Developing Thinking Skills

The idea of teaching thinking is not new. It is part of life-long learning. Better thinking brings more success in learning and in life. But what are thinking skills? And how are they developed?
Thinking skills are the mental processes in thinking. If thinking is how we make sense of experience, then better thinking will help us to learn more from our experience and to make better use of our intelligence.
Irrespective of age, learning how to think will help develop intelligence. It will help us to get more out of learning and out of life.

In order to help children to think, parents must first let them think. Parents must encourage kids to be curious, to ask questions, to use precise language, to listen with understanding and empathy, to draw on past knowledge, and to be aware of their own thinking as well as of others. Parents must realise that if children are to function successfully in a highly technical and interactive society, then they must be equipped with effective thinking skills. It encourages children to become self-directed, autonomous learners who can apply their skills to challenges throughout their lives, in school, on the job, and in the pursuit of personal growth beyond their traditional school years.

To set the stage for thinking; you must create and maintain a "thinking environment." Physical aspects of the thinking environment are enough concentration, resources that aid thinking, eating well, getting sufficient rest, etc. Other aspects of a thinking environment, however, are psychological - the home and classroom needs to provide a physical and psychological security. It should be an environment of mutual respect, of encouragement, of humour, of open-mindedness. The dignity of the individual and his right to independent thinking must be respected.

Thinking is also an observation of one's thoughts. It is born out of observation of the outside phenomena. Hence, this observation of the outer leads to an observation of the inner.

Thinking can be considered to be an integration of:

Critical thinking
Creative thinking

"Critical thinking" and "creative thinking" are essential thinking skills to develop. You will see that these two types of thinking are complementary powers of the human intellect - the ability to judge and the ability to generate. In fact, good thinkers continuously blend both types of thinking in accomplishing their personal and professional goals.

Thinking for themselves
The development of children's thinking has long been an educational ideal and there is ample evidence from research literature to suggest that the teaching of thinking should be the major focus for education. Yet, the gap between theory and practice can be difficult to bridge and, while the development of thinking skills is seen as the key to raising educational standards and to educating children to live successfully in the 'information age', it is frequently the least emphasised activity in classroom practice.
Many school going children are experts at recalling information imbibed in school, but unable to deal effectively with the real-life issues that confront them. Schools are blamed for not producing individuals who can think for themselves. In the light of this, parents must definitely play the important role of guiding their children to think for themselves!

How can parents help their children think more actively?

Remember, if your children are active participants in a home where there is talk about the why and the how of things, they are more likely to be active thinkers both in and out of school.

I. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Critical thinking consists of three steps:

Characteristics of Critical Thinkers

Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking

1. Six Thinking Hats
Dr. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats method invented early in the 1980's is used as a framework for thinking and incorporates parallel thinking. There are six metaphorical hats indicating the type of thinking being used. The thinker can accordingly put on or take off one of these hats. When done in-group, everybody wears the same hat at the same time.

The Six Thinking Hats is an attention-directing tool, as it directs attention towards certain aspects and one type of thinking at a time. This method facilitates one sort of thinking at a time as each of the six coloured hats represent one type of thinking.

White Hat Thinking covers facts, figures, and information needs and gaps.
Red Hat Thinking covers intuition, feelings and emotions, allowing the thinker to put forward an intuition without any need to justify it.
Black Hat Thinking is of judgment and caution, used to point out why a suggestion does not fit the facts, the available experience, the system in use, or the policy that is being followed. The black hat must always be logical.
Yellow Hat Thinking is the logical positive, used in looking forward to the results of some proposed action, and also to find something of value in what has already happened.
Green Hat Thinking calls for creativity, alternatives, proposals, what is interesting, provocations and changes.
Blue Hat Thinking is the overview or process control, which looks not at the subject itself but at the 'thinking' about the subject.

Using the Six Hats ask children to look at the problem from different angles.

Example: Excessive TV viewing

White Hat-State the facts
Children watch TV during study time
Less time to do read and do homework
If parents are busy elsewhere children watch TV
Learn information from TV
Some information misguide children
Television takes the place of play
May become an addiction
Influenced by the commercials
Children watch TV during meals

Red Hat-State the emotions
Parents feel offended
Children are stressed out

Black Hat-Negative aspects
It has a negative effect on school achievement
Children stay up late in the night to complete work and go to school tired
Negative impact on children’s physical fitness
Interferes with the social development of children
Time is wasted
Learning is compromised

Yellow Hat-Positives of the situation are examined
Informative
Product information through commercials
Entertainment
Family time together watching a favourite movie or sporting event
Opens vast information to non-readers
Promote learning and growth
Encourage viewing of programs with characters who are kind, caring, and cooperative to promote positive learning
Involve children in a discussion of the positives and negatives about what is depicted on television
Help children to critically evaluate advertisements

Green Hat-Creative ideas that come with seeing the problem in a new light
Children could sign a contract on time spent on TV viewing
Allow a TV Viewing day

Blue Hat-Sum up what is learned
Setting limits on how long and when children should watch television
Parents could watch TV along with their children
Encourage appropriate viewing. Allow children to select the few television shows he or she will watch. Presentlimited choices.
Involve children in other activities of their interest around the house or outdoors
Model good viewing habits
Educate their children about television