Thinking Skills - 1

THINKING SKILLS
By Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.
Minnesota State University, Mankato
[email protected]
www.OPDT-Johnson.com

This is an excerpt from my book: Making Connections in Elementary and Middle School
Social Studies (2010), published by SAGE

Mini Lectures Related to Thinking Skills

Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr9JhNlrUWc

Critical Thinking Skills in Reading Instruction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsjcJlcVXJ0

Creative Thinking Skills in Reading Instruction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaP1atDikUA

Thinking Skills - 1: overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC8zsF8zTSo

Thinking Skills - 2: creative thinking skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb7ZWjQUOlw

Thinking skills 3: critical thinking skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aoEnraKaTk

Thinking Skills - 4: Approaches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TO9O-XHgjI

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 2

THINKING SKILLS
Effective thinking is a trait valued in theory by schools at all levels; however, it is
something which is rarely given a great deal of attention in practice (Gardner, 1991). Research
indicates that while levels of basic skills have remained consistent or shown a slight increase,
students are not acquiring effective thinking strategies (Mullis & Jenkins, 1990). If students are to
learn higher and more complex ways of thinking, it makes sense that thinking skills instruction be
examined as a potential tool to use in enhancing the curriculum. In other words, if we want
students to be proficient thinkers, we must teach them how. Teaching thinking skills explicitly and
then embedding them into a social studies curriculum can be used toward this end.
Defining Thinking Skills
A thinking skill is any cognitive process broken down into a set of explicit steps which
are then used to guide thinking (Johnson, 2000). For example, inferring is a cognitive process that
is one of the Essential Skills for Social Studies as defined by the NCSS (1994). To infer one must
integrate observed clues with background knowledge in order to make an informed guess or
prediction. This cognitive process can be made into a thinking skill by breaking it into the
following steps: (a) identify the question or point of inference, (b) identify what is known or
observed, (c) identify related knowledge that is relevant, and (d) make a reasoned guess based on
b and c. Then can it be taught explicitly.
There are three terms that are often used synonymously with thinking skills: high level
thinking, complex thinking, and critical thinking. However, they are quite different. Each of
these is described below.
High Level Thinking
High level thinking is any cognitive process that places high demands on the thinking and
sorting of data taking place in short term memory. In looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy, these are the
kinds of thinking process that take place at the top: evaluation, synthesis, and analysis. However,
students do not benefit from being exposed to high level thinking tasks unless there is explicit
instruction first. For example, a teacher could ask students to compare and contrast the Iraq
conflict to the Vietnam War. Students who are already fairly adept at high level thinking might be
able to do this easily while other students will probably become frustrated. Unfortunately, this is
what often happens under the guise of developing high level thinking: Teachers simply present
high level tasks. In these situations there is no actual teaching, very little learning, and a great deal
of student frustration.
Thinking skills instruction, on the other hand, makes learning this cognitive process fairly
simple by making it a thinking skill. If you want students to be able to compare and contrast, you
must first break this cognitive process into the following steps: (a) Look at the whole, (b) find the
similarities, (c) find the differences, and (d) describe. Then, teach it using explicit instruction. With
instruction, high level thinking becomes relatively easy. This is the major premise of thinking skills
instruction: Complicated things are made easy by breaking them into parts and teaching them
explicitly.
Complex Thinking
Complex thinking is any cognitive process that involves many steps or parts. The
difference between high level thinking and complex thinking sometimes is very slight. The best
example of complex thinking is the thinking process that takes place when planning a lesson. Here
you must (a) define the information or skill to be taught, (b) organize the knowledge or break the
skill into manageable parts, (c) decide how to convey this knowledge or teach the skill to students

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 3

at a level they can understand and in a manner that will keep them focused, (d) create active
involvement (e) consider a variety of learning modes, (f) attend to individual differences, (g)
manage student behaviors, and (h) design an activity to reinforce the skill or concept. These
processes, of course, vary with the teacher and the situation.
In undergraduate teacher methods courses, students often struggle when they are first
asked to design lessons. Indeed, it is not reasonable to expect them to know how to engage in the
kinds of complex thinking needed to adequately design learning experiences without providing
them explicit instruction. Thus, lesson plan design should be broken into a few well-defined steps
and taught explicitly (Johnson, 2000). In this way, lesson planning becomes a thinking skill that
enables preservice teachers to master this type of complex thinking more quickly and with less
frustration.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a type of thinking that converges on a single thought or entity. Here
one must organize, analyze, or evaluate information, all of which could become a thinking skill if
they were broken into parts and taught explicitly. The opposite of critical thinking is creative
thinking. This is thinking that diverges from a single point or entity. Here one must generate,
synthesize, find alternatives, adapt, substitute, or elaborate. Each of these operations could also
become thinking skills if they were broken into parts and taught explicitly.

ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE SKILLS INSTRUCTION

Thinking skills should be taught using thinking frames and the elements of effective
skills instruction. A thinking frame is a method used to initially guide students' thinking (Johnson,
1998; Perkins, 1987). A thinking frame is a concrete representation of a particular cognitive
process broken down into specific steps and used to support the thought process. Thinking frames
can be constructed in poster form and placed in the classroom for teaching and easy review of
thinking skills. Examples of thinking frames can be seen in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1. Examples of Thinking Frames.

Inferring Comparing and Contrasting
1. Identify the question or point of inference. 1. Look at the whole.
2. Identify what is known or observed. 2. Find the similarities.
3. Identify related knowledge that is relevant. 3. Find the differences.
4. Make a reasoned guess based on b and c. 4. Describe.

Thinking skills will be of little use if they are not taught in a manner in which students can
understand and learn to use them. Effective skills instruction of any kind incorporates four
components: identification of the procedural components (steps), direct instruction and modeling,
guided practice, and independent practice (Johnson, 1999; Pressley, Harris, & Marks, 1992).
Each of these is described below.
• Identification of the Procedural Components. First, students are introduced to the
skill and the specific steps involved are identified. When teaching a thinking skill, this is where
students are introduce to the thinking frame used to guide students' thinking during the other
steps.
• Direct Instruction and Modeling. Next, the teacher gives explicit instruction as to how
the skill might be used and models it by thinking out loud while going through each step. This
element, which is used to provide students with an overview, should be relatively brief.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 4

• Guided Practice. Guided practice is sometimes referred to as scaffolded instruction

(Johnson & Graves, 1997). Here, the teacher takes the whole class through each step of the skill
several times. The goal is to provide the support necessary for students to use the skill
independently.
• Independent Practice. Finally, the teacher designs an activity so students can practice
the skill independently. This may include homework. If the first three components have been
taught effectively, students should be able to complete this with 95% -100% success ratio
(Brophy, 1986). Independent practice is not meant to be challenging. It is meant to practice those
skills already covered in class.

EXAMPLE. A thinking skills lesson plan.

Teacher: Andrew Johnson Grade: 5

Subject: Social Studies Time: 9:00-10:30

OBJECTIVE: Students will use the thinking skill, Creating Groups to put current events into
categories.

INTRODUCTION: Boys and girls, today we are going to learn how to use a new thinking skill called
creating groups.

INPUT:
1. Thinking skills are the skills we use to help organize our thoughts
2. They have specific steps to follow.
3. They make complicated thinking seem easy.
4. Creating groups is a thinking skills.
A. Scientists often use this.
B. Look at animals, organism, rocks, etc.; look for patterns, and make sense of it by putting
in groups (show example with animal pictures).
5. These are the steps:
A. Look at the whole.
B. Identify reoccurring themes or patterns.
C. Arrange into groups or categories.
D. Describe.
6. Guided Practice: As a class, brainstorm to list 10 interesting events that have happened at
school in the last week.
A. Think out loud (cognitive modeling) to help students organize into groups.
B. Example: Are there things that are the same here?

ACTIVITY:
1. In small group, students list at least 20 current events that have happened this year.
2. Use Creating Groups to find categories
3. Describe these events in terms of the groups.
A. What does this tell you about this year?

B. How does this year compare to last year?

CLOSURE - REVIEW:
1. Students will share their ideas with the whole class.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 5

HOW DO I? Teach for Automaticity.

Like any skill, students need to revisit and review it even after it becomes part of their cognitive
repertoire. Regular practice helps in developing efficiency and automaticity. Depending on age and
ability, it might take as few as one or two lessons or as many as ten or more lessons for students to
learn a new thinking skill and be able to use it independently. Also, the new thinking skill should be
integrated through the curriculum wherever possible. This allows the teacher to provide regular
practice. It also enhances all curriculum areas, raises the level of thinking, augments learning, and
creates a more interesting, student-centered learning environment.

