Thursday Thirteen #23 - What are we thinking?

10 Indicators of Intellectual Growth
in Kids and Ourselves

as shared by Art Costa in 1985
(plus 3 more thoughts for your consideration)

In the 1980s I worked with Art Costa and others on a Task Force to develop programs to enhance and extended Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in California's schools. This morning I happened upon an entertaining and thought-provoking link at Claudia's ... and I've decided to share a bit of 'food for thought' this morning in my T-13.

I hope you'll take time to view the link yourself and read on ... perhaps passing some of these ideas on to family & friends too. Together we can do more than any of us can do alone ... and it's definitely time for change when it comes to educating our kids for a future we have no way to envision.

First some 'Quotes to Consider'

1. "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry." Albert Einstein

2. "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Alvin Toffler

3. "Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality." Beatrix Potter

Hopefully we'll figure out how to 'rethink our educational systems' as we refine our understanding of 'intelligence' as being 'diverse, dynamic, and distinct' as Sir Ken Robinson suggests. In the meantime, according to Art Costa, here are specific signs of improved thinking you can observe in yourselves and others ... especially the children in your life ... as schools continue to 'develop the left side' of their brains:

4. Perseverance - "Students often give up in despair when the answer to a problem is not evident. They are unable to analyze problems or develop systems, structures, or strategies to solve them. Thinking students grow in their problem-solving strategies. If one strategy doesn't work, they know how to back up and try another. They realize that the first theory or idea must be rejected and another employed. They use systematic methods to analyze problems and know how to begin, what steps to perform, and what data to generate or collect."

5. Decreased impulsiveness - "Students often give the first answer that comes to mind. ... As students become less impulsive, we observe a decrease in the number of erasures on their papers. They gather information and make sure they understand directions before beginning tasks, take time to reflect on answers before giving them, listen to alternative points of view, and plan problem-solving strategies."

6. Flexible thinking - "Some students have difficulty considering alternate points of view or dealing with more than one classification system simultaneously. Their way ... seems to be the only way. They are more interested in knowing whether their answers are correct than being challenged by the process of finding the answer, and are unable to sustain the process. As students become more flexible they can consider, express, or paraphrase the viewpoints or rationales of others. They can state several ways of solving the same problem and evaluate the merits and consequences of alternate course of action."

7. Metacognition - "Some people are unaware of their own thinking processes. They are unable to describe the steps or strategies they use during problem solving, cannot transform into words the visual images held in their minds, and seldom evaluate the quality of their own thinking skills. We can determine that students are becoming more aware of their own thinking as they are able to describe what goes on in their heads when they think ... list the steps and tell where they are in the sequence of a problem solving strategy ... trace the pathways and blind alleys they took on the road to the solution."

8. Careful review - "Students are often careless when turning in their completed work ... less inclined to reflect on the accuracy ... contemplate their precision, or take pride in their accomplishments. Getting the assignment over with quickly is more important ... than craftsmanship. We can recognize growth in students' desires for accuracy as they take time to check over their tests and papers and become more conscientious about precision, clarity, and perfection."

9. Problem posing - "One of the distinguishing characteristics between humans and other life forms is our ability to find problems. ... We want to see a shift from teachers asking questions and posing problems to students asking questions and finding problems themselves. ... asking questions like these:

• "What evidence do you have?" or "How do you know that's true?"
• "What do you think would happen if ...?" or "If that is true, then ... ?"
• "What would happen if we put the saltwater fish in the freshwater aquarium?" or "What are some alternative solutions to international conflicts other than wars?"

10. Use of past knowledge and experiences - "Too often students begin teasks as if they were being approached for the very first time ... (rather than recalling) how they solved a similar problem previously. Thinking students are able to abstract meaning from past experiences and apply it to new experiences. Students show growth in this ability as they say things like "This reminds me of ..." or "This is just like the time when we ..." They call on their store of knowledge and experiences as sources of data to support, theories to explain, and processes to solve each new challenge."

11. Transference beyond the learning situation - "The ultimate goal of teaching thinking skills is for students to apply school-learned knowledge in real-life situations. When parents and other teachers report how they have observed students thinking at home and in other classes, we know students are transferring."

12. Precise language - "Some student's language is confused, vague, or imprecise ... using non-specific words such as 'weird, nice, okay ... junk or things' with sentences punctuated with 'ya know, er, and um'. As student's language becomes more precise they use more descriptive words to distinguish attributes ... correct names ... and when universal labels are unavailable, they use analogies such as 'crescent-shaped or like a bowtie' ... they speak in complete sentences, voluntarily provide supportive evidence for their ideas, elaborate, clarify, and operationally define their terminology. Their speech becomes more concise, descriptive, and coherent."

13. Enjoyment of problem solving - "Some children and adults avoid problems ... saying things like 'Thinking games turn me off' or 'I was never good at brain-teasers' ... and perceive thinking as hard work. ... We want to see students move toward not only an 'I can' attitude, but also an 'I enjoy' feeling. They will display increased independence and not need as much help and intervention from teachers. Statements such as 'Don't tell me the answer, I can figure it out myself' indicate growing autonomy."

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Thought for Today
(I've used this one before ... but methinks it bears repeating)
"If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge of values, of attitude, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning." Carl Rogers