Common SenseAbout TeachingThinking Skills

BARRY K. BEYER

Ithough many school curriculaclaim to teach thinking skills, inrealith few do. True, most texts

and teachers frequentli have studentsengage in exercises that supposedlv re-quire them to use selected thinkingskills, but these teachers and texts usual-Iv fail to provide explicit instruction inwhat these skills are and hoss to employthem. Manv teachers and texts also failto devote continuing attention to eachskill, erroneously assuming one "cxpo-sure" is enough for a skill to "catch."These failures doom most students tohit-or-miss learning of thinking skillsand practically guarantee less-than-ade-quate performance on common mca-sures of skill competencs. Anv schoolprogram that hopes to help studentslearn thinking skills must provide directand continuing instruction in hows toexecute these skills as part of a multi-grade, sequential skill program.

Teachers can go a long way toswardensuring their success at teaching think-ing skills by attending to three essentialcomponents: (1i the learning environ-ment, (2) the strategies and methodsused to provide instruction, and 13) thecoordination and structure of skillteaching throughout the entire curricu-lum. These three features are the foun-dations of effectivec instruction in think-ing skills at all grade le-els. K-12 andbeyond.

Barry K. Beyer is Professor of Education,George Mason University, Fairfax, Vir-ginia. Copyright 1983 K. Barry K.Beyer.

A Supportive Learning EnvironmentA learning environment supportive ofthinking is essential for effective tcach-ing-and learning-of thinking skills.In such an environment, student think-ing occurs frequently: learning activitiesregularly require student thinking; andstudents receive explicit, direct instruc-tion in how to engage in thinking.

Classrooms that welcome studentthinking provide the reinforcement andsupport that encourage students to "risk"thinking. Such classrooms help studentsfeel free to challenge, question, invent,and guess. They are typified by consid-erable student-to-content and student-to-student interaction. Informationprocessing, rather than information re-ceiving, is the major activity.

Teachers also need to conduct lessonsthat require students to:

* Compare, analcze, and judge thelogic of arguments, the accuracy ofhypotheses, and the adequacy and accu-racy of evidence given in support ofgeneralizations

Invent or discover relationshipsamong data

* Infer and then test inferences.

Such lessons seek goals beyond simplhlearning content. They require studentsto process what they read, hear, sec, andfeel in order to give it necw meaning.

But a classroom climate that is con-ducive to student thinking and learningactivities that require students to thinkare not enough to develop student profi-ciency in thinking skills. The most cru-cial ingredient is direct instruction inthe nature of specific thinking skills andhosw to use them.

44 EDUCATIONAL LF.ADERSHIP

A sound K-12program inteacbhingforthinkingrequiresattention tothe learning

teachingstrategies,andoordinaton

throughoutthecurriculum.

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44 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

"Researchsuggests thatsktllg

should besystematiC,direct,integrated,anddevlpmwLnta

Effective Skill Teaching StrategiesResearch is inconclusivc about the bestwas to teach thinking skills. This isespecially true of one of the most com-moni accepted approaches to skillsteaching-the use of structured hierar-chies of teacher-madc qucstions. Forcscr5 set of studies shos-ing that ques-tioning patterns improve student think-ing, there is another set that suggeststhey have no significant effect. I More-over, reliance on such a technique fos-ters the learner dependencs that instruc-tion in thinking skills is designed to end

Research does, however, suggestsome useful basic principles about skillslearning and teachilng. In general. itsuggests that skills teaching should besystematic, direct, integrated, and dc-velopmcntal.

Systematic Instruction. Thinkingskills instruction ma! best proceedthrough four stages-readiness. intro-duction, reinforcemennt, and esxten-sion-as students move through acourse or curriculum sA -cll-developedthinking skills program provides fomlalinstruction in a limited number of spe-eifie thinking skills and proceedsthrough these four stages as studentsmove upward through their K-12 pro-grams.

