Research summary - learning to think

'Trying to define thinking skills is impossible: the list is endless and it consists of nothing less than an inventory of the intellectual powers of mankind.'  Walter Lipman (1983)

The thinking skills movement

A major feature of the education scene during the past 40 years has been the emergence of what might best be termed the thinking skills movement. The significant volume of research and publications relating to thinking skills is largely in response to a belief that learning is a consequence of thinking. Furthermore, many writers such as David Perkins contend that our education system has traditionally not been successful at developing the ability of our young people to think, and therefore learn, effectively.

A range of academics has championed the teaching of thinking. The best known of whom are: Reuven Fuerstein, Walter Lipman, Edward De Bono and Tony Buzan. Whilst some writers such as Feurstein and Lipman have focused research mainly on the school system, others have looked more broadly on business and commerce. Edward De Bono who has written 62 books on the topic and Tony Buzan have had great commercial success and their books figure prominently in bestseller lists.

In recent years, the thinking skills movement has entered the corporate domain with many companies offering their own thinking programmes, workshops and staff development packages. Some courses focus on specific thinking tools such as ‘mindmapping’ - a term copyrighted by Tony Buzan - whilst others provide off-the-shelf packages delivered by registered trainers.

Research into thinking skills

Various surveys have been carried out in recent years into thinking skills programmes. They consider the nature of the programmes, the scope and underpinning principles, and they review the research into their effectiveness. Recently, surveys in the UK have been carried out by Dr Carol McGuinness on behalf of the DfEE in 1998, and also by the Scottish Council for Research in Education in 1999. A browse of the Web reveals a wide range of surveys completed around the world and particularly in the United States. In 1990 Nisbet and Davies identified over 100 thinking skills programmes in the USA alone.  

Higher-order thinking

The idea of teaching thinking is by no means new. Improving the quality of thinking has been a central aim of education since the time of the ancient Greeks. Indeed the Socratic tradition lives on and is explicitly promoted through the ‘Philosophical Enquiry’ approach championed by Walter Lipman, which has recently become influential in many schools.

It is absurd to suggest that humans are not capable of thinking - it is estimated that we have about 60,000 thoughts on average each day. The thinking skills movement centres on the development of what has been termed 'higher order thinking' in our schools. 

Carol McGuinness describes thinking skills as the capacity to absorb information, analyse, draw conclusions, brainstorm, solve problems, evaluate options, plan, make decisions and reflect upon them. Higher order thinking tends to be complex. It can involve the application of multiple criteria, which may conflict with each other and it frequently takes place within an environment of uncertainty.

Thinking, intelligence and learning

It is possible to trace the interest in thinking back to John Dewey who wrote his book ‘How We Think’ in 1933. Dewey was the forerunner of a movement that led to the development of cognitive psychology and the growing acceptance of constructivist views of learning, as opposed to behaviourist and objectivist views championed by writers such as Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky. The thinking skills movement is based on a number of key assumptions not only about learning, but also about the nature of intelligence.

Assumptions that underpin thinking skills programmes

• Intelligence can be improved - it is a potential, rather than a fixed capacity.

• The brain is like a muscle, if we don’t use it, we lose it. If we use it we can develop it.

• Thinking is how we use our brains and develop their potential.

• Most brains are underused and are capable of further development, so we can all become better thinkers.

• Learning is a consequence of thinking. We learn best when we make sense of what we are learning and relate it to what we already know.

• We can intervene to help others develop or enrich their brains through higher order thinking. These skills can be taught.

• Enhanced thinking skills will transfer across a range of subjects and learning contexts.

Dissatisfaction with the education system

'In my experience most schools do not teach thinking at all.' Edward De Bono (1992)

'Education must be transformed to make thinking rather than knowledge its guiding priority.' Walter Lipman (1980)

Many people who champion the teaching of thinking skills believe, like De Bono and Lipman, that our education system has failed to teach learners to think effectively, and that thinking, rather than knowledge, should be the top priority in schools. It is mainly because of these kinds of concerns that the thinking skills movement has developed over the past 40 years and its main messages may be summarised as follows.

Thinking skills - the main messages

• The ability to think is critically important both in learning and in life.

