Chapter 4- Thinking Dispositions
Thinking Dispositions: 1. Inclinations and habits of mind hat benefit productive thinking.
2. Ongoing, aiding tendencies in thinking behavior exhibited over time across diverse thinking situations.
Any athlete will tell you that it takes more than raw ability and talent to excel in a sport. Imagine two talented figure skaters of roughly equal ability, both Olympic hopefuls. One skater puts in the requisite practice, following the choreographed routines until she masters them. The other skater, however, is prone to pushing her abilities to the fullest. In her desire for more creative performance, she constantly searchers for new, innovative moves to embellish her routine. Her willingness to take risks leads her to create a fresh combination of maneuvers that becomes her signature move. A zest for tinkering with the boundaries of established tradition in a speculative and playful way leads her to experiment with unusual blends of music, mood, and movement. One might say that she is disposed to originality, open exploration, and playful risk taking. At the same time, she is disposed to being careful and analytical about her technical execution, through continual self-monitoring of her performance. Her desire for improvement prompts a tendency to persevere and to set goals for advancement.
Abilities and skills alone cannot fully account for human performance. Simply having an ability does not guarantee that one will use it and use it well. In the above example, both skaters displayed equivalent raw ability, yet the second skater enhanced her abilities by using them to greater effect. What is it that was special about the second skater? The distinguishing characteristics were her dispositions to challenge herself, to openly seek new directions, to take risks, to be critical, and to strive for improvement. These characteristics say little about her raw ability but say a lot about how she approached her craft. In general, dispositions represent a person’s tendency to use his or her abilities in particular ways and directions. Human performance is comprise of abilities plus dispositions.
Thinking is a human endeavor that involves abilities and dispositions. We know that cognitive capabilities play an important role in thinking. However, once again, simply having the ability to think does not mean that one will do it well, or even do it much at all. What sets the good thinker apart from the average thinker is not simply superior cognitive ability. Good thinkers can be distinguished because they use their inherent intellectual powers in productive and probing ways. Good thinkers can be characterized by their thinking dispositions- their abiding tendencies to explore, to inquire and probe into new areas, to seek clarity, to think critically and carefully, to be organized in their thinking, and so on.
Most efforts to teach thinking aim at cultivating thinking skills. Students are taught strategies designed to boost the abilities side of thinking. Unfortunately, students often fail to use the thinking skills they are taught. What can be done to develop the inclination and habit of using thinking skills effectively? One way is through an approach to teaching thinking that stresses the dispositional as well as the abilities side thinking.
Take the example of Mr. Marcus, a tenth-grade history teacher, who feels that seeing things from other points of view is key to good thinking and reasoning in social studies. However, whenever he presents historical dilemmas and current controversies for discussion, he notices that students only offer arguments for their own side of the case.
In debating Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb in World War II, Robert maintains, “It had to be done to stop the war. If that hadn’t happened, more people would have died in the long run.” Meanwhile, Susan gives opposing arguments, “It killed a lot of innocent people. Plus, no one knew what kind of global effect the explosion might have.”
Mr. Marcus sees from their spontaneous behavior that they lack the disposition to look for other perspectives on their own. So after each student has the opportunity to present supporting evidence for his or her viewpoint, Mr. Marcus poses the following challenge: “Robert can you try to argue Susan’s case? And Susan, try to put together an argument from Robert’s point of view.” Although they struggle some, Mr. Marcus finds that the students can indeed argue the other side of the case when asked- they have the ability. It is clear, however, that they do not think to do it on their own. Recognizing this, Mr. Marcus decides to do more than just teach the thinking skills strategy of taking the other side of the case. Instead, he decides to talk about thinking dispositions explicitly.
Mr. Marcus: What Robert and Susan did at first shows us that we are all inclined to look at things form our own point of view. We could say that we have a disposition to argue from our own perspective. Can anyone say what I mean by disposition?
Student #1: It’s the way you are. Like when someone has a happy disposition, it means he tends to be happy all the time.
Mr. Marcus: That’s right. Dispositions are tendencies or inclinations to behave in certain ways. For example, a person might have a disposition to be considerate or to be argumentative or to sleep late. Tell me what some of your dispositions are. (Students generate examples such as disposition to be cheerful, to be polite, to be shy, to eat too much, to play baseball, to be forgetful, to daydream, to stay up late at night.)
Mr. Marcus: I think you get the idea. Now let’s talk about dispositions that have to do with thinking. What are some dispositions that describe your own thinking?
Student #1: Well, my mother says that I am always curious. She says that I never stop asking questions.
Student #2: Most of the time I try to think hard. But sometimes, like when I do a math problem and can’t get the answer, I get frustrated and give up.
Student #3: When I make a decision, I have to think of every possibility before I’m ready to decide.
Mr. Marcus: Good. From now on through the term, I want us to pay close attention to our thinking dispositions. We will learn how to recognize them and decide which ones we would like to improve in ourselves. Let’s start by listing some of the dispositions we have mentioned so far and deciding whether we think they serve our thinking well or not so well.
Mr. Marcus keeps the idea of thinking dispositions alive throughout the term. He gives his students plenty of practice in thinking skills, such as perspective taking, but he also develops their awareness of their own thinking patterns and tendencies. he is convinced that, if he cultivates the right thinking dispositions inclinations in students, there is a better chance that they will actually use the thinking skills they are taught.
What Are Thinking Dispositions?
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Thinking dispositions are abiding tendencies toward distinct patterns of thinking behaviors. Just as we can talk about a person’s tendency to be friendly or to work hard, we can talk about someone’s tendency to be curious or systematic or persistent in their thinking. Good thinkers are disposed to explore, to question, to probe new areas, to seek clarity, to think critically and carefully, to consider different perspectives, to organize their thinking and so on.
