Essential Reading for Teachers Interested in Thinking

If you are interested in building a classroom culture where thinking is noticed, named and celebrated, there are three books which make essential reading. They provide clear evidence for why teachers should focus their efforts on encouraging and normalising thinking and offer research-backed strategies to support this. The books are the result of ongoing research by Harvard’s Project Zero and their lead author Ron Ritchhart. 

Ron has a long teaching history and understands the forces that shape classroom cultures exceptionally well. From his experience in the classroom, he noted that there are particular thinking moves which learners make that support them in developing a deep understanding. He also noted that teachers are able to deploy particular pedagogical moves to foster these thinking dispositions. Since joining Project Zero in 1994, Ron’s research with colleagues Mark Church and Karin Morrison have focused on providing teachers with a better understanding of how they might make thinking visible and build cultures of thinking in their classrooms. This work fits beautifully alongside other projects that sit under the Project Zero banner such as Teaching For Understanding and Agency By Design whose prime goals are well served by the enhancement of thinking dispositions. Indeed the prime belief of Project Zero is that “All Learning is a Consequence of Thinking”. 

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

This is the ideal starting point for a journey towards a culture of thinking. Readers are introduced to the importance of thinking and the role that it plays in learning. You are introduced to the notion that there are many different flavours of thinking and that we are more likely to effectively navigate the challenges that life presents if we are aware of the thinking required in a given situation. Thinking is unpacked and demystified. With a greater appreciation for thinking as a complex endeavour the value of noticing and naming it is discussed. If we are to teach our students to do something we need to be able to observe how it is occurring and how our teaching strategies are influencing it. While it might be nice to have each classroom fitted with an FMRI machine so we might peer into the functioning minds of our students this is perhaps not practical. Readers of Making Thinking Visible will discover more practical solutions. The book goes on to provide a set of routines that are shown to enhance the quality of thinking that our students engage in during their learning. The thinking routines are easy to utilise teaching tools that have a dramatic effect on your students' quality of thinking. If you find that your students often fail to provide detailed, thoughtful responses to questions, then you will love the effect that a well-chosen thinking routine can have. 

Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools
by Ron Ritchhart

Once you have read Making Thinking Visible you will most likely become hooked on teaching students to think. You will have explored a variety of thinking routines and have delighted in the new depth of conversation that is becoming the norm in your classroom. As you go along you might notice that some of the points made in the last chapter of Making Thinking Visible are playing a more vital role in your thinking about thinking as you wonder "how do make thinking routine?”. This is where “Creating Cultures of Thinking” steps in as the perfect next read. By this point, you will be ready to move beyond using thinking routines and will want to have thinking become a natural part of your classroom culture. In this book, you are introduced to the eight cultural forces that shape our classrooms. If you want to adjust the culture of your classroom, you will have to confront these forces but how will you do that if you are not aware of what they are. Once you become a master at noticing the eight culture forces at work and make adjustments to how they are experienced in your classroom you will notice that you can indeed shape the culture of your classroom. 

The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Using Routines to Engage and Empower Learners
by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church

In this third book, Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church return to the theme of making thinking visible. The authors expand on why making thinking visible is such a powerful strategy and introduce a fresh set of thinking routines. This very recent addition is bound to provide a wealth of new ideas and energise your use of thinking routines. When you are ready for some new approaches to making thinking visible or want to target thinking moves in new ways, this is the book to read. 

And, you might also find this helpful in building an appreciation of why any of this matters.

Future Wise: Educating our Children for a Changing World by David Perkins
How do you answer the 'uppity question’ from a student who wants to know why they need to learn what you are teaching? Do you reply that they need it to do well in the test or are you confident that it is learning they will need to do well in life? In this book Perkins examines what we teaching in schools and makes recommendations for a shift in focus. A key idea introduced early and unpacked throughout the book is the idea of ‘Life Worthy’; learning that is 'likely to matter in the lives learners are likely to live’. Future Wise is jargon free and a great book to share with colleagues, it will help you rethink what you spend time on in class and clarify how you see the role and purpose of education. 

By Nigel Coutts

Holiday Reading List

With summer in the southern hemisphere, long days combined with school holidays for school teachers create the perfect opportunity to relax with a good book. Here are five great reads that might spark some curiosity and keep the brain working over the break. 

"How To: Absurd scientific advice for common real-world problems" by Randall Munroe

Described as "The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide” this book builds on the thinking revealed in other books by Randall Munroe.”How To" is a delightful combination of humour and scientific knowledge. Munroe answers questions that you always wanted to know the answer to using science to uncover fresh possibilities. The book covers essential topics such as “How to Move”, “How to Throw Things”, How to power your house (on Earth and Mars) and “How to build a lava moat”. Some of the advice is potentially life-threatening while other pieces involve flocks of butterflies which, while a technically feasible part of a solution for transmitting a computer file, are perhaps not an entirely practical delivery vector. 

"Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors" by Matt Parker

Too many people consider mathematics to be the discipline they least enjoyed and feel least confident with. Too few people study mathematics at a high level in the later years of schooling. This book reveals why we should encourage more students to engage fully with mathematical learning. "We would all be better off if everyone saw mathematics as a practical ally”. In this book Matt Parker reveals what can happen when mistakes are made. A mix of humour and cautionary tales that will have you questioning the reliability of everyday objects and high tech engineering. 

"The Man who Knew the way to the Moon" by Todd Zwillich

We take for granted now that when you travel to the moon you leave Earth, travel to the moon, climb into your lunar lander, descend to the surface and do the reverse on the way home. This method was not always understood and many alternatives were considered. In this book, Todd Zwillich tells the story of John C. Houbolt, the NASA engineer who recognised and advocated what became known as ‘lunar orbit rendezvous’ as the only way to safely land a man on the moon. The story demonstrates Houbolt engineering genius as it describes how he overcame the challenges posed by long-range space flight. The story of Houbolt will be of great interest to anyone involved in change management or who has a great idea needing the support of others before it might be realised. Houbolt’s struggles to convince NASA that his plan was the only one which would work is a powerful cautionary tale from which much can be learned.

"Time to Think: Listening to ignite the human mind” by Nancy Kline

"The best conditions for thinking, if you really stop and notice, are not tense. They are gentle. They are quiet. They are unrushed. They are stimulating but not competitive. They are encouraging. They are paradoxically both rigorous and nimble.”

In “Time to Think”, Kline describes the conditions that allow individuals to think at their best. In these busy times, when decisions are rushed and moments of genuine human connection are fleeting, the importance of creating time and space for those we work with and care for to think is most critical. This book will reveal a set of powerful strategies that can be used to create time and space for deeper thinking; A thinking environment.

"Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world - And why things are better than you think" by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund 

It is easy to think that the world is going to hell in a handcart but when we investigate the facts, as revealed by statistics, a different picture emerges. In this book by the authors behind “Gap Minder” the truth of the changing state of the world is revealed. Readers are asked to consider that although in some aspects things might still be bad, it is very much the case that things are getting better. What is most required is an understanding of the realities of life on our planet and with that a sense of perspective. A positive and uplifting book that will have you believing in a brighter future based on strong evidence and the perspective of a “possibilist”.

“People often call me an optimist, because I show them the enormous progress they didn't know about. That makes me angry. I'm not an optimist. That makes me sound naive. I'm a very serious “possibilist”. That’s something I made up. It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason, someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview. As a possibilist, I see all this progress, and it fills me with conviction and hope that further progress is possible. This is not optimistic. It is having a clear and reasonable idea about how things are. It is having a worldview that is constructive and useful.” - Hans Rosling

By Nigel Coutts

Holiday Reading - Christmas 2019

With the Christmas Holiday’s finally here this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some of that reading which has been delayed while more pressing matters are dealt with. Here are the top items on my holiday reading list. With a project underway that explores a conceptual based approach to teaching mathematics there is a bias in that direction.

1. In the Moment: Conferring in the Elementary Math Classroom by Jen Munson

In this book the idea of a mathematics conference is unpacked and made practical. By conferencing mathematical understanding students are invited to move beyond knowing and develop deep and flexible knowledge. Teachers gain valuable insight about how their students are processing mathematical concepts and where they might need to intervene. - “A conference is a shared opportunity for teachers and students to learn together in the moment”

2. Making Number Talks Matter: Developing mathematical practices and deepening understanding by Cathy Humphreys & Ruth Parker

"Number Talks" is an approach to the teaching and learning of Number Sense. Rather than relying on the rote-memorisation of isolated number facts achieved through drills of "table-facts", Number Talks aim to build confident, number fluency, where learners recognise patterns within and between numbers and understand the properties of numbers and operations. Number Talks are a "mind on" learning task that engages students in an active learning process as they search for patterns, decompose and recompose numbers and develop a flexible understanding. It is achieved through direct instruction methods and facilitative dialogue with the teacher or between groups of peers who have had experience with the number talks methodology. It becomes one of the routines of a classroom focused on mathematical reasoning.

