Sharon R. Berry, PhD, is a well-known speaker and author, having more than 200 products to her credit. She was the director of curriculum for ACSI for several years, and she now serves as vice president of Christian Academic Publications and Services.
Learning is defined by change in thinking—not just rote memorization and parroting of facts but the deep discernment about why events occur and how we can affect them. Good judgment, the ultimate test of education, depends on recognizing the connections across various disciplines, understanding cause and effect, identifying both extraneous information and the absence of essential information, formulating time-sensitive plans for the future, communicating and coordinating the implementation of those plans, and thus accomplishing wellconsidered objectives and goals.
“Good stuff!” you say? “But how can that happen in the confines of my classroom? After all, I’m responsible for a large number of students and a board-adopted curriculum that leaves little or no time for teaching thinking skills. Even if I had the time, I’m not sure how I would even approach such a task.”
The purpose of this article is to address these specific issues. But first, let’s take a look at a couple of teachers, both based on fact but fictionalized to protect their identities. The first teacher assigns and works through several classic and contemporary literature selections. Her students must memorize the basic facts by the end of the unit. They also have to compare and contrast various aspects across the selections, define their similarities, judge the authors’ intents and how well they were accomplished, decipher reality from exaggeration, extract life principles, and discuss personal application of those principles. Her students agree that she is tough, but they pay her the highest of compliments in the statement, “She makes us think.”
The second teacher provides study guides of essential information that definitely will appear on some future exam. Both students and parents thus have a very clear understanding of the facts that must be learned to earn the grade desired. Unfortunately, students have to memorize lots of information for unrelated units. Students must copy the study guides onto personal note cards, for which they receive extra credit. While perhaps not representative of the whole class, one student was cramming for an exam when his parent asked, “So, what’s the relationship between the wattage used and my monthly electricity bill?” His response? “We don’t need to understand it, just memorize it.”
You get the point, right? You, like most teachers, want students to learn; otherwise you wouldn’t be a teacher. The challenge is how to teach so that we produce good thinkers. We can’t assume that becoming good thinkers automatically happens when students are simply exposed to information. Neither can we assume that it is someone else’s responsibility. All teachers must purposefully incorporate the development of thinking skills regardless of their subject matter or grade level. This process is called infusion—every subject, every hour, every teacher consciously challenging students with higher-order thought processes.
Recent research into how the brain perceives and stores information provides insight into the executive center located in the frontal lobes of the brain. Though the brain is in continuous development throughout life, it also experiences periods of sporadic generation. These findings correspond with theories proposed by child development experts. They also correspond with Luke’s account of Jesus at age 12 and Jesus’ initiation of earthly ministry around age 30.
As the executive center of the brain matures, five major shifts in thinking occur—all associated with the critical thinking we desire in our students. A brief explanation of these five shifts follows.
From external events to internal events. No longer controlled by outward random circumstances, the maturing executive center allows us to remember similar past experiences, envision potential outcomes, and chart a course that accomplishes a purposeful objective.
From other-control to self-control. Instead of simply reacting to immediate circumstances or authorities, the maturing executive center mediates emotions, controls attention, and directs us toward positive, considered, purposeful responses.
From the temporal now to the anticipated future. Anyone who has answered a young child’s question, “Are we there yet?” for the 10th time understands children’s limited understanding of time. As the executive center of our brain develops, we have an expanded concept of time and its limitations. This development allows us to start projects early and finish them on time. It also allows us to envision an eternal future after death.
From dependence on immediate to delayed gratification. “The younger the child, the more immediate must be the reinforcement” is a principle learned in Behavior Modification 101. However, the maturing executive center allows us to both delay rewards and work for intangible rewards, such as the internal motivation of a job well done.
From a focus on self to a focus on the good of others. This sense of altruism is extended to individuals and corporately to caring for a family, serving the public good, or entering religious service. It reflects the second great commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
By now you may be asking what relationship exists between this information and your need to teach the parts of a microscope or the major dates and battles of the Civil War. That question brings us to another important principle extracted from brain research. The brain matures in response to the types of stimulation it encounters. Without stimulation, the higher-order thinking skills will not development automatically.
On the other hand, the more directed stimulation the brain experiences, the more mature and efficient our thinking can become. This stimulation must occur naturally within the normal experiences of life. In fact, contrived programs focused on thinking skills are ineffective. The bottom line is simply the need that students have to be continuously challenged to think more strategically and deeply about the subjects they are learning.