Depending on the level of the students, you should identify four to ten thinking skills to incorporate
into you classroom each year. It is most effective to focus on one skill at a time and use it in a variety
of situations and settings. You will need to spend anywhere from two weeks to a month on a single
skill. Also, continue to review and use past thinking skills throughout the year.

APPROACHES TO THINKING SKILLS INSTRUCTION

How should thinking skills be taught? There are three approaches used in teaching
thinking skills: the stand-alone approach, the immersion approach, and the embedded approach
(Prawat, 1991).
The Stand-Alone Approach
The stand-alone approach consists of teaching thinking skills separately from subject-
matter content. Here a general set of thinking skills are identified and taught as a separate course
or subject. Students are instructed how to transfer the skills to various subjects and situations.
The problem with this approach is that students do not have a context in which to learn and use
acquired skills. The skills are viewed as puzzles with little relevance to academic or real life tasks.
Also, thinking skills learned in isolation do not transfer well to academic or real world situations
(Johnson, 2000).
If you were to use this approach to the teaching of thinking skills, students would spend a
great deal of time looking at a series of puzzles, word problems, or exercises presented in a book.
It would be assumed that students would be able to transfer these skills to other situations.
However, this would happen in only a few instances.
The Immersion Approach
The immersion approach does not involve teaching thinking skills; rather, it allows good
thinking to develop naturally as a result of students being fully engaged or immersed in content-
related activities which call for high levels of thinking. Here, students are provided with repeated
practice in high level thinking activities with the assumption that they will eventually develop the
necessary cognitive skills to successfully engage in this kind of thinking. However, simply
immersing students in high level thinking activities is not an effective teaching and learning
technique: High ability students reinforce those ways of thinking already acquired while other
students become frustrated. A series of challenging questions and activities is not a thinking skills
program.
If you were to use this approach to the teaching of thinking skills, you would simply assign
complex tasks. It would be assumed that over time, students would be able to discover the steps
necessary to complete these complex tasks and develop the appropriate thinking skills. Again, this
would happen in only a few instances.
The Embedded Approach
Using the embedded approach you would teach thinking skills within a subject matter
context. Students would then apply these skills directly to the particular subject matter being

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 6

studied. This allows them to use the thinking skills in a meaningful context and also helps students
learn matter more deeply by manipulating subject area concepts (Marzano, 1991).
If you were to use this approach you would teach thinking skills as part of social studies
class using direct instruction, modeling, and guided practice. Students would then be asked to
apply this skill to some aspect of the lesson.

HOW DO I? Embed Thinking Skills in a Social Studies Curriculum.

1. Identify a body of knowledge or unit to be covered. For example, as part of a 3rd grade geography
unit, Mr. Jorgenson was studying lakes, rivers, dams, and bridges and their impact on the surrounding
environment.

2. Identify two to five thinking skills (see Figures 11.4 and 11.5), that can be used to create interesting
classroom activities or assignments with the unit. Ms. Stockton chose the following skills based on the
information to be in the unit and the concepts and skills she wanted her students to learn: flexibility,
elaboration, comparing and contrasting, and ordering.

3. For each skill, look for activities, assignments, or discussion questions that could be used with the
unit. Ms. Stockton came up with the following questions that could be used as discussion points or that
she could use them to create activities:
▪ Flexibility: What are some other ways to get across a river? What are some other ways to stop or
divert the flow of water? What are some other uses for dams and bridges? What are some other kinds
of things that we could use dams for? What are some other ways in which rivers could be use rivers?
▪ Elaboration: How could the dam be made better? What could be added to the dam or bridge to
make it more efficient or effective?
▪ Compare and contrast: Compare and contrast the different types of bridges and dams to find
similarities and differences. Compare and contrast
▪ Ordering: Put dams and bridges in order from strongest to weakest, most environmentally friendly
to least, most practical to least practical, or most useful to least useful

4. Make an initial plan of where each skill might be used within the unit. Ms. Stockton looked at her
outline of the unit and the concepts and skills she wanted to cover. She decided where she wanted to
introduce a thinking skill, and then identified cooperative learning and other types of classroom activities
that could be designed using that skill and inserted them at different points in the unit.

5. Teach one skill at a time using ideas or concepts from the unit. Ms. Stockton taught no more than
one thinking skill a day during the course of this unit. She introduced each thinking skill using thinking
frames and the elements of effective skills instruction. She used each thinking frame to create a poster
which was use to remind students of the steps before they engaged in an activity or assignment using
the particular thinking skills.