To develop readiness for learning askill, teachers can engage students inusing the skill as best then can. colCen--trating on the substanitive results of itsuse rather than on the skill itself. Forexample, before detailing the skill ofdetecting bias in data, a teacher mighthave students pick out examples of bias

NOVEMB�,R 1983 45

I

NOVEMBER 1983 45

in a reading assignment and focus onwhat these examples reveal about theauthor rather than on hosa the studentsidentified the biases. Repeated periodi-callyv with a varicty of content examples.such readiness activities help create areceptivity to learning the skill--almosta "need to know." Thev also provideexperiential referents. But thex do niotconstitute instruction in the skill itself.

In introducing a thinking skill, teach-ers should provide specific instruction,carefully and repeatedly delimiting thecomponents of the skill and providingexamples of how the skill is used. Thekey to such instruction is focus on theskill itself rather than on the knowledgeproduced by its use. Continued studentanalysis, application, and discussion ofthe procedures and rules by which athinking skill is used make it a subject ofconstant attention. At this phase of in-struction it should be clear to the stu-dent as well as the teacher that the skillis the major goal of their learning actix-i-tv.

3

Once a thinking skill has been intro-duced and students are somewhat famil-iar with it, teachers can provide rein-forcement through repeated practice.guided by explicit instruction and re-view where appropriate4 This may takeplace over a period of weeks. months.and even years as students practice usingthe skill to accomplish specific content-related tasks. However. such reinforcc-ment is not accomplished simpl hb-using conventional fill-in-thec-blank ex-ercises or by writing ansacrs to end-of-chapter "critical thinking" questions.Unless the teacher or the instructionalmaterial provide instructi-e guidance inhow to use the skill as well as immediateremediation where it is called for. suchdevices simply test skills rather thanteach them. To promote learning. skillpractice should serve as the basis forexplicit student reflection and discus-sion of the procedures they. employ asthev use the skill. For best results, skillreinforcement requires application ofthe skill to new' data, coupled withteacher instruction, and reflection onthe skill itself.

Finallv, teachers need to extend theuse of thinking skills bcvond the thpc ofcontent in which the skills are formallyintroduced and practiced. If left tothemselves, students are usually reluc-tant or unable to transfer skills learnedin one type of content or with one

media to another typc of content ormedia.- This is partly bccause mostskills are tied closclx to the context anlltype of data in which tlhe are firstintroduced. Also. different teachers,texts, and subiects tend to use differcntterms to describe essentialls identicalthinking skills. What to reading teachersare "critical reading" skills, social stud-ies teachers customarily call "criticalthinking" and language arts teachers call"analysis." Direct teacher instructioll illhow to apply a previously learned skill tonew forms of data, content, or media isindispensable for students to broadentheir knowledge and masterv of thinkingskills.

In sum, teaching a thinking skill con-sists of purposeful instructioln carriedout over a period of time-instructionthat introduces students to a skill andthen prov ides guided practice and rcin-forcement in using the skill in a varichof settings with a variety of mediaStudents do not learn any thinking skillwell simply by employing it unguided.Nor do they learn anyv skill from onlyone or two experiences with it.

Direct instruction. A student's firstformal introduction to a thinking skillcan be accomplished by usinig a simplefive-step process. In this approach ateacher (I introduces the skill to hetaught bv describing an example of it inaction or by having the students actuallydo it. Then. referring to the introduc-tory experience for examples, the teach-er (2) explains the specific steps anrdrules for CxecCting the skill andll (3demonstrates hosw the skill sworks sxiththe content being sttudied. Next. sork-ing in triads or pairs under the teacher'sguidance, the students (4) apply the skillprocedures and rules to data similar to-but not the same as--that used in thedemonstration. Finallv, the studclts (')restate and explain the basic compo-nents of the skill as thev have used thcmlso far. This fifth step is crucial in help-ing students take command of anyr skillAfter each beginning cxpcrience usiig athinking skill. studciits should explainand discuss in some detail what thlcdid. This procedure enables studelits tofocus on the skill as the object of lcarn-ing and helps them come closer topossessing the skill as their own.

