Starting a journey towards a culture of thinking

One of the BIG hurdles for teachers wishing to move towards a culture of thinking is the mindset of our students. It is common for students to come to their learning with the belief that school is about memorising information and reciting correct answers. Having to think, reason, make connections and consider different perspectives is for many new and challenging. Some students will want to be told what they need to know. For students who have only experienced a teaching and learning process that emphasises the transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner, being asked to think can feel like being abandoned and left to one’s own resources. They will see it as the role of the teacher to do the thinking, organise the content and explain the connections between ideas. Changing this mindset is the first step.

An excellent place to start is by setting a clear agenda for thinking as an essential part of learning. If the students know that we value thinking, then they are more likely to engage in the process. A core belief linked to this from Project Zero is captured in these words: “All learning is a consequence of thinking.” This involves deliberate attention to the role that the learner’s mind plays in creating schemas which capture and then allow us to utilise learning from the experiences we have. Learning is an active process that requires not only attention in the moment but subsequent cognitive effort as we form, organise and reorganise memories. When we are required to think with and utilise our knowledge in new ways, we make robust memories, and we enhance the interconnectedness of our knowledge base. 

Establishing a culture of thinking requires our deliberate attention to the factors which support this combined with awareness of the more subtle messages we send about learning. These subtle messages we send as teachers and schools play a critical role in this process, and our students learn as much from the culture and language of an institution as they do from the deliberate intent of the lessons provided. A school might have a stated belief in the development of long-life skills but then undermine this by placing an emphasis on test results. According to Ritchart, we teach a lot of very fragile knowledge and content that we know will not stick two weeks after the test. Instead of building a culture that equates learning with work and measures success with test scores, he describes a set of cultural forces that influence attitudes and beliefs about our learning potential and our engagement with it.

Getting Started

Start gently with some accessible thinking routines. A colleague who is a geography teacher broke his teaching and his subject down into three essential questions: 

• What is there?

• Why is it there?

• Who or what cares?

Other disciplines are likely to have their own set of questions. The key here is to identify the fundamental thinking moves and deep questions that our learners will be engaging with. When we begin by asking what type of thinking will our learners need in this situation, the resulting lessons can be framed by this goal. If for instance, I want my students to reason with evidence, I will then build opportunities which require this, use scaffolds that support this and provide feedback on how they have managed this learning. 

In the instance of our geography students, it might be that we want them to make connections with what they know about geographical features while looking closely at an environment they are studying. With this in mind showing students a rich image of an environment and explaining that ‘today we will use a thinking routine to explore this image together’ can be a good start. We might start with “See, Think, Wonder”. The students are invited to look closely at the image and note what is there. As they do so, they share what they think about what they see. In this way, they make connections to prior knowledge. e.g. I see a row of trees and shrubs, I think there must be a watercourse in that area, or maybe this is a planting along a human-made structure like a road. They finish with what questions or wonderings they have and this leads to further exploration. e.g. If there is a watercourse in that part of the image, where does the water go? Who uses it? Why does the land look so dry just a short distance from this line of vegetation? 

If the students are reluctant to notice things in the image, we might try a routine like “Looking Ten Times Two”. In this, they look once at the image and notice ten things. The initial list is likely to include large and mostly obvious features. They write these down. We then show the image again, and they notice another ten things. We can repeat as often as needed. Each time they are forced to look more closely and see more detail. You then use this for discussion around the making of connections. 

Make it Visible so you can talk about it and shape it.

Our use of thinking routines invites students to move beyond knowing and step towards an understanding. If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, we wish to engage students in thinking that aligns with the intent of the curriculum. When we use thinking routines as a scaffold for thinking, our goal is to make the thinking of our students visible. Without a strategy to make the thinking of our students visible, it remains hidden from view. Without access to an FMRI machine, we are not going to see the inner workings of our minds, but we can utilise strategies that shine a light on the process of thinking. We aim to take a very abstract idea of thinking and turn it into a set of steps that can be discussed, shared and shaped. Once we can perceive the thinking of our students, we can reflect on how we might shape this in ways which move them towards the understandings that matter. Our valuing of thinking and our recognition that thinking is both important and challenging allows us to make teaching moves which bring this thinking into the realm of the teachable.

A powerful question: What Makes You Say That?

“What makes you say that?” is a wonderful question that requires our students to explain the thinking behind their responses. The more often you ask this, the better. And making it a routine part of classroom conversation sends a message that we value thinking more than answers. It forces the students to think about their responses and shows you value thinking more than answers. I used to have just the initials WMYST? on the wall and would point to it whenever students made claims or gave answers with no evidence. 

Making thinking routine

One of the very BIG understandings about visible thinking and cultures of thinking is captured by Mark Church “Don’t plan for the thinking routine you are going to use, plan for the thinking you want to make routine”. Our goal is, after all, to make thinking a routine part of our student’s learning rather than to have them do lots of thinking routines. This leads us to wonder about what type of thinking do we want our students to do in this lesson, and what thinking matters most to their learning at this point in time. 

The Understanding Map - Identifying the thinking moves we make routinely

The understanding map is one of the most classroom-friendly resources to evolve from the Visible Thinking project at Project Zero. It was developed from observations of classrooms and thinking in the real world and identifies fundamental thinking moves which we all use frequently. As we plan learning, we might consider what thinking move do we want our students to make. The understanding map helps us identify the thinking moves we will focus on, and gives us a common language with which to discuss this with colleagues and students. By using a common language, we enhance the enculturation of these thinking moves. In the end, when we talk to our students about “Making connections” or “Reasoning with evidence” we want them to have an idea of what this means and why this matters. 