• We can learn how to think more effectively in lots of different ways and can apply these skills to a wide range of situations.

• The issue is not whether human beings can learn how to think more effectively, but how this is best achieved.

• A key question is whether thinking skills can be taught explicitly, that is, outwith the context of a school subject or discipline. Many writers now promote thinking skills as a discrete subject despite worldwide claims to the contrary. The key issue is how we use and transfer these skills.

• Based on research evidence, school curriculum managers have found that the separate teaching of thinking skills courses within schools is difficult to justify.

• Schools should place more emphasis on developing the mental processes that grow our capacity to learn, than on the direct teaching of tools or techniques that promote effective thinking.

Raising standards in schools

'You can raise standards substantially only by improving the quality of thinking.'  Philip Adey and Michael Shayler (1994)

It has been claimed that developing thinking skills can lead to better learning and increased attainment because thinking leads to the transfer of understanding. If young people are better able to construct meanings and impose structure, it helps them to understand, to solve problems and express their points of view effectively. Research also shows that pupils are better motivated and more engaged in classes that they find intellectually stimulating. 

Conversely, teachers who do not nurture and promote higher order thinking are often left having to do the thinking for their students. As a result students become bored and switched off, or they become totally dependent on the teacher.

A thinking society

Fisher argues that a successful society will be a thinking society. On leaving school, young people will become citizens in a complex and constantly changing world. They must be lifelong learners and have the ability to think for themselves. Being able to think effectively gives them a deeper understanding of the ideas and issues that affect their lives and helps them to make effective choices and decisions.

Professor Howard Gardner in his latest book, ‘Five Minds for the Future’, defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the 21st century, and therefore, are important to cultivate in our young people:

• the disciplinary mind - mastery of major schools of thought (including science, mathematics, and history) and of at least one professional craft
• the synthesising mind - ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others
• the creating mind - capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena
• the respectful mind - awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings and human groups
• the ethical mind - fulfilment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and citizen.

The implications for teachers and schools

‘The idea of thinking-as-a-skill still has theoretical and instructional force.’ Carol McGuinness (1999)

As thinking has come to be seen as a more important factor in learning, so the role that schools play in promoting thinking has come under greater scrutiny. Given the debates around teaching thinking and learning to think, it is hardly surprising that schools and teachers find it difficult to decide which is the best way ahead for them and their students.

The assumption that thinking can be taught is acknowledged universally within the thinking skills movement. Much of the recent debate, however, is about whether the teaching of thinking is about teaching discrete skills, or rather, developing the mental processes that grow the capacity to learn. This shift in emphasis focuses on developing minds rather than teaching skills.

Teaching skills and developing minds

This emerging debate has given rise to new taxonomies which include terms such as thinking strategies, frames or habits of mind and thinking dispositions. Philip Adey (1994) prefers talks about 'accelerating cognitive development' and contends that thinking skills in the national curriculum in England and Wales are not really skills but mental processes, which cannot be taught directly but that can be developed in stimulating learning environments. The writer Guy Claxton (2002) refers to the need to develop ‘brainpower’ or ‘learnacy’ as well as literacy and numeracy.

There has been strong support for the benefits of both types of programme, but research studies have shed very little light on which is best. There is no doubt that some students become adept thinkers with no explicit instruction at all. Some researchers have suggested that students whose out-of-school lives offer little experience of higher order thinking must be taught directly. The big challenge for those who favour this approach is to determine the extent to which skills taught separately will transfer across learning contexts. There is a view that if skills are to be taught directly, then this should happen before they are applied within a subject area. However, this needs to be followed by immediate application in the subject area and that explicit help needs to be given to facilitate that transfer.

The challenge is to avoid a situation where students regard learning to think as something that happens only at specific times, whilst teachers regard teaching students to think as being somebody else’s responsibility. In this respect, schools should address the following:

• It is important that teachers are encouraged to place increased growing emphasis on teaching for understanding within subjects and curriculum areas.

• Where possible, links should be fostered across subject areas and integrated within real-life situations.

• Thinking should be thought of less as a skill that can be taught and learned outwith a learning context, and more about developing mental processes that grow the capacity to learn.

• All teaching and support staff within schools must be aware of the importance of creating a classroom climate that stimulates thinking.