To be disposed toward something means that the person has a tendency to exhibit the behavior over time. So, an important characteristic of thinking dispositions is that they are ongoing, abiding patterns in a person’s thinking across many thinking situations. When we say that an individual is a systematic thinker, it means that he or she tends to display systematic thinking in various situations day after day, week after week. Thus, in contrast to abilities which can be assessed at a given point in time, thinking dispositions, by definition, are captured as tendencies that play out over time.
When trying to foster student’s thinking dispositions in the classroom, it is important to recognize both that dispositions take time to develop and that they manifest themselves over time. Dispositions cannot be transmitted like a piece of knowledge. Rather they must be cultivated like a plant, with constant nurturing so they can develop fully and grow strong. If you make a commitment to cultivating thinking dispositions, plan to devote attention to them repeatedly over the course of your curriculum. It should be an ongoing, recurring theme rather than an isolated set of lessons.
Likewise, in assessing the progress of students’ thinking dispositions, expect that it will take time for dispositions to evince themselves. You may find that students show only incremental change in their patterns of thinking as they gradually incorporate good thinking dispositions. On the other hand, you will have the satisfaction that you are helping them cultivate long-term, sustaining habits of mind.
What is it that makes a person disposed to think well? The origins and underpinnings of thinking dispositions are actually quite diverse. Dispositions can be rooted in habits, policies, motivations, desires, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, understandings, values, or other factors. One may be organized in one’s thinking due to habit or due to a conscious policy to be that way. LIkewise, one might be disposed to think in an organized fashion due to a belief that it pays off or due to a sense of good form such as an artist might have. At times, dispositions can be driven by almost ritualistic forces; while at other times, dispositions are driven by affective and emotional elements such as attitudes, feelings, motivation, and the like. Normally, multiple influences play a role.
Since dispositions have such complex origins, in their classroom one has to work toward cultivating them on many fronts: promoting alertness, building habits, fostering values, changing attitudes and beliefs, encouraging intrinsic motivation, and so on. For example, suppose you are trying to imbue students with the disposition to be more careful and thorough in their thinking. You would promote alertness to situations where care and thoroughness are needed by discussing with your students when mistakes and omissions are most likely and most costly. You would try to build habits by having them work on careful thinking routinely so that it becomes a well-practiced tendency. Concurrently, you might discuss the value of careful and precise thinking and try to change their attitude that it is too effortful. Moreover, you could motivate students by showing how careful thinking at the outset results in less effort later. By supporting dispositions on several fronts, you lay a better foundation for developing sustained thinking dispositions.
Disposition are acquired within and influenced by the context of a cultural environment. Everyday experience indicates that dispositions are cultivated all the time through social interaction, a key aspect of enculturation. Take the example of open-mindedness. How might a person develop the attitudes and beliefs that cause him or her to value open-mindedness? Perhaps as a child he or she grew up in a family where members openly discussed and considered alternative points of view, suspended judgement, and changed their views based on new arguments. Influenced by the behavior and values of the surrounding culture, this person developed a disposition to be open-minded.
Likewise, in the classroom, the aim is not so much to teach thinking dispositions as it is to cultivate thinking dispositions within the context of a culture. It would be inadequate to approach the cultivation of dispositions by designing a lesson plan to teach dispositions as one would teach particular content or skills. While explicit lessons about dispositions can be useful, the need for an ongoing, comprehensive, environmental approach cannot be neglected. Thinking dispositions must be enculturated in the context of a culture of thinking. The classroom can become such a culture.
Five Dispositions for Good Thinking
Naturally, countless dispositions for thinking can be identified. The aim here is to get some purchase on a handful of dispositions that foster good thinking. After all, not all thinking dispositions necessarily benefit thinking. Some, like the disposition to give up easily in the face of confusion or the disposition to stubbornly ignore instruction, actually block good thinking. Here are five broad, teachable thinking dispositions that contribute powerfully to overall good thinking.
The disposition to be curious and questioning includes: the urge to question, inquire, wonder, pose problems, probe further, look beyond what’s given.
The disposition to think broadly and adventurously includes: the impulse to explore alternative points of view, be open-minded, be flexible, try new things and ideas, be playful.
The disposition to reason clearly and carefully includes: the desire to seek clarity, gain understanding, be precise, be thorough, remain alert to possible error.
The disposition to organize one’s thinking includes: the urge to be orderly and logical, be planful, think ahead, approach things in a calculated and methodical fashion.
The disposition to give thinking time includes: the tendency to devote time and effort to thinking.
These five dispositions represent in capsule from some of the key dispositions for good thinking; however, they are not meant to be exhaustive. Indeed, there are numerous dispositions that one could argue contribute in beneficial ways to good thinking. The important point for this chapter and throughout this volume is that thinking can and should be looked at from a dispositional point of view.
Why Are Thinking Dispositions Important?
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We have already made the general point that abilities are not enough. In musical terms, abilities and dispositions go together like love and marriage or a horse and carriage. They make up a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. STill, it is worth looking more specifically at four key reasons why thinking dispositions are important and why they contribute in essential ways to the teaching of thinking.
Dispositions are essential to putting good thinking into practice. One can have the ability to do something, such as seeing both sides of the case. However, unless one has the inclination to use it and the sensitivity to recognize when to use it, the ability will lay fallow. In other words, the disposition to seek out and be open to other viewpoints is what calls the ability into play. Therefore, when teaching thinking, it is not enough to emphasize the development of particular thinking skills and abilities, as many current thinking skills approaches do. Students often fail to put into practice the knowledge and skills they have learned. The best approach combines the development of abilities along with the cultivation of dispositions. (In this connection, see also chapters 12 and 13 on teaching for transfer.)