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Resources to get you started

If you are wanting to better understand how you might transform your classroom into a culture of thinking or you are looking to make the thinking’s of your students visible, these books are the perfect place to start:

Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison 

Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 forces we must master to truly transform our schools by Ron Ritchhart

And look out for the new Book by Ron Ritchart and Mark Church, “The Power of Making Thinking Visible”.

“We are thrilled to announce the publication of our latest book, The Power of Making Thinking Visible due out in April, 2020. Since Making Thinking Visible was first published in 2011, Mark Church and I have continued to research the use of thinking routines and their impact on learning (we share both qualitative and quantitative data in the new book). At the same time, we have been developing new routines to help structure, facilitate, and enhance learning and thinking. This companion book of new thinking routines draws on the work we have been doing in schools around the world and provides rich examples of the routines in action across multiple grade levels and subject areas. We also articulate exactly why and how the practice of making thinking visible is so powerful for teachers and students.” (Ron Ritchhart)

If your aim is to make thinking routine in your classrooms, you are likely to be seeking the ideal thinking routine to support your students in their thinking. This new site from HGSE Project Zero makes this task easy. In addition to friendly navigation and logical layout, the site includes a number of new routines.

Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Tool 

This tool highlights Thinking Routines developed across a number of research projects at PZ. While Project Zero did not originate the idea of a thinking routine, a vast array of its work has explored the development of thinking, the concept of thinking dispositions, and the many ways routines can be used to support student learning and thinking across age groups, disciplines, ideals, competencies, and student populations. In addition to the initial Visible Thinking research initiative, some of the larger PZ research projects focused on enhancing thinking include Artful Thinking, Cultures of Thinking, Agency by Design, and PZ Connect.

By Nigel Coutts

Between the sprint and the marathon

The start of a new school year brings with it great excitement and just a little sense of panic and chaos. We have new students, new classes, new teachers and new challenges. We spend time getting to know each other and building trust. The first few weeks seem to fly by and despite our best efforts we never seem to achieve quite everything we imagined we might. Watch the start of a marathon and you see a similar scenario as runners jostle position and endeavour to gain an advantage in the first few hundred metres. The start is an explosion of adrenalin and colour as the planning and preparation that has led up to this moment is finally tested. But just like a marathon the school year is long and the initial panic of the start is soon forgotten as we enter the second phase between the sprint and the marathon proper.

While the start is important and we all like to make a positive first impression it is the accumulation of our efforts and the little things we do every day that matters most. In this early stage as we set up the patterns and routines that will see us through the rest of the year it is valuable to keep the ‘long game’ in mind. These early days are the time when we begin to understand our learners more deeply and gain a more complete picture of their needs. This is a process that is worth giving time to. Taking a slower more relaxed approach ensures we make the right choices and ask the important questions.

For our students this is the time when they learn to trust us as the guide they will require for the year ahead. Across the days and weeks at the start of each year they are told what to expect and what is expected of them. Promises are made and exciting opportunities for learning are outlined. In the coming weeks they will judge the reality of the promises that have been made and see if what we claim to value in our welcome speeches is evident in our actions. Handled well the result will be students who feel known and trust that their teachers will meet their learning needs; handled poorly and the damage can be hard to undo.

For students new to a school the next few weeks may be very important. The initial celebrity that comes with being new wears off and fresh friendship circles are rapidly forming about them. Some will negotiate this space with ease but many will find challenges here. This is the time when our pastoral care programmes earn their keep and a culture of acceptance and inclusion pays off.

The initial weeks of term are likely to be largely teacher directed as routines are set in place, although there is great advantage in giving students voice and choice early on. If we claim to value student agency in our classrooms we must give them a say in the management of our shared spaces. With this behind us we can consider the opportunities to ensure the learning that occurs in our classes is owned by the students. The classroom by now will be showing signs of occupation and the pretty store bought posters give way to items produced by the students. Evidence of the learning process will start to show through and students should be able to have a say in how their learning spaces are constructed and used. Choice in learning is something discussed previously on this site and it should extend to the way that students interact with the physical reality of their classroom.

Slowing the pace at this point in the year is essential too. The initial panic at the beginning of the year is often a construct of our fear that we have so much to achieve and so little time to do it. Compared to the students who have just left us this new group naturally seems to be in need of so much work; after all they are a full year behind but it is easy to forget this. The desire to bridge that gap as quickly as possible is natural but will not benefit our students. Taking a step back and identifying each little step towards our collective goals for the year is important. This is also the ideal time to remind ourselves that learning should be more about the journey than the destination. Our students might need to be ready for high school or final exams or even University in just twelve months time but they also need to enjoy where they are now with their learning.

For us as teams of teachers the start of the year also brings new challenges. We arrive back at school refreshed and renewed. Some of us will be new to the school, others will be in new teams and some will be renegotiating well known connections. At the start of the new year a period of ‘storming' within our teams is typical as relationships are tested and negotiated. Beyond this phase comes a somewhat dangerous period of ‘norming' where team cohesion appears. This can be a time of calm as much of the stress of the initial weeks is put behind us and the teams natural rhythm surfaces. The danger is that too much cohesion can lead to 'group think’ where divergent thinking disappears. Effective teams should be able to shift back and forth between divergent patterns of thinking where new ideas explode into possibility and convergent patterns where the best of those ideas are put into place. Throughout the marathon that is a school year including opportunities to shake things up with some quality divergence keeps teams fresh.

It might be the start of the term that gains headlines but the coming weeks as we shift into marathon mode are just as vital to success at the end of the year. How we use this time, what we value from our students in these weeks, how we engage them in the process of learning and how we put our philosophies of teaching and learning into practice will set a tone that will carry us though the long weeks to come. This year’s journey has begun, now is the time to settle in and enjoy it.

By Nigel Coutts