Because thinking cannot be touched, tasted or seen physically it is deemed to be abstract. However, the consequences of either effective or ineffective thinking are very evident through our decisions and choice of actions. That is how one can be said to be smart or otherwise.
Thumbs up to the heroic teachers who take unformed fresh brains and start to create thinking skills in them. Doubtlessly, teachers are creators and must be congratulated on this great phenomenon. The greatest need of the world today, besides good morals and integrity, is the need for great thinkers. If in the past the human race produced great thinkers like Aristotle, Socrates, and the like, is it possible that the thinking gene was wiped out? There seems to be so much scarcity of quality thinking in our 21st Century society!
How can we improve the teaching of thinking skills in schools so that our students rise up to the challenge in all circumstances — this is an important and urgent dialogue that we must continuously have as educators as well as policymakers. On the global scene, the trending emphasis is for schools to create curious and confident learners; critical thinkers who question things and thereafter come up with solutions. These education systems uphold thinking as a major component and almost all school activities are geared in calculating the ability to inquire, understand, develop and evaluate concepts and derive logical conclusions thereafter.
To effectively work and survive effectively in the ever evolving global village, we must evolve our teaching strategies. Carefully thought out activities that encourage the use of alternative situations and the examining of the ‘different corners in the proverbial box’ are an essential component of each curriculum. These can be in form of puzzles, quiz questions and games. Although they look and sound simple, they are actually some of the best ways to develop one’s thinking skills.
Classroom activities that are especially emphasised in early childhood learning but are usually ignored in the teaching process as the child progresses up the academic ladder include; matching the same things after selecting them from similar items, classifying things in groups or sets as well as comparing and contrasting items. These are tried and tested ways to encourage individuals to consider how different concepts work or do not work together. Is it any wonder then that younger children seem to be more proactive and definitely more perceptive in their learning, until they get to a stage of information overload which mostly involves note taking of facts, they lose it?