Thinking Skills

Learning and Metacognition

There are various views of what constitutes learning, yet they all relate to thinking in some meaningful way. An individual acquires knowledge based on myriad experiences involving active construction within one's own mind, as it might apply to such activities as the reconstruction of prior knowledge, practical application, guided practice, technological endeavors, and collaborative effort. Each of these activities requires thinking, and this effort may take such forms as reflecting, researching, interacting with others, drawing conclusions, and building new ideas. When skills become well learned and fairly automatic, they are often transferred to new situations, thus enabling more thinking and learning to take place.

Adults can teach thinking by modeling good thinking processes, encouraging practice, and providing targeted lessons in such skills as drawing comparisons, synthesizing ideas, weighing alternatives, making decisions, and changing perspectives. Careful thinkers employ many skills: For example, they ask pertinent questions, examine beliefs and assumptions, define criteria for analysis and evaluation, assess arguments, seek proof, look for solutions, and show a willingness to adjust their viewpoints.

There are also established models of thinking instruction (for example, Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy, Edward deBono's thinking skills program, Robert Sternberg's triarchic model). These can be employed in ways that align with learners' interests and mastery of a subject area, and at a pace that is commensurate with their abilities. The learning can be integrated into curriculum-based activities and resources, with support and guidance involving a flexible approach, collaborative endeavors, and ongoing communication.

Being able to capitalize on knowledge efficiently and insightfully demands thinking about issues, events, acquired information, and problems in intricate ways, by distinguishing relevant information, and also combining and applying it meaningfully. Goal-directed thinking (which focuses on a desired outcome while working to comprehend, assess, or resolve matters) may involve such skills as focusing on reason, being precise, distinguishing between fact and opinion, seeking knowledge, and being aware of one's own biases. Scientific thinking (which demands such specific skills as drawing hypotheses, analyzing data, finding patterns, and devising recommendations based on solid evidence) empowers one to make discoveries by vision and logic, or creating order from chaos. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, can also be taught. By monitoring and self-regulating one's cognitive processes, and by sharing and valuing one's own thoughts and proficiencies (e.g., memory, comprehension, elaboration, and other processes), one can become a developer, a gatekeeper, a collaborator, and a dreamer—in short, someone better able to tap into curiosity and both explore and extend the sense of wonder, linking ideas to experiences, informational sources, perspectives, and other modes of thought. Perhaps this is thinking at its finest.

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