Teaching thinking dispositions will make students more aware of their own thinking patterns. Students are often unaware of their own thinking habits. pOor thinking habits, such as mindlessness or laziness, will override any specific thinking skills that are taught. Therefore, students need to become more aware of their existing thinking patterns at the same time they learn new ones. The teaching disposition calls for explicit discussion and examination of students’ thinking habits and encourages them to be watchful for opportunities for better thinking. Without cultivating awareness, thinking patterns are unlikely to change.
Teaching thinking disposition will give students a better understanding of what good thinking is. When we speak of someone who is a good thinker, we mean that the person displays tendencies to act in thoughtful ways. Good thinking is a mind-set, a collection of attitudes and inclinations with which one approaches thinking. It is important to paint a picture that captures the dispositional mind-set of good thinking for students. Students have misconceptions about good thinkers, often equating good thinking with “being smart.” They need to come to understand that good thinking is not a matter of intellect alone.
Teaching thinking dispositions will cultivate ongoing habits of good thinking in students. Unlike the teaching of thinking skills which targets specific behaviors, teaching thinking dispositions aims to develop long-term habits of good thinking. By definition, disposition are abiding tendencies that are displayed over time. Ongoing habits of good thinking become internalized tendencies that students will carry with them into future thinking situations. So, if students develop a disposition to be organized in their thinking, they are likely to approach new thinking situations in an organized way. It is precisely this kind of carryover and sustained engagement that we wish to cultivate in students.
The Bottom Lines: Incorporating Thinking Dispositions Into the Culture of the Classroom
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The previous discussion paints a broad picture of a classroom culture intended to foster thinking dispositions. Beyond the broad picture, teachers want to be sure to take certain concrete steps to help build a culture of thinking disposition in the classroom. Here are some “bottom-line” check-points teachers can use to gauge their progress toward establishing a classroom culture that cultivates good thinking dispositions.
Model thinking dispositions. Exemplify good thinking dispositions for students to observe in an ongoing way. Use historical figures and famous thinkers as examples. Be a good model of thinking dispositions yourself and encourage students to be good models for one another.
Explain thinking dispositions, how they benefit thinking, and when they come into play. Discuss with students how dispositions influence thinking and explain how particular dispositions can benefit good thinking. Discuss and encourage students to employ cues for detecting limits in their thinking and to build their sensitivity to opportunities for better thinking.
Encourage interaction. Create opportunities and time for students to experiment in their thinking, to be adventurous, inquiring, careful, and probing. When students are doing lessons, responding to questions, working on problems, or talking in class, encourage them to be alert to their own and others’ thinking dispositions. Let students prompt one another to develop good thinking dispositions.
Give feedback that is supportive of good thinking dispositions. Establish expectations for thinking dispositions by setting explicit standards, discussing the value of good thinking dispositions, and creating cultural norms for thinking within the classroom. When students display good thinking dispositions, recognize and reinforce the desired dispositions. Try to design motivating activities that include inherent payoffs for good thinking (e.g., self-esteem, success, fun). Give positive feedback and suggestions for how to do better, rather than negative feedback, and encourage students to do the same for one another. Aim to establish a safe haven for thinking which allows students to take risks in their thinking.
Chapter 5 offers several classroom examples of cultivating thinking dispositions. The chapter also includes instructional guidelines for educators interested in trying out some of these ideas in their classrooms and tactics for ongoing enculturation.
Chapter 5: THINKING DISPOSITIONS: PICTURES OF PRACTICE
Building a culture of thinking dispositions is a multifaceted enterprise. It calls not only for direct attention to the teaching of dispositions within subject matter lessons, but also for shaping the broader classroom environment.
This chapter builds on the ideas put forth in the previous chapter. The examples offered in the following pages are, in some cases, stand-alone lessons and, in other cases, ongoing culture-building activities. Also included in this chapter are step-by-step instructional guidelines for those who wish to explore some of these techniques in the classroom, as well as tactics for building thinking dispositions into the ongoing culture of the classroom.
Here is a preview of the sections that follow:
Voyage of the Beagle
In this activity, students examine the thinking process of a famous person, Charles Darwin, and identify dispositional aspects of his thinking. Students then embark on their own process of inquiry, during which they attempt to incorporate the dispositions into their thinking process.
Building Cultural Norms
Creating a surrounding environment that establishes cultural norms, values, and expectations as well as support for thinking dispositions is a crucial part of successful cultivation of dispositions. Drawing on attributes of cultures in general, this example shows how features of a culture of thinking can be created in the classroom.
Thinking Alarms
This activity builds sensitivity to thinking opportunities by making students alert to occasions when their thinking is unnecessarily limited and to situations that present opportunities for better thinking.
Modeling Thinking Dispositions
Teacher modeling is an important means of exemplifying good thinking dispositions. In this exercise, the teacher repeatedly models the thinking process and students engage in the same thinking activity, greatly assisted at first by the teacher. Over time, the teacher weans students from this aid.
Taking the Plunge: Guidelines for Instruction
Two starting points for beginning to teach thinking dispositions, each with step-by-step guidelines.
Continuing On: Making Thinking Dispositions a Permanent Part of the Classroom Culture
More tactics for enculturating thinking dispositions through models, explanation, interaction and feedback.
Troubleshooting: Questions and Answers about Thinking Dispositions
Some common concerns about thinking dispositions.
VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
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Victor Tonnelli had been teaching his unit on Darwin to his eight-grade science class for years. This time, he decided to begin his unit in a different way. After reading several books on Darwin, he had become intrigued by the process through which Darwin arrived at the theory of evolution. He wanted to share Darwin’s creative thinking process with his students and to engage them in some thinking of their own. Mr. Tonnelli walked in the next day with the following passage for his students to read:
Charles Darwin’s discovery of the principle of natural selection did not happen overnight. The thinking that led to his theory took 15 months to develop. During his five-year voyage on the ship, the Beagle, Darwin made detailed observations of animals and organisms on islands off the coast of South America. Darwin raised numerous questions based on his findings: Why did certain species on an island resemble species on the mainland yet always differ in some characteristics? Why was there a gradual change in each species as he traveled down the coast?
Although he suspected that species develop through evolution, he would not publish his ideas until he could offer an explanation of how evolution occurred. Over the course of 15 months, Darwin generated a number of early theories, each of which he rejected along the way. He was very critical of each proposed theory, being careful to make sure it explained every aspect of what he observed. When he rejected a proposed theory, he worked at forming a new explanation. To refrain from becoming fixed on a single point of view, he explored many alternative interpretations and explanations...
Rather than teaching them about Darwin’s conclusion, Mr. Tonnelli embarked on a discussion with his students about Darwin’s thinking. “Do you think Darwin’s thinking was good?” he asked. The students nodded. “What was good about his thinking?” the teacher queried.
The students ventured some opinions: “it took him a long time, but he didn’t give up,” “he asked lots of questions,” “he came up with lots of ideas, until he got on he thought was right; he didn’t just stick to one idea,” he waited until he was sure before he published it.” The discussion went on for some time. While the students generated ideas, Mr. Tonnelli wrote them on the blackboard in a more generalized form. The list included the following items:
Features of Thinking
Don’t give up
Ask lots of questions
Generate multiple ideas and explanations
Be critical
Don’t stop too soon
Next, Mr. Tonnelli wanted to put his students’ thinking to the test. He passed out sheets containing some of Darwin’s original data, such as the number and characteristics of several species found on various island and mainland locations along the South American coast. The students worked in small groups.
“Now,” he said to his students, “I want all of you to pretend you are Darwin taking the five-year voyage on the Beagle. In front of you is the most recent data you have collected. I want you to pose some questions that you find interesting and pursue them. Try to come up with what you think is a sensible explanation regarding your question. Feel free to try out any ideas and directions you want even if they seem like long shots. Any explanation is acceptable as long as you can provide reasons to justify it. And this is most important: While you are thinking, I want you to refer to the list on the board frequently to check that you are doing these things in your thinking. Don’t forget to use these reminders to check your thinking.”
As the students pursued their inquiry, Mr. Tonnelli roamed around the room and listened in on their progress. Whenever he noticed that students were indeed monitoring their thinking and using the reminders to prompt themselves to generate more options or be critical, he was pleased and he told them so. When students were not using the reminders, he reiterated the importance of watching their own thinking and using the reminders.
Meeting the Bottom Lines
How well does this example meet the bottom lines outlined in the previous chapter?
Bottom Line: Model thinking dispositions. yes X no
In this case, a famous historical person, Charles Darwin, serves as a model for thinking dispositions. Students examine his thinking process to learn about and identify good thinking dispositions.
Bottom Line: Explain thinking dispositions, how they benefit thinking, and when they come into play. yes X no
Direct discussion of the features of good thinking helps attune students to the role of dispositions and to specific dispositions that contribute to productive thinking. The students practice identifying good thinking dispositions from other people’s as well as their own thinking. Having students do their own investigation creates thinking opportunities in which to play out the dispositions.
Bottom line: Encourage interaction. yes no X
Except in the minimal sense of students working in groups, this activity does not specifically foster students interacting with one another in ways that boost dispositions.
Bottom Line: Give feedback that is supportive of good thinking dispositions. yes X no
The teacher makes a point of giving immediate feedback and reinforcing thinking dispositions displayed by students while they work.
Following Up: Integrating the Lesson into the Classroom Culture
Mr. Tonnelli can continue to highlight thinking dispositions in his classroom in many ways. He plans to find examples of other famous scientists so he can examine their thinking processes with his students. Since he found it very fruitful to have his students think through some original data, he hopes to build that in from time to time. He aims to have the class continue adding to the “feature of thinking” list throughout the year. He will use the list as a constant reminder and offer ample feedback and reinforcement to students when they exhibit good thinking.
BUILDING CULTURAL NORMS
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While it is good to devote some time for express teaching of dispositions, as the other examples in this section do, it is equally important to create a surrounding culture of thinking that embodies, supports, and reinforces thinking dispositions. The idea of a culturally supportive environment is that you see good thinking all around you because everybody is doing it. This means making changes in the structure of the classroom that allow dispositions to be a pervasive part of the environment. It involves infusing values and norms into the culture and building expectations for good thinking. One teacher worked on building a culture of thinking dispositions as follows.
Ms. Vasquez, a ninth-grade social studies teacher, understood that students often do not use their thinking capacities to their fullest and wanted to start the new school year with a plan to do something about it in her classroom. She was wise enough to know that isolated lessons would not achieve her goal. Instead, she decided to develop a classroom atmosphere that would encourage good thinking among her students. She developed the following ideas for creating a thinking culture that she implemented in her classroom.
Joint Understanding
At the outset, she aimed to establish a joint understanding about the norms for thinking. Following a problem-solving session at the beginning of the year, she challenged her students to evaluate their thinking: “Were you a good thinker or not a good thinker?: When students offered their assessments, Ms. Vasquez had them talk about the pros and cons of their thinking. She then discussed with them the value of some particular thinking dispositions that she introduced. For instance, she asked, “What is good about being organized in your thinking?” The students had no trouble offering good rationales for organized thinking. Similarly, they jointly established the value of other dispositions the teacher mentioned: being curious and questioning, being broad and adventurous, and being clear and careful.
