A culture of thinking in the EFL classroom
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A Culture of Thinking HOW ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES SUPPORT THINKING
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Teaching EFL is not just about language, or rather, it's all about it. By teaching a foreign language we engage ourselves (teachers and students) in ways and processes of thinking that can harness better decision making, broader ways of understanding the world, and sound /deep ways to see how our world works.
Transcript of A culture of thinking in the EFL classroom
A Culture of ThinkingHOW ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES SUPPORT THINKING
Word Cloud
Think
Guess
Predict
Apply / Solve
The language of thinking
Look at the pictures: what could you / your students ask?
Why?
…Why?
Children enter schools with so many questionsTEENAGERS FINISHING HIGH SCHOOL MAY SEEM TO HAVE FEWER QUESTIONS TO VOICE / ASK. WHY?
What is thinking?
Your definition…
What is thinking?
John DeweyWe do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience.
We only think when confronted with a problem.
There's all the difference in the world between having something to say, and having to say something.
Paulo FreireTo simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.
For Freire, the educational process is never neutral. People can be passive recipients of knowledge — whatever the content — or they can engage in a ‘problem-posing’ approach in which they become active participants. As part of this approach, it is essential that people link knowledge to action so that they actively work to change their societies at a local level and beyond.
Critical Thinking.orgCritical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.
The ability to think critically, as conceived in this volume, involves three things: ( 1 ) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experiences, (2) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and (3) some skill in applying those methods. (Glaser, 1941)
What is thinking?
Let’s refine our own definition…
Classroom- based questions
Can we “teach” thinking in our EFL classroom?
Can kids and teenagers “learn” how to think?
What practices in your experience could promote (better) thinking?
ACTIVITIES: how could you promote thinking?
Group ideas!
Teaching Thinking IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
Revised Bloom’s taxonomy
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
KNOWLEDGE
remembering
memorizing
recognizing
recalling identification
recalling information
who, what, when, where, how ...?
describe
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
COMPREHENSION
interpreting
translating from one medium to another
describing in one's own words
organization and selection of facts and ideas
retell...
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
APPLICATION
problem solving
applying information to produce some result
use of facts, rules and principles
how is ... an example of ...?
how is ... related to ...?
why is ... significant?
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
ANALYSIS subdividing something to show how it is put together
finding the underlying structure of a communication
identifying motives
separation of a whole into component parts
what are the parts or features of ...?
classify ... according to ...
outline/diagram ...
how does ... compare/contrast with ...?
what evidence can you list for ...?
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
SYNTHESIS
creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a physical object
combination of ideas to form a new whole
what would you predict/infer from ...?
what ideas can you add to ...?
how would you create/design a new ...?
what might happen if you combined ...?
what solutions would you suggest for ...?
Questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
EVALUATION making value decisions about issues
resolving controversies or differences of opinion
development of opinions, judgments or decisions
do you agree that ...?
what do you think about ...?
what is the most important ...?
place the following in order of priority ...
how would you decide about ...?
what criteria would you use to assess ...?
Revised Bloom’s taxonomy
Wrapping up: at the lab
What are characteristics of a good activities and resources?
What makes those activities better for teaching thinking skills?
TASK: A teacher’s options when designing resources
1. Choose an activity from your textbook and exploit possibilities for teaching thinking.
2. Work with two other colleages
3. Present activity as suggest in your textbook
4. Present a resource that makes your activity an opportunity for teaching / learning better thinking.
