Thinking in Victorian Schools
An A – Z of Thinking Tools has also been compiled by the Bentleigh Schools’ Cluster and was used in a Research Grant to schools’ Project conducted at Bentleigh West Primary School in 2008 – 2009. The change project, entitled ‘Fostering a culture of thinking in the primary school classroom: Evaluation of the “Toolbox” pedagogy and “visible” thinking routines’ showed improved outcomes for thinking based on data collections, (DEECD, Research Register).
Wattle Park Primary School is currently researching ‘How we can encourage the development of teaching and learning of thinking processes through links both within the school community and beyond’. The project will focus on ‘The increase of purposeful learning practices at Wattle Park Primary through building staff capacity and assessment procedures of Thinking Processes. Research further includes, ‘The development of further pathways through our school with ‘ThinkLink’ multi age groups; A focus on the teaching and learning of thinking skills with the support of our school community and beyond’ (DEECD, Research Register).
Project completion is scheduled for October 31, 2011 and results will be included in my Action Research Literature reviews at a later date in 2012. It will be interesting to read concluding findings on assessment procedures of Thinking Processes.
Apollo Parkways Primary School is a P - Grade 6 primary school in Melbourne. Through their involvement in the ‘Navigator Schools Project’, staff at the school, have developed an inquiry-based approach to learning that has a strong ICT focus which is underpinned by the explicit and integrated use of a range of thinking tools; De Bono’s Thinking Hats, Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of the Mind. Children are taught these skills progressively as they move through the grades. Each year begins with a review of the relevant thinking strategies for the grade in a unit called ‘Linking to Thinking,’ and data collections indicated the project to have been acknowledged and recognised to be very successful and effective.
All Victorian government schools, including English language schools for new arrivals, are in the process of implementing the current pedagogy and program accountability, as a result of evidence-based research in Victorian education (DEECD, 2010). Current DEECD initiatives including The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), The Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT) and e5 Instructional Model (‘a framework to inform’), Effective Schools Model and Leadership Framework, BER and the Transforming of Pedagogy in the 21st Century documentation of the DEECD is part of the master plan to improve teaching and learning in Victorian schools. This plan supports the guided inquiry process which: builds on prior knowledge, is student-centred and directed, emphasises process and skill development, requires students to pose questions, encourages learner interaction, is relevant to students’ lives, includes direct experiences, integrates reflection and metacognition, involves application of ideas, explores affective aspects of learning, raises different perspectives and tackles values, ‘to grasp [to understand] the meaning of a thing, an event, or a situation is to see it in its relation to other things: to note how it appears or functions, what consequences follow from it, what causes it, what uses it can be put to’ (Dewey, 1933/1998, p.137).
Thinking processes is one of domains in the Interdisciplinary Strands of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). It is further divided into three dimensions: reasoning, processing and inquiry; creativity and reflection; evaluation and metacognition. Victorian schools and classrooms are encouraged to create a climate that ‘values and promotes thinking’. Students must be given ‘sufficient time to think’ (DEECD., Thinking processes).
In teaching thinking, Victorian teachers are encouraged to ‘model skilful and effective thinking and make their own thinking explicit as part of their everyday practice’ (adapted from VELS). Dewey’s contribution in the field of thinking is acknowledged here and his attitudes of ‘open-mindedness, whole-heartedness and responsibility’ incorporated (Dewey, 1933/1998, p. 29-33). For Dewey, 'thinking is the accurate and deliberate institution of connections between what is done and its consequences' (1964, p. 505). Dewey spoke of the need for developing certain qualities or traits of character such as open-mindedness or sincerity, wholehearted or absorbed interests, responsibility, as well as the need for a habit of thinking in a reflective way (1964, p. 224-228).
VELS encourages students to think, reflect and develop deep knowledge and skills. It is a guided inquiry (constructivist approach – Dewey) which occurs when learners construct learning rather than passively receiving it, in an inclusive community (Dewey). Learners are engaged and involved in discovery of new knowledge and development of new skills, attitudes, learning experiences (Dewey). Learners transfer new skills and knowledge to new circumstances (Dewey). The E5 Instructional Model and Assessment of/as/for learning - formative (continuous and timely feedback) and summative are imbedded. Reflection and pedagogy of critical thinking is used (Dewey). VELS has its roots in Dewey’s work, The School and Society (1915), Democracy and Education (1916), How we think (1933) and a vast repository of published work by Dewey which explains having students as a community of learners learning by focusing on project based learning or active inquiry based learning and reflecting and thinking throughout the process to consolidate learning. Dewey, an advocate of teaching thinking, saw thinking as a product of social interaction and teaching thinking as a way of contributing to the creation of a better society (Dewey, 1933).
Dewey did not approve of rote learning and memorisation as he explained it did not teach the child to think. Learning through experience was more important than learning from tests and teachers. He advocated an active approach to learning. By changing the methods of instruction, by involving the child and their interests in the learning process, schools would be more interesting and students would be favourably inclined to participate. ‘When school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious.’ (1915, p. 29). ‘The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited,’ Plutarch 46 - 120 CE/AD.
Dewey's influence on current education is evident in that he argued that students must engage with and enlarge experience. Secondly, Dewey's ideas on thinking and reflection and the role of educators - has continued to be an inspiration. Also, his ideas on interaction and environments for learning (community learning) provide a continuing framework for practice. Dewey’s educational theories on guided inquiry based learning and critical thinking and reflection has been refined into the DEECD Blueprint for Government schools (2003).
Learning the language of Thinking as integrated in the Interdisciplinary Strand of the ESL Companion to the VELS will be established, to better prepare for the ‘communities' of learning and thinking in the mainstream, in the constructivist model influenced by Dewey.