6. Review and reinforce throughout the year. Ms. Stockton found that she could use these thinking
skills in other subject areas. She continued using them for classroom activities and assignments and
continued to refer to the thinking frame posters.

Thinking Frames
Creative thinking skills utilize divergent thinking; thinking that diverges from a single
point. The following types of cognitive processes are used here: generating ideas, integrating
ideas, or seeing things in new ways. The thinking frames for seven creative thinking skills are
outlined in Figure 5.2. Each of these can be used to design activities and assignments in social
studies.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 7

Figure 5.2. Thinking frames for creative thinking skills

Fluency: Generate as many ideas as possible Integrate: Connect, combine, or synthesize two or
without evaluating. more things to form a new whole.
Thinking Frame Thinking Frame
1. Look at the idea or problem. 1. Look at all things.
2. Do not worry about good or bad ideas. 2. Select interesting or important parts from
3. Add as many ideas as quickly as you can. each.
3. Combine to describe a new whole.
Flexibility: Create a variety of different
approaches. Brainstorming Web: Create a web to generate
Thinking Frame ideas relative to a given topic.
1. Look at the original. Thinking Frame
2. Find other ways for it to be used, solved, or 1. Look at the original ideas.
applied. 2. Analyze to identify 2-5 related ideas for
subheadings.
Elaboration: Embellish an original idea. 3. Brainstorm to generate ideas for each
Thinking Frame subheading.
1. Look at the idea. 4. Describe.
2. Add things to it to make it better or more
interesting. Generating Relationships: The student will find
related items or events.
Originality: Create new ideas that are unusual or Thinking Frame
unique. 1. Look at the item or event.
Thinking Frame 2. Generate attributes.
1. Find an idea or problem. 3. Find items or events with similar or related
2. Think of solutions or applications that attributes.
nobody else has thought of before. 4. Describe the relationship.

Critical thinking skills involve convergent thinking; thinking that converges on a single
point. It utilizes one or more of the following types of cognitive processes: organizing, analyzing,
evaluating, or using given information to come to a specific conclusion. The thinking frames for
eight critical thinking skills are outlined in Figure 5.3. Each of these can also be used to design
activities and assignments in social studies.

Figure 5.3. Critical thinking skills.

Inferring: Go beyond the available information to Decision Making: Examine the options and
identify what may reasonably be true. alternatives in order to decide on a course of
Thinking Frame action.
1. Identify what is known. Thinking Frame
2. Identify similar situations or important 1. Identify the problem or decision.
knowledge. 2. Generate decision options.
3. Make a reasonable guess based on 1 and 2. 3. Evaluate costs and rewards of options.
4. Make a choice based on the above.
Compare and Contrast: Find similarities and
differences between/among two or more items. Ordering: Arrange events, concepts, or items in
Thinking Frame sequential order based on a criterion.
1. Look at all items. Thinking Frame
2. Find the similarities. 1. Look at or define a criterion.
3. Find the differences. 2. Look at the whole.
4. Conclude and describe. 3. Arrange items within the whole according to the
criterion.
Analyze: Break an item or event down into its 4. Describe the whole in terms of the new

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 8

component parts. order.

Thinking Frame
1. Look at the item or event. Evaluation/Critique: Make a formal critique based
2. Identify important parts. on a set of criteria.
3. Describe each part. Thinking Frame
4. Describe the whole in terms each part 1. Look at or define a criterion.
2. Look at the subject.
Supporting a Statement: Use appropriate 3. Compare the subject to the criterion.
reasons, detail, or examples to support a 4. Describe the subject relative to the
statement, idea, or conclusion. criterion.
Thinking Frame
1. Make a statement or claim. Creating Groups: (inductive analysis) Impose
2. Gather information/data to support the order on a field by identifying and grouping
statement. common themes or patterns.
3. Organize the information. Thinking Frame
4. Describe the original statement in terms of 1. Look at the whole.
the new information. 2. Identify reoccurring items, themes, or
patterns.
3. Arrange into groups.
4. Describe the whole in terms of groups.

