed
• Christmas
• Koalas.
• Clowns
• Butterflies

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Picture Key

• Draw a simple diagram or squiggle and students
  work out ways to link it (by finishing the
  picture) to a specific
• topic
• theme
• book
• celebration, etc.
• (N.B. Variation on Ryans original Picture Key)

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Reverse Listing Key

• Place words such as cannot, would not, never or
  not in a sentence.
• Eg. Name 10 things that you could not clean.
• List 10 things that can not grow
• Name 10 things you couldnt put on a sandwich
• Name 10 items you wouldnt find in a house
• List 10 things you would not see at the circus

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Construction Key

• Set up a wide variety of construction
  problem-solving tasks and use lots of readily
  available material.
• Eg. Build the highest possible self- supporting
  structure using one sheet of newspaper, sticky
  tape and a pair of scissors.
• Eg. Use the material supplied to
• Build a trap for the Big Bad Wolf
• Build a tower for Princess Fiona
• Build a house for Shrek
• Build a bridge to hold a preschool truck

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Interpretation Key

• Describe an unusual situation and then think of
  some different explanations for the existence of
  that situation.
• Eg. The butterfly is laughing. Give 3 reasons
  to explain why.
• The clown is crying
• The ant is as big as an elephant
• The monster is laughing
• The monkey is eating potato chips

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Different Uses Key

• List some different uses for items from your
  topic (emphasis on reusing and recycling).
• Eg. Find 10 uses for
• An old clown nose
• An empty yoghurt container
• An old work book
• A broken television
• Mums old toothbrush
• Red Riding Hoods basket

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What If? Key

• You can ask virtually any What If question. You
  can use the ideas wheel to record student
  responses.
• Eg. What If
• all cars turned into skateboards?
• chocolate was good for you?
• mice were as big as elephants?
• money did grow on trees?

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Six Hats

• Developed by Edward de Bono (1980s)
• Framework for thinking
• Easy to use
• Visual and tactile
• Involves a variety of thinking
• Allows students to separate their thinking
• Can be used by individuals, small groups or whole
  class

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So what are the Six Thinking Hats?

• Red Emotions and feelings
• Yellow Good points and benefits
• Black Problems and caution
• White Thinking about facts and information
• Green Creative and new ideas
• Blue Thinking about thinking

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How can I use the Six Thinking Hats?

• Responding to literature
• Problem solving
• Brainstorming
• Role-play and drama
• Visual and creative arts
• Play

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Blooms Revised Taxonomy

• Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives
• 1950s- developed by Benjamin Bloom
• Means of expressing qualitatively different kinds
  of thinking
• Been adapted for classroom use as a planning tool
• Continues to be one of the most universally
  applied models
• Provides a way to organise thinking skills into
  six levels, from the most basic to the more
  complex levels of thinking
• 1990s- Lorin Anderson (former student of Bloom)
  revisited the taxonomy
• As a result, a number of changes were made
• (Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to
  Learn)

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New Terms

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Comprehension
• Knowledge

• Creating
• Evaluating
• Analysing
• Applying
• Understanding
• Remembering

Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn)
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BLOOMS REVISED TAXONOMYCreatingGenerating
new ideas, products, or ways of viewing
thingsDesigning, constructing, planning,
producing, inventing. EvaluatingJustifying a
decision or course of actionChecking,
hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting,
judging AnalysingBreaking information into
parts to explore understandings and
relationshipsComparing, organising,
deconstructing, interrogating, finding Applying
Using information in another familiar
situationImplementing, carrying out, using,
executing  UnderstandingExplaining ideas or
conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing,
classifying, explaining RememberingRecalling
informationRecognising, listing, describing,
retrieving, naming, finding 
Higher Order Thinking
Lower Order Thinking
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Lower-order and Higher-Order Thinking Skills

• The skills of memorizing and recalling facts or
  information are called the lower-order thinking
  skills as they do not require wide and deep
  thinking.
• Thinking skills such as clarifying, making
  analysis, generating ideas, making decisions,
  problem solving, and planning which require wider
  and deeper thinking are called the higher-order
  thinking skills.

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Resources

• Thinking Skills Vocabulary and Definitions
• http//www.adprima.com/thinkskl.htm
•  
• Thinking Skills - Keys to Fusing Talents
• http//www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/gat/morrison.htm
  
•  
• Literature Review in thinking skills, technology
  and learning
• http//www.nestafuturelab.org/reviews/ts06.htm
•  
• Thinking Skills
• http//www.teachingthinking.net/Thinkskills.htm
•  

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Resources

• Core Thinking Skills
• http//edservices.aea7.k12.ia.us/framework/thinkin
  g/corethinkingskills.pdf
•  
• An Overview of Thinking Skills
• http//www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/skills.htm
  
• Thinking Skills in English--and across the
  Curriculum
• http//ericae.net/edo/ed250693.htm
• Thinking skills, accelerated learning and
  teaching methodology
• http//www.literacytrust.org.uk/database/thinking.
  html

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Resources

• Dalton, Joan. (1985). Adventures in Thinking
  Creative Thinking and Co-operative Talk in Small
  Groups. Melbourne Thomas Nelson.
• De Bono, Edward. (1992). Six thinking hats for
  schools (Books 1-4) Resource Book. Cheltenham,
  Vic. Hawker Brownlow.
• Fogarty, R. and K. Opeka. (1990). Start Them
  Thinking A handbook of Classroom Strategies for
  the Early Years. Cheltenham, Vic. Hawker
  Brownlow.
• Frangenheim, E. (1998). Reflections on Classroom
  Thinking Strategies. Loganholme Rodin
  Educational Consultancy.
• Jensen, Eric. (2002). Introduction to
  Brain-Compatible Learning. South Australia Focus
  Education.
• Pohl, M. (2000). Teaching Complex Thinking
  Critical, Creative, Caring. Cheltenham, Vic.
  Hawker Brownlow.
• Pohl, Michael. (2000). Learning to Think,
  Thinking to Learn Models and Strategies to
  Develop a Classroom Culture of Thinking.
  Cheltenham, Vic. Hawker Brownlow.
• Ryan, Tony. (1983). Thinkers Keys for Kids.
  South Coast Education Region.

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• He who learns but does not think is lost
• (Chinese Proverb)