After establishing a joint understanding of their value, the teacher set up, expectations for students to display the dispositions. She said, “Now that we see why this kind of thinking is good, let us try to practice good thinking. Throughout this year, I’m going to be watching to see if you are practicing them - and your classmates will be watching too.
Artifacts
Every culture has artifacts that embody and symbolize the norms and values of the culture. For example, the American flag is an artifact that symbolizes unity built out of many parts. Ms. Vasquez created physical artifacts around her classroom to represent the thinking norms. She hung a large poster on the wall for the entire school year. It read:
Challenge students to
evaluate thinking
Discuss the pros and cons
of particular thinking dispositions
Establish joint understanding
of the value of thinking dispositions
Explicitly set expectations
for good thinking
Ms. Vasquez frequently had her students refer to the thinking be’s poster. Whenever they were solving a problem, doing an assignment, thinking of ideas for a project, taking a test, or completing any other thinking activity, she would remind them to look at the thinking be’s list. Soon, the students were reminding each other before the teacher mentioned it.
THINKING BE’S
Be curious and questioning
Be broad and adventurous
Be clear and careful
Be organized
Ms. Vasquez created other artifacts as well. In the middle of written assignments and tests, between problems, she would stick in a reminder about the thinking be’s. When correcting papers, if she noticed that a student missed the opportunity to explore broader options or to be more clear or to exhibit any other thinking disposition, she would write a reminder right on the corrected paper.
Constructive Evaluation
Part of a culture consists of upholding cultural expectations and establishing adherence to those standards by members of the community. Ms. Vasquez, therefore, encouraged students to evaluate each other’s thinking as well as her own thinking in an ongoing way. After a student presented a report or solved a problem, she would ask the other students, “What were the best parts of Kathy’s thinking?” Then, “Kathy, where do you think you could do better?” And then, “Perhaps some of the rest of you can offer another thinking tip?” At the end of class discussion, she might post the question, “Was our thinking as a group good thinking?” She even subjected her own thinking to the test: “What did you like about the way I made that decision? And how can I make such decisions better in the future?”
At first students were reluctant to critique each other’s thinking, but after a while they became used to it. Ms. Vasquez made sure that the evaluating was done in a supportive way by always calling for positive points and then suggestions for doing better. Ms. Vasquez often had her students work in collaborative groups, and she encouraged them to give themselves feedback as groups about their thinking and learning processes. Soon, playing mutual watchdog evolved into a good-humored game. Ms. Vasquez was very pleased to see that the students could be watchful in a constructive way.
Create visual artifacts, such
as lists or posters, as reminders
of thinking dispositions
In written assignments, plant
reminders to use thinking dispositions.
Give feedback when correcting
papers or written work.
Meeting the Bottom Lines
The aim of Ms. Vasquez was to establish cultural norms for good thinking dispositions in her classroom. How thoroughly did she use the bottom lines to do so?
Bottom Line: Model thinking dispositions. yes X no
While the introductory lesson included no explicit modeling, later on Ms. Vasquez encouraged the students to become models for one another, as well as being a model herself.
Bottom Line: Explain thinking dispositions, how they benefit thinking and when they come into play. yes X no
In introducing thinking dispositions, Ms. Vasquez engaged the students in explicit discussions of thinking dispositions. Throughout the year, opportunistic reminders to pay attention to the dispositions on the thinking be’s poster provided occasions for further explanation.
Bottom Line: Encourage interaction yes X no
Interaction is the centerpiece of this activity because that is what building cultural understanding is all about. At the outset, having students work together to build norms, establish expectations, and offer mutual support and feedback was crucial for creating a culture. Ms. Vasquez continued her emphasis on student’s interaction with her and one another throughout the year.
Bottom Line: Give feedback that is supportive of good thinking dispositions. yes X no
Ms. Vasquez deliberately sought out occasions to provide feedback and encouraged students to offer feedback to one another.
THINKING ALARMS
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We all like to believe that we are good thinkers. So it is not always easy to see when we are not thinking our best. However, a key aspect of building good thinking dispositions is noticing when we fall short of our thinking capabilities. Many people let lazy or disorganized thinking slip by, thereby missing opportunities for better thinking. To cultivate ongoing thinking dispositions in students, we want to build their sensitivity to thinking challenges. Sensitivity means that students can detect limits in their thinking and occasions when they could push their thinking further.
One classroom technique for encouraging students to monitor their own thinking is the “thinking alarm.” A thinking alarm is a signal that alerts you to an occasion when your thinking might miss something. It tells you that you need to kick in one of the dispositions for good thinking. For example, hasty thinking is a signal that you are not giving enough time for thinking. Below are some thinking alarms and the corresponding dispositions that can help improve thinking.
Thinking Alarm Thinking Disposition
Lazy thinking Be curious and questioning
Narrow thinking Be broad and adventurous
Messy thinking Be clear and careful
Scattered thinking Be organized
Hasty thinking Give thinking time.
Here is how one teacher introduces the thinking alarm to his students. This lesson is about identifying narrow thinking. He starts by presenting a problem to the students.
Teacher: Imagine that you are the principal of this school and all the custodians decide to go on strike because they think they are not getting enough pay. What would you do?
Student 1: I would fire them all.
Student 2: Maybe I would fire the ones who weren’t doing a good job, but keep the ones who were doing a good job.