CREATIVE THINKING IN SOCIAL STUDIES

Presented here are some examples of how thinking skills above might be integrated into
social studies. These examples can be adapted for use at any grade level, with varying levels of
ability, and in a wide array of teaching situations. For further information and strategies related to
thinking skills, see Up and Out: Using Creative and Critical Thinking Skills to Enhance Learning
(Johnson, 2000).
• Fluency. Fluency, sometimes known as brainstorming, is used whenever students need
to generate a great many ideas. It can be used as a pre-writing strategy or when looking for
possible solutions to problems. The important thing here is to teach students is not to evaluate
ideas initially. Evaluating ideas comes only after a great number have been generated.
• Flexibility. This thinking skill helps students to generate a variety of ideas looking for a
number of different ways or approaches. For example, what are some other ways we might be
able to get a telescope into space? What are some other ways in which we could educate students
in our society, or move products from factories to consumers, or generate power for our homes.
• Elaboration. Elaboration looks to make the original better, more interesting, more
detailed, or more complex, or more refined.
• Originality. Use this thinking skill to design or create something new such as a product,
poster, or performance.
• Integrate. Create something new and interesting by integrating the salient elements of
two or more existing things. To do this, students must first identify what those salient elements
are and then combine some or all of them to create the new thing.
• Brainstorming Web. This thinking skill works well to create structure and generate
ideas around that structure. Chapter 8 shows how it can be used to generate ideas for oral
speaking. It can also be used as a pre-writing activity to help students structure their ideas, or as
pre- and post-reading activities.
• Generate Relationships. Here students look for similarities between one or more
person, item, or event. This thinking skill works especially well when trying to make personal

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 9

connections with subject matter. The visual organizer in Figure 5.4 can be used to guide students’
thinking here.

Figure 5.4 Generating relationships.

person, item or event:

attributes persons, items, or events with similar

attributes

relationship:

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 10

EXAMPLE. Using Fluency, Elaboration, Originality, and Web and Brainstorming.

Fluency as a pre-reading strategy. Before reading a chapter in their social studies textbook, Mr.
rd
Malone has his 3 grade students generate ideas (Fluency) on related topics prior to reading to activate
relevant schemata. Their ideas are listed on the front board. To extend this, next ask students to create
groups (Creating Groups) and describe their lists in terms of groups and number in each group.

Fluency as a post-reading strategy. For a post-reading activity, Mr. Malone’s students brainstorm to
create a list of interesting or important ideas found in the chapter. Like before, these are recorded and
can be used to create groups or students can list the items and put them in some sort of sequential order
(Ordering), such as most interesting to least interesting, most likely to impact their lives to least likely,
most recent to least recent, or closest to furthest away.

Elaboration as a creative writing strategy. Ms. Bryant is using The True Confessions of Charlotte
th th
Doyle (Avi, 1990) as part of her 6 grade social studies class studying the history of the 19 century. To
bring students creative imagination into the learning experience, she has students examine characters,
events, scenes, or items in a story and (a) add interesting details; (b) describe other items that might be
included, (c) add details or descriptive adjectives to a sentence found in the story; (e) add other
interesting characters, events, or items not included in the story; or (f) create a drawing of a scene or
event adding details the author did not describe.

Using Originality to find and solve problems. As part of a unit on science, technology, and society, Mr.
O’Neil’s students work in small cooperative groups to create new inventions. They start by looking for a
problem in their lives or in society. They then look for new applications or solutions to design their
inventions.

Brainstorming Web as a pre-reading activity. Mr. Fischer uses this thinking skill to activate relevant
schemata before reading. Here he announces a theme or topic found in the upcoming story selection.
This is put in a circle on the front board. Students then are asked to think of three items or sub topics
related to the original theme. Nodes are created for the sub topics (see Figure 5.5). Students then
brainstorm to add ideas to each node. After reading the story, students add to the original web.

Figure 5.5 Brainstorming web.

subtopic
subtopic

theme

subtopic

Brainstorming Web as a post-reading activity As a post-reading activity, he has his students do this
instead of worksheets. His students create webs to describe the interesting or important events in a
chapter or story. This is also an example of the thinking skill Analyze, as students must break the whole
into its component parts and describe it.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 11

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN SOCIAL STUDIES

• Inferring. Inference is the act of using observed clues and background knowledge to
make some sort of informed guess or conjecture as to what may be true. This can be used with
persons or events in a story or in history, and it can also be transferred to personal and real life
situations (Johnson, 1996). The Infer-O-Gram in Figure 5.6 is a graphic organizer that can be
used to guide students’ thinking here.