Number sense is important because it encourages students to think flexibly and promotes confidence with numbers. . . . The fact is, students who lack a strong number sense have trouble developing the foundation needed for even simple arithmetic, let alone more complex mathematics. A large body of research has shown that number sense develops gradually, over time, as a result of exploration of numbers, visualizing numbers in a variety of contexts, and relating to numbers in different ways. (Keith Devlin)

Making Number Talks Matter is a great introduction for teachers looking to make thinking with and about numbers a routine part of their student’s learning.

3. Yes, But Why: Teaching for understanding in mathematics by Ed Southall

As teachers of mathematics we all know the maths we need to teach? A more challenging question is do we truly understand it? If we are looking to change how we teach mathematics because we realise that the methods used in the past did not build understanding we might have a problem if we learned our maths by these same methods. In this book author Ed Southall dives into the details behind the mathematics. This is the perfect book for the mathematical thinker who wants to understand the ‘why’ of mathematical concepts, who needs to know their origin story and who enjoys looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

4. Flip the System Australia: What matters in education edited by Deborah M. Netolicky, Jon Andrews and Cameron Paterson

The third book in the Flip the System series turns the focus to Australia and its unique context. This is a book by teachers for teachers with a clear goal; challenge the current hierarchy and seek to explore ‘What matters in education’ rather than following global agendas and a ‘what works’ paradigm. The authors draw on their experience from inside the profession and their knowledge of the conflicting pressures that our modern education system faces. "This book does some talking but is ultimately about listening to the wisdom of the profession and engaging them at system level. We hope that by amplifying diverse but collective voices, this book can be part of a move to a world in which similar voices are sought out and valued by those traditionally at the decision-making peak of the education system.”

5. Developing Tenacity: Teaching learners how to persevere in the face of difficulty by Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer

The growing trend in terms of curriculum design is characterised by a tension between advocates of a capabilities or disposition driven curriculum and those advocating for a focus on knowledge. There is no shortage of opinion and research around what the capabilities or dispositions are that our young people will need for success in their futures and Lucas and Spencer have added their voice to that discussion. In this series, which started with ‘Developing Creativity’, the authors move the conversation to the practical point of describing what classroom routines and pedagogies might we implement if we want to develop these capabilities.

6. Calling all Minds: How to think and create like an inventor by Temple Grandin


Written by an inspiring and creative thinker who loves to tinker and apply her knowledge of engineering combined with her capacity to visualise ideas to create solutions to problems. This book combines insights into the mind of a world-renowned maker with practical projects which get the reader involved in tinkering. This is a book that challenges a singular view of intelligence as a limited set of cognitive capacities and reveals that it is a much more expansive concept. “There is no better way to start than by making things of your own design. All the projects I made when I was young contributed to the inventions I’ve made throughout my life. And they have given meaning to my life.” If we seek to enable a generation of creative problem solvers who will transform the global challenges we face into opportunities, we need to get them inventing before they leave school.

By Nigel Coutts

Holiday Reading List

For those in Australia the end of the teaching year has arrived or is just around the corner. With holidays approaching now might be the perfect time to find a good book to read and reset your thinking ahead of the start of a new year. Here are my favourite reads from this year. 

1.    King Arthur’s Round Table: How collaborative conversations create smart organisations - David Perkins

Understanding how the conversations we have within our organisations shape them and help us to achieve our goals is the focus of this book by Harvard’s David Perkins. Readers will explore how to shape positive conversations, the challenges that organisations face, the nature and benefits of different leadership styles and how the many pieces can be aligned to create an organisation that fosters success. Told through stories and with the tale of Arthur’s Camelot woven throughout this is a must read for anyone interested in organisational leadership, change and collaboration.  

2.    The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the power to think differently - Sunni Brown

Why do we insist on having our students demonstrate their understanding through the traditional essay? Why is note taking a dry process that produces pages of text we never return to? How do the tools we use to organise our thinking constrain the results? The Doodle Revolution aims to undo all of this and shows us that we can all use doodling or sketch noting to organise our ideas, reflect on our learning and demonstrate understanding. Sunni Brown’s book makes doodling accessible to all and challenges the notion that it is something for the visual thinker or artist.  

3.    The Sketchnote Handbook: The illustrated guide to visual note taking - Mike Rhode

If Sunni Brown inspired you to start doodling, this book and its related workbook will take you to the next level. Full of ideas for how to use sketch noting and with tips to make your notes masterpieces of style and clarity Mike’s book is the perfect guide for the budding sketch noter. Follow the tips and your notes will quickly be transformed into artistic works you will be happy to share and that your audience will appreciate for the understandings they reveal.  