Student 3: I would see if there was any money to pay them more, but if there wasn’t, they would have to take the same pay or lose their jobs.
Teacher: What do you think is similar about all the responses? (The students remain silent.) All of these solutions seem to be about whether or not the janitors would be fired or lose their jobs. Are these the only kinds of solutions possible? (The students shake their heads.) “Now let’s stand back, as we often do, and evaluate our thinking. How was our thinking?”
Student #3: Not so good because we didn’t come up with enough different kinds of answers.
Teacher: Ah, then. This should set off an alarm in our heads, we might call it a thinking alarm. In this case, the thinking alarm tells us that our thinking was too narrow, we did not think about it from enough different angles. He writes on the board:
!!!!Thinking Alarm!!!
Narrow thinking
Thinking alarms are signals that we want to be alert to at all times in our thinking. Whenever you detect the signs of a thinking alarm, in the course of your thinking, an alarm should go off in your head. So, for this particular thinking alarm, whenever you see yourself proposing ideas that are very similar, the alarm should go off alerting you to the possibility or narrow thinking.
But what do you do after you have noticed a thinking alarm? You need something to tell yourself about what to do. So, a “tell myself” is a reminder to yourself about what you can do when you have hit a thinking alarm. In this case, you might tell yourself to be broad and adventurous, to look for alternative approaches and solutions. It means being flexible and looking for different angles of approach. He writes again:
!!!!Thinking Alarm!!!
Narrow thinking
Tell Myself
Be broad and adventurous
Look for alternatives
Be flexible
The teacher asks his students to use the tell myself reminders to combat narrow thinking. The students come up with more varied solutions to the janitor problem, such as negotiating with the janitors, waiting out the strike to see if the janitors give in, assessing the possibility of getting replacement workers. The students continue to devise more inventive and elaborate solutions.
Over time, the class begins to enjoy the game of looking for a thinking alarm during each others’ thinking or the class’s collective thinking. The teacher encourages class monitoring of each others’ thinking in a supportive rather than judgmental way. Thus, it becomes part of the culture to watch for opportunities to improve thinking.
Meeting the Bottom Lines
Thinking alarms are ways of building students’ sensitivity to recognizing thinking opportunities on their own. How does this introduction of thinking alarms into the culture of the classroom draw on the four cultural forces?
Bottom Lines: Model thinking dispositions. yes no X
Direct modeling does not play a significant role in this example.
Bottom Line: Explain thinking dispositions, how they benefit thinking and when they come into play. yes X no
The teacher explains the concept of thinking alarms and tell myselfs at the outset, providing a framework with which the students can work for the rest of the year. Thinking alarms build students’ sensitivity to thinking opportunities by teaching cues that signal occasions for engaging thinking dispositions.
Bottom Lines: Encourage interaction. yes X no
The teacher interacts with his students to draw their attention to thinking alarms and tell myselfs.
Bottom line: Give feedback that is supportive of good thinking dispositions yes X no
The teacher encourages the students to give themselves feedback on their thinking- this is what leads to the thinking alarms and tell myselfs. Students give each other feedback by helping one another watch for opportunities to improve their thinking.
Following Up: Integrating the Lesson into the Classroom Culture
The teacher in this example follows through on the thinking alarm theme by planning to feature one thinking alarm and its associated disposition per month. Perhaps one month he focuses on the disposition to give thinking time. At the beginning of the month, he presents a lesson like the one included here that explains the importance of giving thinking time. Then, throughout the month, when students are doing regular class work, he often reminds them to watch out for being too hasty and to slow down to allow time for thinking.
MODELING THINKING DISPOSITIONS
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How can we get students involved in the spirit of scientific thinking and investigation at a young age? Any elementary school teacher could tell you that children surely have a lot of curiosity about the natural world, but it seldom goes beyond the initial question. What can be done to help them become more inclined to probe deeper and sustain longer lines of thinking and inquiry?
One answer lies in the modeling of thinking dispositions by adults. If we want students to learn good thinking dispositions, we have to model them ourselves. The researchers Ann Marie Palincsar and Ann Brown introduced a very effective modeling technique for teaching reading comprehension, called Reiprocal Teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). After reading a paragraph together, the teacher initially models the process (forming a question about the paragraph, constructing a summary, clarifying, making predictions), eventually turning it over to the students. When students first undertake the process, the teacher coaches them extensively. Then, as students become more proficient, the teacher turns more of the task over to them. At different times, the teacher and students take turns playing the role of the teacher (the one who works through the process); hence, the term Reciprocal Teaching.
Although Reciprocal Teaching was designed for teaching reading comprehension, the broad technique applies equally well to the teaching of thinking dispositions. Here is an example of how this kind of modeling approach might be used to improve science inquiry in younger students.
Throughout the school year, Madeline Chun periodically brought objects from nature into her fourth-grade class. The first day she brought a starfish and began thinking aloud about it, asking questions and explaining her thought process to the class.. In the midst of her inquiry, she occasionally stopped to explain her thinking.
Ms. Chun’s Questions:
Why does a starfish have five points? Why not four or six? Is it alive? Why does it seem to be alive in water but not on land? What does it eat? How does it eat? Who are its predators? How does it move?
Ms. Chun’s Explanation of Her Thinking:
I often start by asking lots of questions, whatever comes to mind, just to get started.
Questions:
What if you moved it to a place where it had no predators?
Explanation of Her Thinking:
I try to be imaginative and adventurous in my questions. I want to discover interesting things.
Questions:
Would the starfish population keep growing and growing? What if I cut off one of its points? Would it grow back?
Explanation of Her Thinking:
Then, I will focus on the question I want to investigate further. I don’t want to just brainstorm, but to get somewhere.