Figure 5.6. Infer-O-Gram.

Question:
what you observe - clues what you know -
background knowledge
1.
2.
3.
4.

Your Inference:

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 12

EXAMPLE. Using the Infer-O-Gram.

th
In his 8 grade character education unit, Ms. Walton uses the Infer-O-Gram below to guide students’
thinking when making inferences.

Choice or action: Dorothy slaps Lion on the face when he is threatening Toto. What value may have
determined this action?
what you observe what you know

Important things the story tells us about Important things you know that were
the character: not in the story:
- Dorothy takes action. She steps in to save - Lions will usually hurt you if you slap them
Toto, not knowing that Lion is a coward. on the face.
- Dorothy says it is wrong for big things to - Courageous men and women throughout
pick on little things. She is standing up history have stood up for what they
for a principle here. believed, even though they may have
- After hurting Lion, Dorothy tries to comfort been hurt: Malcolm X, Martian Luther
him when he cries. King Jr., Rosa Parks.
- Cowardly men and woman throughout
history change their mind, retreat, or don’t
Important things the story tells us about stick to their guns when threatened or
the situation: challenged.
- Dorothy does not know Lion is cowardly. - In books and movies, the hero or heroine
- Lion is growling and trying to scare Toto. often display the traits that Dorothy does.
- Scarecrow and Tin Man do not take - Many of the traits described by Joseph
action. Campbell in Hero With a Thousand Faces
They only cringe. (1968) apply to Dorothy.
- Lion threatens Scarecrow and Tin Man.
Makes fun of them. Says he want’s to
fight.
- Lion is brave until he’s challenged.

Conclusion: Dorothy had courage and stood up for what she believes. She was willing to take action
based on a principle even though she may have been hurt. Dorothy represents the many of the traits that
other heroes have in real life, movies, and in books such as Luke Skywalker, King Arthur, Neo, Rosa Parks,
Mohammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Martian Luther King Jr. To be heroic, we should identify what we believe,
and then to try to stand up for it.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 13

• Compare and Contrast. This thinking skill asks students to find common elements and
differences. The Comparison Chart (Figure 5.7) can be used to guide students’ thinking here.

Figure 5.7. Comparison Chart

similarities
↓

↑ ↑
differences differences

Conclusions or ideas:

EXAMPLE: Comparing and Contrasting.

In his character education unit, Mr. Culpepper uses the Comparison Chart below to help students compare
and contrast different kinds of heroes. These heroes can be taken from a book movie, history, or recent
events, or from students’ lives.

Luke Skywalker from Star similarities Dorothy Gale from The

Wars ↓ Wizard of Oz
a boy • both are teenagers a girl
happens in the future • both live with aunt and uncle happens in the past
evil character is male • both confront evil evil character is female
happens in space • both find a magical power happens on earth
within themselves
• both have friends who help
• both have creatures or animals
↑ who talk ↑
differences • both have helping characters: differences
Obie Wan Canobie and Glinda
the Good Witch

Conclusions or ideas: Heroes and hero stories have many similar characteristics. Many of these
characteristics also apply to the Harry Potter books (Rawlings, 2004), and to figures found in the religions
and mythology units covered we studied earlier this year.

• Analyze. This thinking skill is used to find and break the things into their component
parts and describe them in terms of their parts. For example, Mr Culpepper might have his
students might analyze and describe (a) important character events found in the beginning, middle,

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 14

and end of the Wizard of Oz; (b) the positive, negative, and neutral national and international
events in the last week, (c) the positive, negative, and neutral local events of the last year, (d) the
collaborative/synergetic , the uncollaborative/selfish, and self-preservation/neutral actions
happening in the nation and world in the last year, (e) real things, possible things, and imaginary
things found in the story. Notice that Mr. Culpepper has given the categories in each of the
instances above. He also sometimes asks students to decide how things might best be broken into
parts or what categories might be used to describe the whole.
• Supporting a Statement. Here, students make a statement, then use clues or sentences
to support it. The graphic organizer in Figure 5.8 can be used to organize students thinking here.
This could be used as a post-reading activity where students are given a statement and then asked
to look for clues in the chapter or text that support that statement. They could also be used to
organize an independent study. Here students are given or make a statement. They then look for
data to support the statement or claim. Finally, this thinking skill is a good way also to teach
paragraphs in technical writing. A paragraph is usually an idea or statement with support or
elaboration.