4.    Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge - David Hyerle

Sticking with a visual theme but moving in a slightly different direction is this book by David Hyerle. The focus here is on how we might use strong visuals including mind maps, flow charts and diagrams to better understand and represent information such that it becomes useable knowledge. If you think you know all there is to know about mind maps you need to read this book, it will show you a whole new set of possibilities and bring clarity to an often oversimplified domain.  

5.    The Art of Tinkering - Karen Wilkinson & Mike Petrich

This is a beautiful book that takes you deep into the world of making and tinkering. With good advice on why we should encourage our learners to tinker the book begins with a compelling case for this style of learning. Beyond the theory it invites you to explore a host of projects that are bound to inspire. From creating flying cameras with re-cycled goods to and electronic scribbling machine or an astounding set of improvised instruments the book overflows with projects that will have you thinking 'what if?' and 'how might?’.  

6.    Innovation and its Enemies: Why people resist new technologies - Calestous Juma

If you are wanting to understand why change and particularly new technology is resisted and even feared this is a must read. This book will challenge your thinking about the role of technology in society, our perception of it and our responses to it. In a time where technology touches so many aspects of our lives and change occurs at a seemingly exponential rate understanding the enemies of innovation is vital for all and especially for those charged with teaching the next generation of innovators.  

7.    Maker Centred Learning: Empowering young people to shape their worlds - Edward P. Clapp, Jessica Ross, Jennifer O. Ryan, Shari Tishman

If you are looking to understand the educational implications of making, makerspaces and maker movement this is the book for you. The result of a multi-year study by Harvard’s Project Zero and the Agency by Design team this book shares the learning that has occurred and offers clear guidance to maximise the benefits available from a hands-on, minds-on, student centred pedagogy.  

What the Agency by Design research team quickly discovered was that, while making in the classroom was not a new concept, maker-centered learning suggested a new kind of hands-on pedagogy— a pedagogy that encourages community and collaboration (a do-it-together mentality), distributed teaching and learning, boundary crossing, and responsive and flexible teacher practices.

8.    Participatory Creativity: Introducing access and equity to the creative classroom - Edward P. Clapp

Anyone interested in teaching for creativity, anyone inspired by Sir Ken Robinson’s claim that schools kill creativity or any teacher who imagines they don’t have a creative genius like Steve Jobs in their class should read this book. Creativity is not what we thought it was and teaching for creativity requires a participatory, collaborative and richly social environment to thrive.  

9.    Innovation: How innovators think, act and change our world - Kim Chandler McDonald

If we plan to teach for innovation, we should understand what it is. In this book the author presents a series of over 100 interviews with innovators and from this frames what innovation is and the conditions which make it possible. The author has assembled an impressive set of insights and the book is an easy read that will encourage you to think differently and establish the conditions for innovation in your organisation.  

10.    Solving Problems with Design Thinking: 10 stories of what works - Jeanne Liedtka, Andrew King, Kevin Bennett

The use of design thinking as a strategy for problem solving in a complex environment continues to gain momentum. In this book the authors explore diverse examples of the use of design thinking and share strategies and tools that bring results. For teachers considering a design thinking approach in their teaching or for the management of change in their organisation this book is compelling reading.  

Also worth a look: 

‘Flow: The psychology of happiness’ and ‘Creativity: The psychology of discover and invention by Mihaly Csiksgentmihalyi 

'Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us' by Daniel Pink 

‘The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon’ by Brad Stone 

‘Grit: The power of passion and perseverance’ by Angela Duckworth 

‘The Accidental Creative: How to be brilliant at a moment’s notice’ by Todd Henry 

by Nigel Coutts

Suggested Readings to Inspire Teaching

With the end of the year approaching and holidays looming for some now is the ideal time to share some suggestions for books and papers to read. A great book can provide the inspiration required to begin the new year positively and this list includes some of my favourites from 2015. In no particular order here is my list of top ten reads to inspire quality learning and promote discussion. 

1.    Future Wise: Educating our Children for a Changing World by David Perkins
How do you answer the 'uppity question’ from a student who wants to know why they need to learn what you are teaching? Do you reply that they need it to do well in the test or are you confident that it is learning they will need to do well in life? In this book Perkins examines what we teaching in schools and makes recommendations for a shift in focus. A key idea introduced early and unpacked throughout the book is the idea of ‘Life Worthy’; learning that is 'likely to matter in the lives learners are likely to live’. Future Wise is jargon free and a great book to share with colleagues, it will help you rethink what you spend time on in class and clarify how you see the role and purpose of education. 