Follow-up experience with a thinkingskill is crucial if it is to be learned trmastery. Having been introduced to askill as suggested above, students cain

later suork in groups. pairs., or illixiil-uallv to use the skill oil the content oftheir courses ltollosring each applicl-tion of the skill-andl after guil.iancfromn the teacher stuidcits shouldl thenexplicitly reflect oii I aro d ]i i idhat thexcdid in using the skill

Thinki ng skiills irstniction sholt l ledirect and frequent; it should also be insmall chunks and includr inunldiaefeedback.' .ittlec comiiicing data cxistson hosw frequent such iistrictioni (oightto be, ohviorslh there is a point ofdiminiliishig returis. Fil-rtllcrnllrc. fre-quency of instructionl is conlitiorilcl Ihthe abilities of the students. thie learniiigcns'ironment , the cornplexits atd Ila-ture of the content. and the skill heingtaught. But certainl- in an! !year-longcourse, instructisc practice in a singlethinking skill might wcell be pro-idlcd atleast six to eight times in order to helpstudents learn it to soice degree of ilas-ter .

Furtherniorc. skills inistruction oughtto be in segrmcnts of about 21) ilnintcswith feedback provided inmiiicdiatclx af-ter practice. Iecblhack dloes not alsha!shase to come from thie teacher, hmoise\-er. Rcscarch ildicates that peer fccd-back benefits both tihe giver aniil therecei er

Not Ceers actisits requires usinig thecomplete skill cxactlv as it is norimallexecuted; learninig activities cani soic-times be analogous to the skill rathlerthan equialetnt to it For cxansplc.instead of going through the hilsic pro-cedures that conistitutce s iithcsiingdata, students can idcdetift or pick outexamples of such s!-lithctic statelllcntsfromnl a nurirlher of statc'ienlts of sarls igdegrees of specificits. Ains ering or dis-cussing questions such as thie follohniligserses as one tspe of such skill practicc:

Which rf thic fllomillS g secitencit, I)cilincludes all the other'rs

Captaill Silithl forecud CettICrs to urkifish incts anrd to plat corn

2 He also ordcrcd pcl)plc to gather ir stcMrand to pick ,all berrics to cat

3 Johnm Smith rulte l.idaicstomii cmloimwith a firm harndi

4 Smrithi punishcld cttlcrs whif traldlctools for Incdian corn

In this and similar acti-itics, studentscan analyze and judge snctcenccs toidentif' s'nthcsces. ''lhe essential folluo\-up discussion of their choices can be asinstructive as slnthlesizilng their oungeneralizations from scratch--and lessmonotonousi.

EI)uCATI()NAI. LEADF.RSHIP46

Teachers do not have to interruptcontent lessons to teach thinking skills.Just as in teaching reading and writingskills, teaching a specific thinking skillcan proceed, coincide with, or followuse of that skill. " Before using a newskill students can engage in the five-stepprocess outlined above and-in the lasttwo steps--employ the skill with teacherguidance each time it is needed tocomplete the subject-matter task athand. Teachers can also provide in-struction while students actually use theskill by means of written skill guides thatprovide step-by-step directions on howto use the skill. And, after students havecompleted a skill-using task and havediscussed their substantive findings,they can reflect on the procedures usedin employing the skill. This final activi-ty is as instructionally useful as demon-stration before using the skill. Teacherswho provide a number of skill teachingactivities during and after "doing" a skillmay well improve student learning ofthat skill.

There are other techniques for pro-viding direct instruction in thinkingskills. The important point, however, isthat effective learning of thinking skillsrequires direct teaching. Without ex-plicit direction on how to engage in aspecific skill, students can flounder tothe point of frustration and end uplearning very little of the skill.

