CE Yl-Thinking-Skills

Developing
Thinking Skills
in the
Young Learner
Classroom
Peter Lucantoni
Overview
• What does ‘think’ mean?
• What are thinking skills?
• Can thinking be taught?
• What is the teacher’s role in
teaching thinking skills?
• Activities
• Conclusions
What does ‘think’ mean?
• Think about the word ‘think’.

What does it mean to you?
• Make a list of at least five
synonyms for ‘think’
• Draw a picture to represent
‘think’
Discuss these questions with your
partner:
1.How did you approach the
previous activity? What did you do
first, and how did you continue?
2.Were you successful? Why/not?
3.Did you enjoy the activity?
Why/not?
• Look at Handout 1
• Complete each of the ten synonyms
using the correct vowels
• Are any the same as the ones from
your own list?
Discuss these questions with your
partner:
1.How did you approach the
previous activity? What did you do
first, and how did you continue?
2.Were you successful? Why/not?
3.Did you enjoy the activity?
Why/not?
What are thinking skills?
• Children need more than curriculum
knowledge
• Important for them to develop
problem-solving and decision-
making skills at an early age
• Need to assess new information
and understand unexpected
problems, and find solutions and
evaluate their success
• [Adapted from: Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams,
Helbling Languages, 2011]
• Thinking Skills are the mental

processes we use to: solve problems,
make decisions, ask questions, make
plans, pass judgements, organise
information, create new ideas, etc
• Often we are not aware of thinking - it
happens automatically
• [Adapted from:
http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills.aspx]
• Look at Word Trees Handout 2

• What is the language focus?
• Which age and level do you think the
activity would be appropriate for?
• Which thinking skills are practised?
• How could you vary/extend the activity
for different teaching/learning contexts?
• language focus?
• age / level?
• thinking skills?
• vary / extend?
Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams, Helbling

2011
• But if we think about thinking, then

we can become more efficient and
more creative with our minds
• Researchers at Newcastle University
in the UK identified over 50 different
classifications of thinking skills:
• [Adapted from:
http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills.aspx]
information
understanding
basic
gathering
thinking
productive
Cognitive Thinking Skills
Information Basic Productive
Gathering Understanding Thinking
Organising Creating, Forming
gathered deciding, concepts
information analysing, Sensing: seeing,
Linking ideas evaluating hearing,
together Using touching
information and Retrieving:
understanding memory skills
[Adapted from:
http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills
Cognitive Thinking Skills
Information Basic Productive
Gathering Understandin Thinking
g
Sensing: Organising Using
seeing, hearing, gathered information and
touching information understanding
Retrieving: Forming Creating,
memory skills concepts deciding,
Linking ideas analysing,
together
[Adapted from:
evaluating
http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills
• How does the theory work in practice?

• Look at these examples from Super
Minds 2 (Cambridge University Press,
2012)
• Notice how the examples move
through the stages of information
gathering, basic understanding
and productive thinking
Information
Gathering
Sensing: seeing,
hearing, touching
Retrieving:
memory skills
Super Minds 2
Basic
Understanding
Organising
gathered
information
Forming concepts
Linking ideas
together
Super Minds 2
Productive
Thinking
Using information
and understanding
Creating, deciding,
analysing,
evaluating
Super Minds 2
Can thinking be taught?
• Yes!
• Carol McGuiness (1999) working for
the Department of Education,
England, concluded:
‘Pupils benefit from being coached in
thinking … success was due to
good teaching methods … learning
thinking works well when
supported by the teacher …’
[Adapted from: Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams,
Helbling Languages, 2011]
What is the teacher’s role?
• Value ALL ideas and where necessary
help the learners to express their
ideas
• Accept everything from everybody:
Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci,
Henry Ford, Oprah Winfrey, Steve
Wozniak, …
• Obviously, your role is crucial

• Encourage free, ‘off-the-wall’, creative
thinking, without criticism
• Do not allow learners to feel inhibited
due to lack of language confidence
• Errors are part of language learning
process
• Give learners time to think about

what they are doing, to study the data,
to plan an approach …
• Quick-fire responses can lead to
impulsive guesses or simplistic answers
rather than creative solutions
• Important for teacher to remind
learners to take time to think
• Take all answers, ideas, suggestions

from learners seriously
• Use challenges: Why do you think
this?, How do you know?, How did you
get this answer?, Where did you look?,
Does everyone agree with you?
• Aim of thinking class is to seek ‘best’
answers and not always ‘right’ ones
• Set real tasks – learners use data,
planning, explanation
• Get reflection on thinking strategies
used – What caused difficulties? How
were you successful?
• Establish learning points – learners
give general advice on how to succeed,
strategies used and naming them
• Build a bridge – apply to other contexts
Did we …
… decide what ‘think’ means?
… discuss what thinking skills are
and if they can be taught?
… look at the teacher’s role?
… did we do some activities and
make some conclusions?
Any
questions?
plucantoni@cambridge.org
www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org
http://www.facebook.com/Cambridge
UniversityPressMiddleEast

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Developing

• Think about the word ‘think’.

• Thinking Skills are the mental

• Look at Word Trees Handout 2

Teaching Young Learners to Think, Puchta & Williams, Helbling

• But if we think about thinking, then

• How does the theory work in practice?

• Obviously, your role is crucial

• Give learners time to think about

• Take all answers, ideas, suggestions

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