Making Thinking Visible

Bonnie Tsai, France

Bonnie Tsai is a teacher and teacher trainer who has worked around the world running teacher training courses for teachers of all ages, levels, and needs. She has been trained in such humanistic approaches such as Suggestopaedia, N.L.P. and Psychodramaturgie Lingusitque. She has studied the theory and practice of Multiple Intelligences with Dr. Howard Gardner at Harvard University. She is laso a long time Pilgrims trainer. E-mail: tsaibonnie@hotmail.com / www.bonnie.tsai.net

The world has changed and is changing more and more rapidly. We as teachers are faced with the greatest challenge: how to teach the 21st century learner. 21st century learners want to be challenged. They want to be involved in their own learning process. They want to be able to make connections between what they are doing in the classroom and the real world. They do not want to sit in a classroom where they are being asked to follow a boring out of date course book. They do not want a teacher who has no idea what their students’ world is like. They do not want to learn “stuff” they will never use and will forgot after the next test.

So how are teachers going to stand up and be counted as a 21st century teacher? How are we going to engage our students beyond just entertaining them? Visible Thinking is a way of helping us to achieve this goal. Visible Thinking is a broad and flexible framework for enriching classroom learning in content areas and at the same time fosters students' intellectual development. It is a means to enable students to become aware of their own thinking processes through following a series of challenging frameworks that actually makes their thinking visible to students and to you, their teachers.

Here are some of its key elements of visible thinking:

• Deeper understanding of content
• Greater motivation and involvement in learning
• Development of learners' thinking and learning abilities
• Development of learners' attitudes toward thinking and learning and their alertness to opportunities for thinking and learning.

This results in a shift in classroom culture toward a community of enthusiastically engaged thinkers and learners.

Here is an example of a visible thinking routine:

See Think Wonder: Exploring Works of Art and Other

Interesting Things

Give students some artefacts, objects or a work of art to look at.

Ask them to reflect on the following three questions:

What do you see?

What do you think about that?

What does it make you wonder?

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage?

This routine encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry.

Application: When and where can it be used?

Use this routine when you want students to think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the way it is. Use the routine to motivate students’ interest or try it with an object that connects to a topic in a course book.

Consider using the routine with an interesting object near the end of a topic to encourage students to further apply their new knowledge and ideas.

Launch: What are some tips for starting and using this routine?

Ask students to make an observation about an object – it could be an artwork, image, artefact or a topic – and follow up with what they think might be going on or what they think this observation might be. Encourage students to back up their interpretation with reasons. Ask students to think about what this makes them wonder about the object or topic. The routine works best when a student responds by using the three stems together at the same time,

i.e., "I see..., I think..., I wonder...." However, you may find that students begin by using one stem at a time, and that you need to scaffold each response with a follow up question for the next stem.

The routine works well in a group discussion but in some cases you may want to ask students to try the routine individually on paper or in their heads before sharing out as a class. Student responses to the routine can be written down and recorded so that a class chart of observations, interpretations and wonderings are listed for all to see and return to during the course of study.

In this course you learn how to further your ideas about how thinking routines and other cultural forces can create a classroom atmosphere were learners are able to develop and use thinking skills. You will also learn how a culture of thinking is important at the level of teachers as well as students, and how teacher study groups can constitute a force for building a culture of thinking through a school. Finally, you will get acquainted with several other resources that can help you carry Visible Thinking further.

If you decide to come to Pilgrims and following the Visible Thinking course you will find it will make a real difference in your results in the classroom.

I look forward to meeting you on the Hilltop in 2013!

Please check the Making Thinking Visible course at Pilgrims website.