Last month, the International
Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) organised a webinar for
members with the renowned author and specialist from Israel – Dr. Penny Ur . The
session was entitled “Language-learning task design: Using
higher-order thinking skills”.
According to Ur ... or according to ‘er, if you’ll forgive the pun... Higher-order thinking skills are those which involve mental effort,
which may take various forms (e.g. problem-solving, contrasting, applying,
synthesizing…). They are contrasted with lower-order thinking skills which need
little effort, and are mainly associated with recall or identification of ‘surface’
facts or forms.
You may remember that my previous blogpost was on
the use of images, demand-high teaching and Critical Literacy. Well, Penny’s
webinar focused on one aspect of the latter, which is Critical Thinking,
defined by Wikipedia as ‘the process of thinking that questions assumptions. It
is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false; sometimes true, or partly
true.”
I would like to reflect here on how important I
believe this Critical Thinking skill is in the light of last month’s popular
uprising in Brazil, known as the Brazilian Spring, #changebrazil or simply the
mobilisation of a nation to demand of its so-called leaders a modicum of
decency and commitment to resolving some of the country’s more pressing issues,
such as Education, Health and Security.
The fact is that during the many protests,
bringing-together millions of Brazilians, it was possible to spot an enormous
variety of claims/demands/requests/issues on the signs being held-up for the
national and international media to see (not to mention Social Media such as
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr).
In the aftermath of such a thunderous booming of
the vox populi, we witnessed an
incredible array of demands, justifications, causes and supposedly `factual`
information being created and shared online... some of which was
well-researched and informative, whilst some was somewhat fantastical, with no
apparent concern for facts. Furthermore, it was also possible to read blatantly
false statements and misleading statistics being widely distributed in order to
further the cause of this or that political party, religious group, lobby or
movement.
Returning to the role of the teacher of English
in developing Critical Thinking amongst our students, let`s break-down this
important 21st-century skill into its component parts, as described
by Penny Ur.
-
Analysis: being able to distinguish between categories,
generalize, exemplify etc.
-
Precision: being aware of imprecision (vague, contradictory
or tautologous, that is needlessly repetitive, statements) in input and one’s
own self-expression
-
Logic: being aware of illogical reasoning in
input and taking care to be logical in one’s own thinking
-
Criticism: being able to apply criteria consistently
in order to evaluate.
If we apply these processes to some of the statements and demands made
during the protests, students will find that some of the ideas proposed were
actually potentially damaging to democracy in Brazil and that it may be necessary
to dig a little deeper into the issues by actually reading the Proposals for
Constitutional Amendments that are ‘affectionately’ referred to in Brazil as
PECs (Proposta de Emenda Constitucional).
Some PECs are actually really important and have been languishing in a kind of
Congressional Purgatory for years since none of the country’s politicians had
the courage to propose they be given priority.
Although the vast majority of signs seen during
protests in Brazil, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Europe, the USA and elsewhere are
completely legitimate and make very important demands, we occasionally come
across a few that were clearly written for the sole purpose of attracting
attention or perhaps just having a bit of fun. Here are some examples of signs
that could do with a little “Applied Critical Thinking” and may generate some class
discussion on what they may be trying to say and what is ‘behind’ the
apparently superficial message.
So just in case you’re still not sure about how
important it is to promote higher-order thinking in language teaching, here are
some of the ways in which it can benefit the learner (from Ur 2013):
Language learning
New language items are better imprinted on our memory if we use deep
processing. This means relating the item meaningfully to its meanings and
to other items previously learnt.
Deeper processing involves higher-order thinking skills e.g. connecting,
contrasting, creating etc. - Waters, 2006
Intellectual development
This is both the learning of facts and concepts AND the ability to
relate these to each other, criticize, draw conclusions, create new ideas etc.
Educational values
The ability and willingness to think for oneself, as distinct from the
unthinking acceptance of facts, values, directives etc. laid down by an authority.
Interest
Activities based on simple recall or knowledge of isolated forms and
meanings tend to be
boring. Activities based on higher-order thinking skills are likely to
be more interesting.
Here are Penny Ur’s suggestions for some simple activities that promote
Critical Thinking:
1. Divergent thinking
-How many things can you think of to say about this picture? (oral
fluency)
-How many ways can you think of to solve this dilemma? (oral fluency)
-How many ways can you think of to compare a train with a car? (comparatives)
-How many endings can you think of for the sentence: If I had a million
dollars…? (conditionals)
-How many ways can you think of to use an empty tin can? (A pen? A piece
of plasticine?) (oral fluency, can/could)
-How many adjectives can you think of to describe the noun road?
movie? song? (grammar: adjective-before-noun, vocabulary)
-How many nouns can you think of that could be described by the adjective
clear? (hard? black?) (adjective-before-noun, vocabulary)
2. Originality, ‘lateral’ thinking
-Think of ten ways to compare a computer with a piece of spaghetti.
-Find six questions to which the answer is …twelve…(tomorrow …of course!
…my mother )
-Suggest at least three advantages of being an only child? (Of not having
a cellphone? Of having no car?)
-Name ten things you have never done.
-Name six things that you can’t touch, and why.
-Say six negative things about …a pen … a cat … English.
-Say four NICE things about your friend, using
negative sentences.
I'd love to hear about your experiences with Critical Thinking and higher-order thinking skills in the English Language Classroom... why not share them in the comments below?
References
Ur, P (2013). High
Order Thinking Skills Webinar, IATEFL
Waters, A. (2006). Thinking and language learning . ELT Journal, 60(4),
319-
327.
