Thinking Illuminated

What are the thinking skills that are important for our students that will support their emergence as empowered learners?

Penny

Thompson

David

A number of interactions and experiences sparked my initial curiosity regarding thinking skills. What are the essential thinking skills that require a focus if we are to empower learners.

Originally, during our first In and Out sharing session, which followed our Leadership DIG, colleague observation and feedback indicated that I was not the only one cognisant of the fact that thinking skills needed to be brought back into the spotlight if learners were to successfully engage in learning sprints.

Then, a visit to Griffin State School for the NOIIE Symposium, further reinforced how important it is for a school to clearly define the thinking skills valued by the community and to live and breath these throughout each and every classroom. Griffin described these as 'Learning Assets'.

It became so clear that this had to be the next piece of work for Woodcrest State College.

Then again, following a meeting with Rebekah Beck, and hearing the work she is engaged in with her staff in Oregon, I once again found that I was not the only one who also wondered about the power of developing these thinking dispositions with our learners. Rebekah introduced me to the book 'The Power of Making Thinking Visible' by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church. I was so inspired to know more, I purchased a few copies for myself and a few members of my college Innovation Team, so that we could explore together how we might build into our school culture a clearly defined and understood vision for learning with a set of thinking skills (or learning assets) that would deepen learning, ignite curiosity and engagement, and ultimately empower all learners.

After our discussion yesterday, my thinking was taken even further into a space of measurement. With the Innovation Team at Woodcrest having decided that their purpose would be, To create rich, authentic learning environments that empower learners and provide opportunities to collaborate and experience being innovative global citizens, how would we measure what empowered learners looks like, sounds like, feels like? What would the lead and lag measures be and how will this research into thinking skills develop further clarity for this work?

When I was writing my book, I began to ponder more deeply what 'reimagined' education might mean. Yes, an experience where students were engaged and becoming empowered. But how might one define it in a way that would better align with their life after formal education – one where they are likely working in a new creative economy?

I was intrigued when I discovered that classical education was defined by a Trivium comprised of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. I began to ponder what the trivium might be for education reimagined to prepare our students for this new economy.

I sensed that what we sought was more than knowledge and skills – what our society increasingly needs are creative thinkers who are empowered creative problem solvers.

There were three types of creative thinking that innovation-based companies look for when they hire new talent: Process Thinking, Design Thinking and Systems Thinking. I began to wonder if these might constitute our new trivium for education reimagined.

The DIG framework utilizes all three types of thinking – that is, in part, why I believe it's so powerful. We also now recognize that this process is a wonderful way to make 'thinking visible' for each learner.

We know that it is important to 'measure what matters'. I wonder if we were to dive into the nature of these three types of thinking might we be able to uncover that which could be used for both quantitative and qualitative assessment at different year levels?

I remain intrigued by the power of the trivium, and the idea that process, design and systems thinking might be a new way to approach education.

It also seems to me that the DIG not only makes thinking visible (or has the potential too) but also to ‘feel’ it, to take it from the conscious or cognitive to a more sensory place. The frustration of the learning pit – the joy of the eureka moment - is that the reimagined education piece?

Also, Penny did you tell me that ACEL are hosting a series of workshops by Ron Ritchhard on Saturdays in October??

There are some teachers at Griffin who have been experimenting with naming the feelings of the learning journey. They have a wall that students use to post up these feelings. Perhaps we can ask Jess to give us more insight into how these 'feeling walls' are being used in the classroom.

My own thinking has definitely shifted, and quite rapidly, from being so quick to identify a definitive set of 'thinking skills' to guide our instruction at Woodcrest State College, to exploring thinking dispositions that deepen learning and scaffold and encourage students' agency over their own learning. To personally engage in meaningful and connected ways.

This idea of a Core Trivium as a framework for pedagogical instruction would open the door to new and creative ways to engage our learners and reignite the passion within our teachers.

I was gardening today. One of the flowers are freesias. The scent always takes me back to my childhood and my Great Aunt’s house on the Brisbane river. I only went there a few times but that magical garden I could describe with some detail and largely because of the scent of those flowers. When memories are attached to the senses, emotions … are these the same as ‘feelings’.

So I wonder if the power in connecting with a students's Narrative Identity might be matched if other elements of 'self' can be drawn into the learning experience.

The narrative identity is the story we tell ourselves. Where have I been, where am I now, and where might I go?

It seems that by attaching the learning to past experiences, it becomes grounded deep within us and becomes meaningful. But we also seek learning that reshapes where we think we might go. What do we now wonder?

Might that help us think about what we are looking for when we ponder assessment? Do students have a learner's identity – a growth mindset – thinking dispositions – that allows them to courageously enter learning journeys? Are students having experiences of making meaning – aha moments – that gives them new understanding of their world? Are students wondering about their world in new ways, leading them to previously unseen avenues of learning and life opportunities?