Integrated instruction. A third featureof effective thinking skills teaching in-volves integrating skill instruction withinstruction in subject-matter and otherskills. One thinking skill is not used in

isolation from others nor in isolationfrom content. How we process informa-tion shapes what information we useand what we learn from it. And what weseek to learn shapes the thinking skillsthat we use to manipulate information.

Instruction in thinking skills can beintegrated into any subject in at leasttwo ways. The first is with subject-matter instruction. This is advisable, inpart, because students are more motivat-ed to learn a skill when instruction inthat skill coincides with their need touse it to accomplish a goal related to thesubject matter. Furthermore, most stu-dents regard subject matter learning asthe main goal of instruction. Evidencealso suggests that explicit teaching ofcognitive skills in subject-matter coursesimproves the learning of that subjectmatter as well as the skills themselves. '°

A most propitious time to beginteaching the skill of detecting bias, forexample, might well be in a socialstudies course when students are tolearn more about the encounters be-tween Europeans and Africans in theAfrican interior in the 19th century.Guided analysis of European and Afri-can accounts of the same event can helpstudents learn how to analyze data forbias in order to learn more about theoverall subject. Teachers can thus maxi-mize student learning of both contentand specific thin ig skills by teachingstudents how to use a given skill toaccomplish specific content-related ob-jectives. Similar opportunities for cou-pling skills instruction with contentlearning abound in all courses.

Instruction in thinking skills can alsobe integrated with instruction in otherskills. Students can classifv data in orderto infer statements about a topic andthen test these statements as hypothesesin reading assignments. They can, ineffect, classify data (a thinking skill) togenerate a purpose for reading (a readingcomprehension skill). As the studentsprepare to classify such data, the teachercan provide the necessan- instruction orguidance in how to execute the skill.Students can further use the inferencesgenerated bv the classifications ashypotheses to be tested in reading moreof the text. Thes can also classifC infor-mation to generate a topic sentence for awriting exercise and be taught h-a- toclassifv at the same time. In a subse-quent writing assignment, they can de-velop that topic sentence into a testablehypothesis. Skills instruction should beisolated neither from the study of sub-ject matter nor from instruction in otherskills.

Developmental instruction. As stu-dents move upward through the grades.thev customarily deal with materials,content, and ideas that are increasinglycomplex, abstract, and sophisticatedThe teaching of thinking skills shouldkeep pace with this progression in orderto help students develop the skills to dealwith these increasingly sophisticatedmaterials and tasks.

Instruction in thinking skills at onegrade level should build on thinkingskills introduced in previous grades andset up skills to be introduced in succeed-ing grades. Thus, for example, instruc-tion in classifying ought to precede andset up later instruction in the skill ofgeneralizing. Such teaching should alsoreinforce previously introduced skills byhaving students apply these skills indifferent settings with appropriate reviewand reflection.

For example, teachers can provideinstruction in elementary grades in rath-er low-level skills such as simple com-prehending, classifying, comparing,and contrasting. In later grades they.canteach the more complex skills of makingrelationships; analyzing part-whole rela-tionships; identifying bias, assumptions.and frame of reference; analyzing thelogic of an argument; and even synthe-sizing and evaluating.

The developmental teaching of think-ing skills refines or broadens skills asstudents use them over the years. Thus,

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47NOVEMBER 1983

the skill of classification can be refinedand extended in later courses as theskills of multiple classification andmulti-variahlec classification: the skill ofidentifying frame of reference ma! berefined later as the skill of detecting bias

Providing systematic, dexcloplicntalinstruction in thinking skills in e-quenees builds on tile cognitise desxcl-opment of students. l)epeldig oil thekinds of data swith swhich students usethese skills, such teaching can also helpmove students from concrete operation-al thinking to more formal. abstractreasoning.

Waiting to provide formal instrilctionin certain skills until students arc olderdoes not mean younger stidelts cainlotengage in tasks that require simple xcr-sions of those skills. Y'oungsters in theprimary grades comnlonilx make judg-ments and separate rcelxant from irrele-vant data. It is important. howesCer, thatin earlier grades teachers shiould notexpect to provide formlal instruction inthe more complex skills, nor shouldthey expect soungsters in the Io0cergrades to learn all the procedures il-volved in particular thinking skills.