Figure 5.8. Supporting a Statement.

statement/claim:

evidence or supporting data

1.
2.
3.
4.

• Decision Making. Decision making is a thinking skill that will be described in more
detail below. Here students must first identify a problem or a decision that must be made, then
generate ideas for a solution or decision. Next, the costs and reward of each of these must be
evaluated before a decision is made as to the best course of action. Students could use this
thinking skill in small groups to examine a situation or a problem in which a decision must be
made. This could be a problem related to society, science, school, history, or a personal problem.
The group then generates list of possible two to five solutions, listing both the positive and
negative consequences of that solution. Finally, the group comes to a consensus as to the best
solution and reasons to support their decision. Using this as a small group activity also exposes
students to multiple perspectives and the reasoning of others.
• Ordering. Ordering can be used to rank any item, event, person, experience, or trait
according to a given criteria. The Orderizer in Figure 5.9 can be used here. First, students use the
left side of the Orderizer to generate a list of things. Then they examine or define a criterion. The
criterion is then used to analyze the list. Students then put the items in order in the right column.
For example, students could generate a list of (a) inventions from the 70's and order them from
most significant to least significant to their immediate lives, (b) things they have done in the last
week and order them from positive to negative, (c) current events and order them from most
important to least, (d) things to do on a weekend and order them from exciting to boring, (e)
things to say when asking somebody out on a date and order them from most usable to least, or
(f) solutions to a problem and order them from most pragmatic to least pragmatic.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 15

Figure 5.9. Orderizer.

generate a list put them in order

1.
2.
3.
4.

• Evaluation/Critique. With this thinking skill, students must first generate criteria for an
item, then rate or evaluate the item based on those criteria.

HOW DO I? Teach Evaluation Skills

The key to this thinking skill is to have students first identify the criteria. A good way to introduce this
thinking skill is to have students evaluate books, movies, or TV shows. They can then easily move on to
evaluate scientific products, inventions, decisions, solutions, their own learning, their own performances
or products, or almost anything else. The first figure below is an example of a rating chart for a single
thing. The second figure is an example of a rating chart that can be used for many things.

Rating Chart for Evaluating a Single Thing.

Criteria Rating
Interesting or fun characters.
Likeable characters.
Interesting adventures.
The story is imaginative.
Key: 5 = very high, 4 = high, 3 = average, 2= low, 1 = very low

Rating Chart for Evaluating and Comparing Many Things.

Criteria: A. Interesting or fun characters; B. Likeable characters; C. Interesting adventures; D. Story is imaginative.

CRITERIA
Stories A B C D Total

Key: 5 = very high, 4 = high, 3 = average, 2= low, 1 = very low

• Creating Groups. Creating Groups is a form of inductive analysis where you examine a
field try to induce or create order by organizing the things observed into groups. Here you look
for recurring items, themes, or patterns to emerge from the field. Similar things are coded and
moved into initial categories. Younger students can begin looking for groups or similarity in any
kind of data. One simple primary activity is for everyone to put one shoe in the circle. Students

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Thinking Skills - 16

are then asked to pick two shoes that are the same somehow and tell why they are the same.
Older students could use this thinking skill when analyzing data of any kind. One example would
be when conducting a survey using open-ended questions as part of an inquiry activity. Here
students would get a variety of responses that would create a field. They would then use Creating
Groups to put order on that field. This data could then be expressed quantitatively, put on a
graph, and be used to make comparisons.

EXAMPLE. Using Creating Groups in an Inquiry Project.

th
As part of an independent inquiry project, Sarah, a 7 grade student was studying humor in
American society. She decided to analyze a Three Stooges video in order to understand the
Stooges and their humor. She watched a short 15 minute episode on video tape called Grips,
Grunts, and Groans (Columbia Pictures, 1937) and began to look for instances of humor. As
she watched, she used field notes to record those things done for comedic effect. In examine
her notes she came up with the following categories of humor: silly things, human-to-human
violence, things-to-head violence, and self-mishap. She was able to quantify the instances of
humor in each category (see table below), and put this data in the form of a bar graph. She
could then use this data to make comparisons to other comedians of the era and to comedy
movies of today.

Silly Things Human-to-Human Thing-to-Head Self-Mishap

Violence Violence
Total: 33 Total: 22 Total 21 Total: 9

Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

[email protected]

www.OPDT-Johnson

YouTube Mini-Lectures

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.