Question:
The question I want to investigate further is: Is the starfish alive? First I will consider what I know about things that are alive: they eat, reproduce, many breathe, some but not all can move. I can use these ideas to be organized about how I investigate whether or not the starfish is alive.
Explanation of Her Thinking:
I want to be organized about how I proceed at investigating my question, so I can really settle some questions.
For the next lesson, Ms. Chun brought in a piece of lava. She told the students what it was and invited them to conduct the investigation. She assisted and coached them whenever they needed help.
Student #1: I don’t know what to ask. It looks like a rock. Is it a rock?
Ms. Chun: Remember to start by brainstorming. Ask lots of questions, whatever comes to mind.
Student #2: Well, it has holes. How did the holes get there?
Student #1: If it has holes, does that mean it will sink if you put it in water?
Student #3: I’ve heard that lava comes from volcanoes. Does it have anything to do with when the volcano blows up?
Ms. Chun: That’s good. Now try for some more imaginative and adventurous questions.
Student #4: What if this isn’t from a volcano on earth, but it is from another planet?
Student #2: I wonder if lava is good for anything. Can you use it for anything?
Ms. Chun: Great! Now spin those thoughts out. What other questions do these questions suggest?
Student #4: Well, how would it get here? Maybe it’s a meteor. Are there really volcanoes on other planets?
Student #2: It’s really light. Maybe you could build buildings out of it. I wonder how strong it is? Is it strong enough?
Ms. Chun: Wonderful! To keep going with those ideas, you might ask some questions about what kind of proof you would need. Try that.
Thereafter, each time she brought an item for investigation, Ms. Chun offered a little less coaching, allowing the students to get used to doing it on their own. She made a point of encouraging students when they exhibited good thinking dispositions. The investigator role rotated among the teacher and students, so occasionally the teacher would have more opportunities to model and reinforce the process. Ms. Chun asked the students to coach one another. Pretty soon, the students were able to generate and focus questions quite well on their own.
Meeting the Bottom Lines
Modeling good thinking dispositions is especially important when working with younger children, because witnessing and emulating dispositions early on makes a difference for long-term thinking habits. This example couples teacher modeling with feedback.
Bottom Line: Model thinking dispositions. yes X no
Ms. Chun started out modeling good thinking by explaining her thought process aloud. Eventually, she faded out her direct modeling and turned the thinking process over to the students.
Bottom Line: Explain thinking dispositions, how they benefit thinking, and when they come into play. yes X no
As Ms. Chun modeled, she also explained what she was doing and why.
Bottom Line: Encourage interaction. yes X no
reciprocal Teaching relies on interaction. In this case, while one person was going through the thinking process, others observed and took turns in the coaching role.
Bottom Line: Ensure feedback and create expectations for good thinking dispositions. yes X no
Feedback is critical in this kind of modeling. An important feature of Ms. Chun’s approach was that coaching and feedback were given and received by everyone.
Following Up: Integrating the Lesson into the Classroom Culture
Ms. Chun continues to model thinking dispositions and provide informative feedback. The rotating format allows her to periodically model thinking dispositions to reinforce the behaviors, then turn it back to the students. She constantly brings in new items for investigation so that question asking becomes a regular thinking challenge.
TAKING THE PLUNGE: GUIDELINES FOR INSTRUCTION
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If the techniques described in the above examples intrigue you, you may be interested in trying them out in your own classroom. Perhaps you have a clear notion of how best to get started in your setting, in which case by all means follow your plan. If you’d like some ideas, here are a couple of “plunge points” - starting points for instruction. Take a look at both of them, see which one suits you, and simply follow the instructions step by step.
Plunge Point #1
Reread the example “Voyage of the Beagle” from the beginning of this chapter and use it as a guide to design your own lesson.
Choose an example of thinking, decision making, problem solving, or investigation done by yourself or by famous figures appropriate to your subject area where students can analyze the thinking. Using the example as an entry point, begin discussing the notion of thinking dispositions with students as Mr. Tonnelli did.
Have students decide what characteristics they believe are key to good thinking. Record the characteristics they choose and put a version of it up as a poster, so that the written list becomes a jointly shared, physical artifact of the culture.
Engage students in their own thinking challenges, such as investigation or decision making. Ask them to make a point of using the thinking dispositions on the list while they are doing their thinking.
Identify several points in the next few weeks where students will be doing independent thinking. Remind them of the list of thinking dispositions and remind them to use the dispositions while doing their thinking.
Reflect. After taking any of the above plunges, you are likely to have a more concrete sense of what focusing on thinking dispositions in the classroom is all about. So, at that point, it is useful to reflect on your progress.
Review how your conception of thinking dispositions has gradually changed over the past few weeks. Ask yourself, what were the classroom or planning events that really made the concept become clearer for you?
ASk yourself what seem to be students’ strengths and weaknesses in grasping and adopting thinking dispositions. Which concepts do they understand? Which ones do they have difficulty with, why, and what might you do about it?
Plunge Point #2
Make your own list of dispositions that you think contribute to good thinking. Reflect on what works and does not work well in your own thinking. Assess your students’ thinking. Where do they perform well and what habits interfere with their thinking? Remember that some dispositions can work against good thinking rather than for it - the disposition to reach hasty conclusions, for instance. Keep these troublesome dispositions in mind when talking with your students.
Discuss in class the concept of dispositions and how they can influence thinking. Describe some target dispositions for good thinking. Let students examine dispositions in other areas of their lives and discuss how they would try to improve them. For example, how could they try to improve a disposition to procrastinate or to be argumentative? Ask students what could be done in class to help everyone improve his or her thinking dispositions. Let the class reach agreement among themselves on how to go about fostering their own good thinking dispositions, then ask them to make a plan to do so.
