Learn to Think

Basic Exercises in the Core Thinking Skills for Ages 6-11

John Langrehr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134037629
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Classroom questions have traditionally focussed on testing the recall, understanding and application of content and methods. Research suggests that pupils require activities that encourage them to think flexibly about possibilities and to make independent judgements about information.

Learn to Think takes a cross-curriculum approach and offers a wide range of exercises in all significant thinking skills areas:

• Organisational

• 
  
  

• Analytical

• 
  
  

• Evaluative

• 
  
  

• Creative

• 
  
  

Predicting, categorisation, ordering, generalising, problem solving, summarising, analysis, making distinctions, decision making, cause and evidence are among the skills developed. This book introduces the basic core thinking processes used to connect and make sense of information through a range of skill based sections which provide the basis of a thinking skills programme for pupils. It is complete with introductory notes and examples, pupil work sheets, suggested answers and further useful questions. The resources are fully photocopiable and are suitable for6 -11 year olds.

Lesson One
Observing Properties

• Everything about us made by human beings or by nature has a design.
• The design or composition of any given thing is special and is that way for a particular reason. Bottles don’t just happen to be made of glass rather than other materials. Stop lights don’t just happen to be red rather than other colours. And trees don’t just happen to have thousands of leaves rather than 10 or 20.
• We say that the design of a given thing fits a particular purpose.
• We all see things but we usually don’t ask ourselves why something has the design that it does, rather than some other design.
• Lesson 1 gets you looking at things more carefully or thoughtfully.
• If you look at, and think about, the world about you, life will become so much more interesting. You will begin to understand why creators designed things the way they did.
• To help you focus on the properties of something you are observing remember the acronym SCUMPS. Each letter of this word helps you to ask yourself why something has the Size, Colour, Use, Material, Parts, and Shape that it does, rather than other possibilities. Observing Properties

Example
Object	Properties	Reasons for properties
brick	rough heavy geometric shape	cement sticks to its surface easily wind won’t blow it away easy to stack on each other in rows

Student worksheet
Write in three properties that you have noticed for each of the following things. After each property write in a reason why you think the thing has this property.
Object	Properties	Reasons for properties
coin	• • •	• • •
flag	• • •	• • •
tree	• • •	• • •
car tyre	• • •	• • •
a bottle	• • •	• • •
a football	• • •	• • •

Useful questions to ask myself when OBSERVING

Possible answers
Object	Properties	Reasons for properties
coin	round metallic thin face	easy to handle/store won’t bend easily light country’s history
flag	coloured patterned made of cloth rectangular	easy to see represents people difficult to tear easy to make
tree	leaves roots round trunk upright	take in gases keep tree stable provide strength to reach for sunlight
car tyre	round rubber hollow grooved	smooth to roll flexible for flexing grip on road
a bottle	...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• 1. Observing Properties
• 2. Observing Similarities
• 3. Observing Differences
• 4. Categorising
• 5. Comparing
• 6. Ordering in Terms of Size and Time
• 7. Thinking about Concepts
• 8. Generalising
• 9. Concept Maps
• 10. Analysing Relationships
• 11. Analysing Patterns in Sequences
• 12. Distinguishing Facts from Opinions
• 13. Distinguishing Definite from Indefinite Conclusions
• 14. Challenging the Reliability of a Claim
• 15. Distinguishing Relevant from Irrelevant Information
• 16. Decision Making
• 17. Considering Other Points of View
• 18. Asking Better Questions
• 19. Creative Consequences
• 20. Reverse Creative Thinking
• 21. Analysing the Creativity of Designs
• 22. Creativity from Random Objects
• 23. Visual Creativity
• 24. Creative Thinking about Uses