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Contents:
1 - Description of the TSC project; 2 - Pedagogical considerations in teaching a thinking strategy as an explicit educational goal; 3 - 'To know or not to know' - the elusive nature of learning a thinking strategy; 5 - Assessing students' reasoning ability following the implementation of the TSC project; 6 - Teachers' thinking in previous studies; 7 - Educational context and research methodology; 9 - Teachers' knowledge about the treatment of students' wrong answers; 10 - Teachers' beliefs about low achieving students and higher order thinking; 11 - Teachers' metacognitive declarative knowledge and the teaching of higher order thinking; 12 - Assessing professional development following pre-service and in-service courses; 13 - What did we learn?
Review:
The basis of this book is a report into the 'Thinking in Science Classrooms' (TSC) project which was carried out in a Jerusalem school. As such it offers insight into the learning process and how it does/doesn't always work. The text is divided into two parts. The first, 'students' learning' is an examination of thinking and teaching and the connections between the two. We start with an overview of the project and the theory of learning. the TSC project was seen as a vehicle to get higher order thinking skills into education in general and science in particular. The range of activities planned to create systematic learning were outlined. Chapter two focusses on the idea that thinking skills need an actual pedagogical concern - they are not the by-product of a lesson. This is seen as a key part of the book's argument and here, case studies illustrate the idea. Chapter three examines the gap between teaching and learning. The cases chosen show considerable variations and complexities of relationship. Next, we get to see how time management played a part. The TSC took time from the traditional curriculum and could be seen as competing but, as we are shown, it's possible to combine the two with careful planning. A final chapter in this part describes the range of testing (pre-test, post-test etc.) to see how good the learning activity was. It also outlines how a range of tests can elicit different responses. Part two, subtitled 'teachers' professional development' looks into teachers thinking processes. We start with an analysis of a body of research which used theoretical considerations to underpin the research in the text. Chapter seven by contrast is a description of an intensive programme to train teachers. Chapter 8 reflects on two different pedagogies to get to the same place. It starts with theory and goes on to practical considerations. It also shows how teacher belief can be a powerful force. The next two chapters can be taken together because they both consider the notion of 'right' and 'wrong' answers which gives us two important pieces of information. Firstly, perhaps we are so focussed on getting the right answer that we overlook the value to learning from the 'wrong' position. We need to make sure that we have strategies in place to build on wrongness. Secondly, we need to train staff explicitly to make sure we allow for different strategies needed by high and low achieving students. Chapters 11 and 12 investigate teachers in terms of cognitive approaches and in-service training leaving a final chapter to summarise the key parts of the book.
It's probably fair to say that one of the skills taught least in education is learning with a close place given to thinking training despite our requirements that students at least attempt to think. This book challenges these ideas and demands we do a better job of raising the skills as well as packing in the content. It's a provocative book which means it should be set reading in all education departments.