The domain of Thinking processes in the Interdisciplinary Strand of the VELS (and ESL Companion to the VELS) focuses on the dimensions of reasoning, processing and inquiry, creativity, reflection, evaluation and metacognition. We cannot neglect or ignore the dimensions of thinking in the ESL New Arrivals Program curriculum.
Wattle Park Primary School is currently researching ‘How we can encourage the development of teaching and learning of thinking processes through links both within the school community and beyond’. The project will focus on ‘The increase of purposeful learning practices at Wattle Park Primary through building staff capacity and assessment procedures of Thinking Processes. Research further includes, ‘The development of further pathways through our school with ‘ThinkLink’ multi age groups; A focus on the teaching and learning of thinking skills with the support of our school community and beyond’ (DEECD, Research Register).
Project completion is scheduled for October 31, 2011 and results will be included in my Action Research Literature reviews at a later date in 2012. It will be interesting to read concluding findings on assessment procedures of Thinking Processes.
Apollo Parkways Primary School is a P - Grade 6 primary school in Melbourne. Through their involvement in the ‘Navigator Schools Project’, staff at the school, have developed an inquiry-based approach to learning that has a strong ICT focus which is underpinned by the explicit and integrated use of a range of thinking tools; De Bono’s Thinking Hats, Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of the Mind. Children are taught these skills progressively as they move through the grades. Each year begins with a review of the relevant thinking strategies for the grade in a unit called ‘Linking to Thinking,’ and data collections indicated the project to have been acknowledged and recognised to be very successful and effective.
All Victorian government schools, including English language schools for new arrivals, are in the process of implementing the current pedagogy and program accountability, as a result of evidence-based research in Victorian education (DEECD, 2010). Current DEECD initiatives including The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), The Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT) and e5 Instructional Model (‘a framework to inform’), Effective Schools Model and Leadership Framework, BER and the Transforming of Pedagogy in the 21st Century documentation of the DEECD is part of the master plan to improve teaching and learning in Victorian schools. This plan supports the guided inquiry process which: builds on prior knowledge, is student-centred and directed, emphasises process and skill development, requires students to pose questions, encourages learner interaction, is relevant to students’ lives, includes direct experiences, integrates reflection and metacognition, involves application of ideas, explores affective aspects of learning, raises different perspectives and tackles values, ‘to grasp [to understand] the meaning of a thing, an event, or a situation is to see it in its relation to other things: to note how it appears or functions, what consequences follow from it, what causes it, what uses it can be put to’ (Dewey, 1933/1998, p.137).
Thinking processes is one of domains in the Interdisciplinary Strands of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). It is further divided into three dimensions: reasoning, processing and inquiry; creativity and reflection; evaluation and metacognition. Victorian schools and classrooms are encouraged to create a climate that ‘values and promotes thinking’. Students must be given ‘sufficient time to think’ (DEECD., Thinking processes).
In teaching thinking, Victorian teachers are encouraged to ‘model skilful and effective thinking and make their own thinking explicit as part of their everyday practice’ (adapted from VELS). Dewey’s contribution in the field of thinking is acknowledged here and his attitudes of ‘open-mindedness, whole-heartedness and responsibility’ incorporated (Dewey, 1933/1998, p. 29-33). For Dewey, 'thinking is the accurate and deliberate institution of connections between what is done and its consequences' (1964, p. 505). Dewey spoke of the need for developing certain qualities or traits of character such as open-mindedness or sincerity, wholehearted or absorbed interests, responsibility, as well as the need for a habit of thinking in a reflective way (1964, p. 224-228).
VELS encourages students to think, reflect and develop deep knowledge and skills. It is a guided inquiry (constructivist approach – Dewey) which occurs when learners construct learning rather than passively receiving it, in an inclusive community (Dewey). Learners are engaged and involved in discovery of new knowledge and development of new skills, attitudes, learning experiences (Dewey). Learners transfer new skills and knowledge to new circumstances (Dewey). The E5 Instructional Model and Assessment of/as/for learning - formative (continuous and timely feedback) and summative are imbedded. Reflection and pedagogy of critical thinking is used (Dewey). VELS has its roots in Dewey’s work, The School and Society (1915), Democracy and Education (1916), How we think (1933) and a vast repository of published work by Dewey which explains having students as a community of learners learning by focusing on project based learning or active inquiry based learning and reflecting and thinking throughout the process to consolidate learning. Dewey, an advocate of teaching thinking, saw thinking as a product of social interaction and teaching thinking as a way of contributing to the creation of a better society (Dewey, 1933).
Dewey did not approve of rote learning and memorisation as he explained it did not teach the child to think. Learning through experience was more important than learning from tests and teachers. He advocated an active approach to learning. By changing the methods of instruction, by involving the child and their interests in the learning process, schools would be more interesting and students would be favourably inclined to participate. ‘When school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious.’ (1915, p. 29). ‘The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited,’ Plutarch 46 - 120 CE/AD.
Dewey's influence on current education is evident in that he argued that students must engage with and enlarge experience. Secondly, Dewey's ideas on thinking and reflection and the role of educators - has continued to be an inspiration. Also, his ideas on interaction and environments for learning (community learning) provide a continuing framework for practice. Dewey’s educational theories on guided inquiry based learning and critical thinking and reflection has been refined into the DEECD Blueprint for Government schools (2003).
Learning the language of Thinking as integrated in the Interdisciplinary Strand of the ESL Companion to the VELS will be established, to better prepare for the ‘communities' of learning and thinking in the mainstream, in the constructivist model influenced by Dewey.
The domain of Thinking processes in the Interdisciplinary Strand of the VELS (and ESL Companion to the VELS) focuses on the dimensions of reasoning, processing and inquiry, creativity, reflection, evaluation and metacognition. We cannot neglect or ignore the dimensions of thinking in the ESL New Arrivals Program curriculum.