Understanding the importance of the focus by all teachers on the infusion of thinking skills does not automatically translate to immediate ease of implementation. Unfortunately, a large dissonance always exists between what we know is right and what we actually do. Our challenge now is to put knowledge into practice. How can we better infuse strategic thinking into our daily teaching?
Proverbs 2:1–6 and 9–11 inform our Christian commitment to good instructional strategies related to the infusion of thinking skills:
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding…. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. (NIV)
Toward the end of the twentieth century, educational theorists struggled to identify and order the skills germane to good thinking. These proved unmanageable both in their number and organization. Yet Proverbs 2 provides a natural structure and hierarchy based on knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and application. Obviously, effective teachers, especially those committed to biblical principles, will want to incorporate these four elements. In order to understand them better, it is helpful to look at various aspects in terms of typical descriptors.
Knowledge. Knowledge involves the following: the reception and storage of information, including a rich background of experience, a large body of content information from various fields, an extensive vocabulary, established patterns and relationships (based on similarities, contrasts, connections, and consequent categories); an internal dialogue that does such tasks as raising questions, identifying absurdities, seeking additional information, fitting parts to wholes; information carefully stored into memory systems in such a way that the information is purposely related to previous knowledge and relevant to personal interests and needs; and effective retrieval from an accurate, extensive store of information and experiences.
Understanding. Understanding deals with the internal reasoning and manipulation of information, including an expansive network of information based on various relationships and patterns; efficient systems for connecting and organizing information across disciplines; abstract representations (both verbal and visual); internal dialogue that breaks complex information into component, manageable parts; the relating of new experiences or information to what is already known; logical identification of such characteristics as significant components, structure, priority, sequence, cause and effect, if-then relationships, fallacies, inaccuracies, and gaps of essential information; the proposal and testing of assumptions that lead to inferences, logical conclusions, and hypotheses about outcomes; the entertaining of ambiguous information; the act of playing with ideas; reformulation; the discovery of creative approaches; and the rehearsal and reconstruction of information in alternate forms.
Wisdom. Wisdom involves the critical judgment of information, including the formation of potential courses of action based on the ability to discern the validity of information by judging its underlying assumptions, biases, author’s worldview, unsupported statements, spin, extraneous details, non sequiturs, fallacies, fit with previously learned truth, relevance to real-life priorities, and harmony with personal values, belief systems, and worldview (for Christians, especially the teachings of Scripture). It also involves being aware of others’ opinions and emotional states, being self-aware, evaluating rationality of one’s own thoughts, monitoring and mediating one’s personal emotional state, dissipating highly emotionally charged situations, evaluating probabilities and potential actions, and resisting premature judgment related to such factors as emotions, limited information, and time pressures. Lastly, wisdom demands identifying and seeking information needed for effectively making decisions; evaluating the decision-making process related to personal preferences, sufficient information, competing priorities, time constraints, and potential outcomes; and then formulating and articulating a vision of future achievements.
Application. In the application process, decisions and actions are directed toward achieving desired goals, including the expression of thoughtful, considered opinions; suggesting solutions for practical and abstract problems of life; applying well-researched and rehearsed rationale for decisions; determining wise courses of action; planning and executing a well-organized, logical strategy; and then communicating effectively with others affected by decisions. Application requires self-motivation, self-direction, motivation of others toward excellence, evaluation of actions, regrouping and redirecting as is necessary, incorporating a perspective beyond self—such as looking at the corporate benefit and eternal values, and consistently living in accordance with an internalized biblical worldview.
Jack Lochhead (2001) wrote, “We should be teaching students how to think; instead we are primarily teaching them what to think.” Educators can also consider the biblical principles exemplified in Paul’s writings, in which about half of each book is devoted to doctrine and the other half translates doctrine into duty. Whether teaching Bible, literature, math, social studies, or science, we must greatly extend beyond information dissemination to discernment and life application. In fact, internalizing information more deeply actually increases our capacity to absorb greater amounts of general knowledge. Rather than needing to reduce our curricular objectives, we can accomplish them more efficiently and effectively when we incorporate higher-order thought processing. It’s worth thinking it through.
References/Resources
Barkley, Russell. 1999. Executive function and attention deficit. Lecture at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Costa, Arthur L., ed. 1985. Developing minds: A resource book for teaching thinking. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Jenson, Eric. 1996. Brain-based learning. Del Mar, CA: Turning Point Publishing.
Lochhead, Jack. 2001. Thinkback: A user’s guide to minding the mind. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Sousa, David A. 2005. How the brain learns. Rev. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Thinking It Through 10.1