CONTINUING ON: MAKING THINKING DISPOSITIONS A PERMANENT PART OF THE CLASSROOM CULTURE
Once you have taken the plunge, either by following one of the above suggestions or by experimenting on your own, how can you make thinking dispositions a permanent and pervasive part of the classroom culture?
A useful guideline is to aim for a combination of specific lessons and instructional moments tucked into other kinds of lessons, all the while taking advantage of the four cultural forces - models, explanation, interaction, and feedback. The following are suggestions in each of these areas. Some suggestions involve the design of specific, focused lessons, while others are geared toward crating an ongoing culture of thinking.
Models of Thinking Dispositions
Design specific lessons around people who model the desired thinking dispositions, similar to the “Voyage of the Beagle” or the “Modeling” examples in this chapter.
Center lessons on discussion of a physical artifact, such as a poster listing thinking dispositions.
In the course of everyday practice, try to model good thinking dispositions in your own discourse.
Have artifacts around all the time as reminders to students, in the form of posters, reminders on written assignments, reminders in your written feedback to students on assignments (see the artifacts section in “Building Cultural Norms).
Explanation of Thinking Dispositions
Plan focused lessons around specific thinking dispositions using the sample lessons “Voyage of the Beagle,” “Thinking Alarms,” and “Modeling” as guides.
Look for “on-the-fly” opportunities in the middle of your regular subject matter teaching to remind students about key thinking dispositions.
Try to build students’ sensitivity to thinking challenges and opportunities. Use explicit techniques such as thinking alarms or more informal reminders to help students become aware of their own thinking, dispositions and to detect cues for opportunities to employ good thinking.
Interactions with Thinking Dispositions
Create thinking opportunities. Be sure to make time for students to tackle extended thinking challenges and put good thinking dispositions into practice.
Design thinking dispositions lessons that explore new patterns of teacher/student interaction, such as the reciprocal teaching method discussed in the “Modeling Thinking Dispositions” section.
Allow ample occasion during lessons for students to interact with one another in ways that can reinforce displays of good thinking dispositions.
Develop cultural habits and understandings that are an integral part of everyday classroom practice. Build joint understandings and expectations about good thinking dispositions as a group through periodic discussion and repeated acknowledgment of the understandings, as described in the “Building Cultural Norms” section.
Feedback on Thinking Dispositions
Give consistent feedback that encourages students when they display good thinking dispositions. Provide feedback for students’ work in class as well as for written assignments.
Cultivate a habit among students of assessing their own and each other’s thinking as described in the “Building Cultural Norms” section.
Checking Your Progress
A good check on your progress in enculturating dispositions is to review your teaching activities related to dispositions at the end of every week. Using a weekly chart that you complete at the week’s end, you can see how well you are covering the four modes of enculturation: models, explanation, interaction, and feedback. Table 5.1 is a sample chart filled out with some possible thinking activities a teacher might have done during the week.
TROUBLESHOOTING: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THINKING DISPOSITIONS
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It seems that dispositions are like personality traits and may be hard to change. Can thinking dispositions really be cultivated?
Thinking dispositions , like other dispositions, can definitely be cultivated. Consider how children growing up in a family often pick up dispositions from the family culture, or how children that associate with a certain group pick up dispositions from the group. Naturally, since dispositions tend to be fairly stable,dispositional change comes slower than other types of learning. When teaching thinking dispositions, therefore, it is important to recognize that you are after long-term change and that you cannot expect immediate outcomes.
From my experience, I see that students already have dispositions that affect thinking. Unfortunately, many of their natural dispositions work against good thinking. How can I deal with students’ existing dispositions?
The first step is to recognize that students are not blank slates when it comes to thinking dispositions. Students do have existing dispositions that affect thinking in strong and entrenched ways. Some of these, such as mindlessness or unwillingness to exert thinking effort, work against good thinking. Many of the thinking dispositions we would like to see - open-mindedness, for instance - run contrary to the natural tendency of the mind. People are disposed to be rather closed-minded because of a number of cognitive and affective factors. So it is inevitable that you will be working against some preexisting tendencies.
One way to combat existing dispositions is to get students’ thinking dispositions, positive and negative, out on the table. Explicit discussion of and reflection on their own dispositions will help students take stock of their thinking. Rather than expecting students to adopt a new disposition whole-heartedly right away, it is helpful to first begin by getting students to experience the feeling of doing things in a way that is opposite their natural tendency. Then you can discuss the differences with them.
Recognize that it may be too much to expect students to adopt the whole attitude and spirit of a disposition immediately. Instead, you may want to foster just the habit of behaving in the desired way. If you simultaneously model the spirit, give reasons for the disposition, and establish cultural values and expectations, the attitude and affect may follow later once the behavioral habit has developed. Creating a social context that fosters thinking dispositions is extremely important in combating negative dispositions because it provides an environment that both expects and supports good thinking.
I am used to teaching concrete content knowledge and skills. Thinking dispositions are hard to get a handle on. I don’t know how to teach anything so amorphous. How can I work it into my regular curriculum?
Indeed, thinking dispositions are subtle and often difficult to see. Yet, you probably already implicitly foster certain aspects of thinking by the way you reward certain kinds of student responses and by the thinking you yourself display. The teaching of thinking dispositions does not require separate attention away from your regular teaching. You can attend to thinking dispositions whenever thinking opportunities arise in the course of teaching the subject area. The aim is to improve students’ thinking dispositions in real and pertinent thinking situations so that they carry them over to future thinking challenges.