Learning a thinking skill is a task thatis rarely "done." Skill learning contiii-ues throughout life as indi iduals useskills in various contexts for %ariouspurposes. But once students Iea\ eschool, formal instruction in thinkingskills is quite likehl to cease. It is ecrsimportant, therefore, that direct, dcecl-opmental instruction in these skills coni-tinue as long as possible so students canmove aswav from teacher-directed Iearn-ing to more and more self-direction

Curriculum Guidelines for MoreEffective Thinking Skills T'eachingIn addition to the teaching conditionsand strategies that create more effectiveclassroom instruction in thinking skills.certain curricular conditions are neces-sarv. The following seem most signifi-cant:

I. The curriculum should focus oniintroducing only a fesw-perhaps threeto five-new thinking skills per gradelevel and on providing repeated practiceand reinforcement in these skillsthroughout that grade and in subsc-quent grades. At any single grade.teachers should also provide opportuni-ties for students to receive guided prac-tice in using and extending skills intro-duced in previous grades. To be most

effectixe, anll thinking skills programshould concentrate on a fcss skills at atime and provide continuiing instructionin each.

2. Curriculum guides and( other ma-terials should describe for teachers. in asmuch detail as possible. the essentialcompolents of each thlinking skill to betaught. These guides should also suggeststrategies for introducing and rciliforc-ing each skill wsith appropriate subjectmatter at prescribed places throughout acourse or sequence of courses. \t themoment, most thinking skills taught areso ill-defined that what passes for theseskills is quite idiosuicratic and ratherinconsistenit from onie district (indeedfrom one classroom or teacher) to all-other. I The s\av ill \hich criticalthinking is defined, or not ldefled, il-lustrates this confsion over skills 'I'osome educators critical thinking is care-ful and exact evaluation andI judgment.()thers consiCler critical thinking to bcesubjecting a topic to sesere criticisin.Still others define critical thinking asthoughtful considleration about issues ofgreat import, issues that imply consider-able risk or danger. F'inally. some teach-ers consider critical thinking to consistof a range of ecrn specific analhtical ore aluatise skills such as identifying biasin a statement, judginig the logic of allarguiment. or evaluatilIg the accuracs ofgiluen factual claim. These definitionsquite clearly imply different conceptionsof this skill. It is thus not surprising tofind that Mhat is taught as critical think-ing differs considerabls from one class-room to the next, as well as fromn onesubject area to another.

A detailed, readily available descrip-tion of specific thinking skills call pro-vide a common basis for instruictioln,continuiht of instruction across gradelevels, and more objective evaluation ofskill learning. Moreover, such descrip-tions can help maintain -!he crucialdistinctions between specific cognitiveskills and the more comprehensive skill-using strategies of problem solving, de-cision making. and conceptualizinlg. '

Communicating clear, detailed descrip-tions of every thinking skill to be formal-vly taught and tested in anv programdistinguishes top quality curricula fronmmediocre ones.

3. An effective skills curricululm alsorelates thinking skills to be taught in onecontent area to those taught in otherareas. It is dysfunctional and a waste of

time and resources for teachers ill one

subject area to teach skills in isolationfrom other subject areas that use thesame and related skills. 'The compo-nents of the generic skill of analysis, forexample, are essentially the salmeregardless of the subject matter in w hichthis skill is cimplosed(

In fact, an effective thinking skillscurriculum should provide for a dis-trichtide pattern of introduicilg, rein-forcing. and extending these skillsthroughout all subject matter areas.While responsibility for providing initialinstruction in any given skill mai beclcarly assigned to different subiect areasat various grade levels, responsihilit- forreinforcing and extenrding it should hespread among other subject areas asappropriate.

