It’s interesting to me that in addition to thinking, talking and writing are important to gaining an opinion about things. It’s evidence to me that we are not meant to be isolated; enjoying the company of good listeners and thinkers is a gift to cherish. Quiet thinking time and expression of thoughts in writing or speaking grows more important in the education of my children as they grow older. I’m moving into adolescent level instruction in my home, and it is demanding and exciting. It’s secondary education and it is something I do well.
Pre-adolescent children are very concrete in their learning. They often require props and make very tightly bound conclusions about things. They live in the “happy land of absolutes.” During adolescence, thinking becomes more organized; kids are able to discuss independent thoughts about what they have read, rather than just recite the plot back to you. However, the ability to say what they think about something (metacognition “thinking about what they are thinking”), draw conclusions or grasp abstract concepts or think multidimensionally (formal-operational thinking) is a gradual process and can show up at some times and not others. Even adults don’t always operate on a formal-operational level in their thinking. It’s even more so with adolescents. Some days they seem to understand; they are able to tell you what they learned, what they think, how it can be applied, etc. but then the next week that ability seems to be gone. Despite these setbacks, it’s good to stretch their minds.
Higher level thinking skills emerge as students are expected to rise to this level. In other words, challenge is essential to being able to learn to think well.
There are three things I have learned to help navigate the waters of higher level thinking questions.
First, before a lecture or discussion, draw students’ minds to certain points. For instance, if you are studying a document, you can ask them to “look for…” or “think about how you feel about…” before you begin studying the document. You can say, “After you read this book, I will ask you questions about your thoughts about your responsibility to family vs. country.”
Next, to help them work up to big thoughts, ask fundamental, basic questions first. These are the building blocks with which we build bigger thoughts. In book discussions I find it easier to move to higher level questions if I ask basic plot, geographical or historical questions first. People need to be a little conversant about a subject before they know what they think about it.
Last, I have also learned that big questions require WAIT TIME. This means after a difficult question, allow students some time to think. These sometimes uncomfortably silent moments can seem to drag on forever, but come on, we can’t expect profound answers without time to formulate them. Rephrasing the question helps sometimes. People need time to prepare their thoughts and even then, they don’t always know what they think.
This is where writing can be helpful. Nothing makes you analyze the logic, validity, and form of your ideas than writing them out. Wrestling with ideas as I write is something that I love to do.
And, in case you are wondering, a lot of what I said in paragraphs 2 and 3 I learned by reading this text:
Steinberg, L. (1993). Adolescence, 3rd Ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.