2.    Who owns the learning? Preparing students for success in the digital age by Alan November
The title alone is worth pondering, ‘Who does own the learning?’ If the best learning occurs while the unit is being programmed, if the students have little say in the direction their learning takes then how are we preparing them for their learning futures. Alan has a solid understanding of the implications of technology for learning and combines this with student centred pedagogical approaches to describe a model of education that empowers young learners to take charge of their learning. For teachers the challenge is to get out of the way of the spectacular learning that their children are capable of. 

3.    Learning by Choice: 10 ways choice and differentiation create an engaged learning experience for every student by A.J. Juliani
Students appreciate choice just as much as adults do and are more likely to engage with the learning they choose. Inflexible curriculums full of content that is not personally meaningful is hard to sell to students but a ruler understanding of the purpose of the curriculum and a desire to include choice can transform this. Through the inclusion of passion projects, twenty-percent time and genius-hour teachers are giving students choice in their learning and the benefits are enhanced learning and highly engaged students. If you are looking to give your students choice then this book is the perfect starting point.
 

4.    The Smartest Kids in the World: and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley
Globalisation of education and the rise of international assessments such as PISA has lead to comparisons of national education systems. In this book Amanda Ripley investigates the experience American exchange students have learning in some of the worlds top-ranked educational systems. The experience they share reveals that the true nature of the success of these systems can not be found in the league tables. From South-Korea to Poland to Finland each system has particular advantages and disadvantages and there are no quick fixes to be found. Beyond the hype of global education leaders this book paints a more human story of schools around the world through the eyes of the students.
 

5.    Creative Schools: Revolutionising Education from the Ground Up by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Talk has reached and inspired a global audience on a new scale for educators. It has inspired teachers to seek ways to educate that do not kill creativity but it has one missing piece, the how to element. In ‘Creative ‘Schools’ Robinson sets out to make the process of school transformation achievable in a practical manner. With advice and strategies ranging in scale from the classroom to the system this book is an ideal tool for any teacher inspired by Robinson’s speeches. 
 

6.    New Kinds of Smart: How the science of learnable intelligence is changing education by Bill Lucas & Guy Claxton
Intelligence is neither fixed or a unitary concept, it is changeable, learnable and varied. Understanding what this mens for education should have a profound effect on how we teach and how we see our student’s abilities. The book explains what intelligence is how, the varied forms it takes and offers practical advice on how new research can provide insights for how we learn. The authors deserve praise for the way they present complex material in such an accessible way that is entirely readable by time-poor teachers. 

7.    Reading the Visual: An introduction to teaching multimodal literacy by Frank Serafini
 We live in an increasingly visual world and this requires a new literacy that combines the various elements of the visual into a compoundable text. Serafini’s book is full of practical advice for teachers of visual literacy based on a clear understanding of how multimedia texts are constructed and are open to various readings. With a set of model units for teachers to follow the book is sure to enhance your teaching of Visual Literacy. 

8.    Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 forces we must master to truly transform our schools by Ron Ritchhart
In this book Ron Ritchhart outlines the eight cultural forces required for successful schools and the development of thinking cultures. Understanding get eight forces is the first step towards school wide transformation. For schools with an interest in 'Making Thinking Visible' or 'Habits of Mind’ the eight forces are an essential element that take these already effective strategies to a higher level where they can be fully embraced. 
 

9.    Rethinking National Curriculum Collaboration: Towards an Australian Curriculum by Prof. Alan Reid
If you are interested in knowing what the Australian Curriculum could have been like then you should read this report. It presents a view of curriculum in which the content is a vehicle for learning of broad skills and dispositions that are widely transferable. In this model students would learn twenty-first century skills through content. This shift away from content as the goal of teaching would have allowed a curriculum with flexibility to respond to local need and individual needs while ensuring that essential aspects of a long-life education where adequately addressed. Reid’s model provided us with the ‘General Capabilities’ of he present curriculum but shows how these could have been the essential ingredient of a modern curriculum. There are lessons here for anyone with an interest in curriculum design. 
 

10.    Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential by Carol Dweck
The notion of fixed vs growth mindsets has become a common feature in educational dialogue but the implications of this are not always fully understood. This book is essential reading for teachers looking to achieve the maximum benefit from Dweck’s ideas. Beyond the oversimplified explanations often shared this book takes you into the true nature of the mindsets and shows how the reality of their interactions and the potential for transforming one’s thinking is more complex. 

Also worth a look: 
1.    Creating innovators: The making of young people who will change the world by Tony Wagner
2.    Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing our kids for the innovation era by Tony Wagner & Ted Dintersmith
3.    Invent to Learn: making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary Stager
4.    Limits to self-organising systems of learning—the Kalikuppam experiment by Sugata Mitra & Ritu Dangwal

And something Different

5.    Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

by Nigel Coutts