Introduction
Mainstream schools are becoming increasingly focused on guided, personalised, inquiry and project based learning within learning spaces in a collaborative, cohesive community of learners, to address teaching and learning in the 21st Century. Thinking, problem solving, and learning how to learn have therefore become increasingly important. With growing multiculturalism and classroom diversity, school leadership and teachers are looking to teaching and learning strategies that cater for a variety of learning profiles, and thinking processes. Creating autonomous, self-regulated, lifelong learners who have developed the critical thinking skills, self-evaluating and assessing skills, are goals in teaching and learning for the 21st Century.
As a response, differentiated instruction is a paradigm, which is gaining ground in many educational circles. De Bono argues that we also need to teach students to think. De Bono states that to bridge the gap between the huge amounts of pure information that are available digitally, and their own understanding and critical analysis. We need to build students’ capacity for using all the information to solve complex problems, make informed decisions, and in doing so, generate new knowledge which functions richly in their lives, and helps them lead responsible, respectful and productive lives in the 21st Century (De Bono Institute).
English as a Second Language (ESL) new arrivals have two terms in a language school, before transition to a mainstream setting. Once in the mainstream, they participate in an integrated approach in the flexible, open learning areas. They are expected to be part of the ‘community of thinkers’ and a ‘community of learners’, involved in inquiry and project based learning, for which they are often ill-equipped. They are not taught the thinking language to create the ‘fertile’ questions, in a community of learners, and may struggle to participate in the ‘research and concluding performances’ as discussed by Harpaz (2005).
The New Arrivals Program (NAP) is an intensive, specialised program which aims to equip students with the language of English for communication and understanding, the language of Mathematics to comprehend the Mathematical word problems in English, and the language of Science to identify the procedures and terminology of Science. New arrivals also learn the language and skills of basic technology (ICT).
This Action research model proposes an inclusion of teaching the language of thinking, thinking processes and thinking skills, so ESL new arrivals become engaged in the thinking process, and are better equipped for an inquiry disposition required in a mainstream setting.
The e5 Instructional Model Domains outline capabilities related to thinking and performance indicators which model, explore, explain, and promote thinking and support reflection to learn. The Interdisciplinary Strand of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) (and ESL Companion to the VELS) stipulates the domain of Thinking processes and three dimensions of Thinking. Schools for ESL new arrivals should promote teaching and learning of thinking within these contexts.
How to create a culture of thinking and cultivate a classroom of thinkers in a NAP, who can articulate and express and verbalise their thinking in English, is the change project that needs to be implemented. An introduction into the language of thinking and thinking processes will transition students better able to cope in the learning environment of the mainstream setting. Developing the productive thinking skills' language and thinking processes of ESL new arrivals may improve the effectiveness of the overall NAP and may be incorporated into the NAP curriculum, in a broader context.
While the model has been accepted by the school and will be set to work in the NAP, there remains room for theoretical support to give it momentum. A comprehensive analysis of the literature in this area will reflect on this model, within the context of increasing academic diversity. This paper therefore attempts to synthesize the research supporting a shift to a new exemplar for 21st Century education in a NAP setting, and in so doing, shed light on the rationale supporting developing the language of thinking and thinking skills of ESL new arrivals.
As a response, differentiated instruction is a paradigm, which is gaining ground in many educational circles. De Bono argues that we also need to teach students to think. De Bono states that to bridge the gap between the huge amounts of pure information that are available digitally, and their own understanding and critical analysis. We need to build students’ capacity for using all the information to solve complex problems, make informed decisions, and in doing so, generate new knowledge which functions richly in their lives, and helps them lead responsible, respectful and productive lives in the 21st Century (De Bono Institute).
English as a Second Language (ESL) new arrivals have two terms in a language school, before transition to a mainstream setting. Once in the mainstream, they participate in an integrated approach in the flexible, open learning areas. They are expected to be part of the ‘community of thinkers’ and a ‘community of learners’, involved in inquiry and project based learning, for which they are often ill-equipped. They are not taught the thinking language to create the ‘fertile’ questions, in a community of learners, and may struggle to participate in the ‘research and concluding performances’ as discussed by Harpaz (2005).
The New Arrivals Program (NAP) is an intensive, specialised program which aims to equip students with the language of English for communication and understanding, the language of Mathematics to comprehend the Mathematical word problems in English, and the language of Science to identify the procedures and terminology of Science. New arrivals also learn the language and skills of basic technology (ICT).
This Action research model proposes an inclusion of teaching the language of thinking, thinking processes and thinking skills, so ESL new arrivals become engaged in the thinking process, and are better equipped for an inquiry disposition required in a mainstream setting.
The e5 Instructional Model Domains outline capabilities related to thinking and performance indicators which model, explore, explain, and promote thinking and support reflection to learn. The Interdisciplinary Strand of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) (and ESL Companion to the VELS) stipulates the domain of Thinking processes and three dimensions of Thinking. Schools for ESL new arrivals should promote teaching and learning of thinking within these contexts.
How to create a culture of thinking and cultivate a classroom of thinkers in a NAP, who can articulate and express and verbalise their thinking in English, is the change project that needs to be implemented. An introduction into the language of thinking and thinking processes will transition students better able to cope in the learning environment of the mainstream setting. Developing the productive thinking skills' language and thinking processes of ESL new arrivals may improve the effectiveness of the overall NAP and may be incorporated into the NAP curriculum, in a broader context.
While the model has been accepted by the school and will be set to work in the NAP, there remains room for theoretical support to give it momentum. A comprehensive analysis of the literature in this area will reflect on this model, within the context of increasing academic diversity. This paper therefore attempts to synthesize the research supporting a shift to a new exemplar for 21st Century education in a NAP setting, and in so doing, shed light on the rationale supporting developing the language of thinking and thinking skills of ESL new arrivals.