)ne crucial feature of such a lis-trictwide skills program must be a com-Tmion instructional language. Until allteachers in a district appls the sailieterms to the same intellectual skills,students cannot successfully transfer theskills learned inl one class. nor canlteachers improsve their teaching of theseskills

4. A thinking skills curriculumshould also use a swide varicts of mediaThe skill of comprehension, for exam-pie. can be taught with finms, filmstrips,records, and oral reports as *well as withwritten texts. Providing for instructionand reinforcenlent in any particularthinking skill using graphs. theli Siaps,then narrative text, then a documeut,and then paintings, and so on cani ex-tend a student's competency in the skilland facilitate transfer as well as providevariety in the learning environnsenitProviding continuing instruction in askill using a wide range of materials andmedia across a range of different subjectsis an essential feature of developmentalskills instruction. School curriculashould make explicit provisionis for thistype of instruction

Teaching Thinking Skills Across theCurriculumThe goal of teaching thinking skills isnot simply to teach such skills to theexclusion of all else: it is to equipstudents with the thinking tools theyneed in order to learn. Knowledge andskills learning are closely related. Re-search suggests that systematic attentionto skills instruction improves subjectmatier learning, just as learning of skills

48EuAiNLL.nI5i48 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

is enhanced w hcn students rececie in-struction in a skill at thce time that skill isneeded to accomplish a subjcect mattcr-related goal.'" Teaching thinking skillsand content is not an either-or proposi-tion.

Admittedly, providing effective in-structioll in thinking skills in arioussubiects is no casv task. Mluch remCainsto be donce to identify how best this canbe accomplished. tlovwccr. the ideasontlincd her mav awell ser e as uscffllguidelines to achici iig this iinmlortantgoal. 1

IPhilip I i Willln "''l'xperinellts RelatingTeachers' Ulse of Highllr Cogiliisc QOues-tions to Studcnt Achic\cinlent. Review ofEducational Research 49 (\Willtr I9791: 13-49; Doris L. Redfield and Elaine \VceldranRousseaul. "Analssis of Experimrental Re-search on Teacher .Qncstionilng Belhaior,''Review of Educational Research 3 ISummlcr1981): 27-245

'Michael I Posner anld Stc\cn \VI Keele."Skill Leaniing." in Second Handbook ofResearch on Teaching. ed R G. C(age (Chi-cago: Rand MlcNallv College PublishingCo., 19721, pp 805-831l

'Jamrs 1H Block, Mastery Learning (INesYork: Holt. Rinlchart and \Vilstol. 1971).

4Sec the siummarsa bs Barak Rosclshine illASCD Ulpdate, June 1982. p ,. as \aell asBlock, op cit

'Herbcrt K llaulsinier aild J Kel t Dal is."Transfer of Learnig,." il Encvclopedia ofEducational Research (NcI York: Nlacrlil-lan Publishinlg Co, 1969). pp 1438-1493

`'Posncr and Kcclec. pp. 805-831.-Elizabeth F. Hasnes. "lUsing Research in

Preparing to Teach Writing," IEnglish lour-nal 67 (January 1978): 82-88.

'John Lundstruiln, "Readinlg ill the SocialStudies: A Preliminary Anlalsis of RecentResearch," Social Education 40 (lanuary1976): 10-18; Hay nes. op cit.

"Carl Berciter, "Elemenltars School: Ne-cessiht or Colvenience?" , ElementarySchool lournal '3 (May 1973): 43 i-446.

"'Thonlas H Estes, "Reading ill the So-cial Studies-A Reiews of Research Since1950," in Reading in the Content Areas. edJames I. laffers (Newark: Dcl: Internation-al Reading Association. 1972). pp 178-183.

"Louis Raths and others. Teaching forThinking (Columbus: Charles E lTMerrillPublishing Co., 1967U. p I 13ff

2Richard W. Bumrns and Garn D. Brooks,"Processes, Problem Solving and Curricu-lum Reform," Educational Technology 10(May 1970): 1(-13

I'Lundstrnm. op. cit.; .stes, op cit

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