What are some symptoms of human that reflect inadequate experiences with thinking? How significant are these symptoms? Do they tend to cut off opportunities to learn and to grow? Are students at all aware of these traits in themselves? Can the present habits or dispositions to act be modified? We have some evidence to indicate that certain behaviors of young people change after introduction of a program that emphasizes thinking. We shall begin by discussing some of these behaviors.
Impulsiveness
There are some students who seem to react on the spur of the moment to many kinds of stimuli. Teachers often say of them that they go off “half-cocked”; they jump the gun. They begin to respond before the question is asked. In the minds of many teachers, this behavior is closely related to thinking. They that impulsive students should stop to think, that they should take time to consider the problem and its alternatives. In this volume it is hypothesized that if students had many opportunities for thinking, the tendency towards impulsiveness would diminish. There is research evidence to support the hypothesis that this behavior can be modified.
Overdependence upon the teacher
In practically every classroom there are students who seem to be forever stuck. As soon as the teacher gets the group started, such students will immediately raise their hands. They are indicating that they need help. The teacher responds by telling them how to proceed with steps 1 and 2. A short time later these students are in trouble again! Steps 1 and 2 have been completed, but more help is needed on how to go ahead. When this happens again and again, the teacher is quite apt to warn these students that in their lives there will be many occasions when a teacher will not be present and that they had better soon learn to think for themselves. Here again, the teacher relates this overdependence to a lack of experience and training in thinking. Research evidence suggests that when thinking is given an emphasis in classroom work, this kind of behavior is modified. The students make changes in their habits.
Inability to concentrate
There are students who seem to start off all right in their efforts, but soon something happens. Their minds seem to wander; sometimes they seem to be woolgathering; they do not “pay attention” to their work. Connections between means and ends are missed. A rather thoughtless slip may ruin between what was otherwise a good piece work. Teachers often say of these students that they can’t concentrate. It is common for teachers to tell these students over and over again that they should keep their minds on their work, that they should think about what they are doing. Notice that teachers connect the behavior directly with thinking. What is needed is a curriculum that puts an emphasis on thinking. Telling a pupil to think doesn’t seem to work. We need classroom activities that require thinking operations, and we need to emphasize them year after year.
Missing the meaning
Teachers say that some students get very little meaning out of their work. If these pupils are asked to give the gist of a story, they are quite apt to tell the whole story in great detail or to sum up it all by a sentence or two that does not convey much sense. If a joke has been told and many students are smiling or laughing, these students are apt to ask, what are they are laughing at. These pupils don’t to see meanings in their experiences; they have little sense of big ideas. Teachers say that they are superficial, not thoughtful; that thinking is over their heads; that it’s too deep for them. Yet, when pupils so characterized have had frequent opportunities to think under the guidance of an informed teacher, they begin to change. A start has been made on the reconstruction of a habit that has been interfered with maturation. Notice again the direct way in which teachers relate this behavior to thinking.
Dogmatic, assertive behavior
In almost every class there are students who seem to have all, or almost all, of the answers. They are frequent users of either-ors. Sometimes they are thought of as class “loudmouths”. When they encounter differences of opinion, they try to outshout the opposition. They seldom qualify responses. Many of their statements are of the all-or-nothing kind. They are not sensitive to nuances of expression, to shades of meaning. Where things are probably true, they are apt to where evidence is lacking. They are sure in situations where thoughtful people entertain a doubt. These students know in some way that what they do is not quite right; they know that they need help, that something needs to be changed. The teacher knows this, too. The need is for curriculum materials and methods that stress thinking. These students need a concentrated diet of thinking activities. The research evidence indicates that a semester of work in which almost every day puts forth a requirement for varied kinds of thinking results in noticeable changes in behavior.
Rigidity, inflexibility, of behavior
Some students seem to be like little old men women before their time. New ways of doing things seem to frighten them. If the teacher attempts to show these students another way to subtract, they are apt to respond by asking if they can’t do it the way they were shown last year. They like to act in terms of a formula, and they persist in a rigid manner. Some of these pupils, when asked to redo problems that were incorrect, even repeat their previous mistakes. There is a resistance to new ideas, new materials, new ways of doing things and new situations. There is a preference to for the old ways, the known ways, the familiar ways. To think suggests a fresh look at a new situation; to think involves an examination of alternatives and often means the trying of new hypothesis. These students are in great need of help in meeting situations that involve thought. Teachers relate this behavior to thinking habits and are aware of the need for a continuing emphasis on thinking.
Extreme lack of confidence in one’s own thinking
In this group are the groups who almost never volunteer a response to a question that involves thought. If there has been a discussion in class, such students are apt to come to the teacher after it is all over and say that they wanted to say something but didn’t know if it was correct or didn’t know what the other students might say in criticism. There is a misunderstanding of the purposes of sharing our thinking. There is the idea that one’s thoughts must be absolutely true or they should not be uttered. There is a timidity about revealing oneself; a lack of confidence in self. As these students experience many thinking situations, see others respond to them, are guided daily in many kinds of thinking operations, they will be apt to share their thinking with colleagues. Extreme lack of confidence in one’s own thinking is here regarded as a symptom that is modifiable by a curriculum emphasizing thinking operations.
Unwillingness to think
Most of us have had experiences with students who just don’t seem to want to think. They want the teacher to outline for them what is to be done, and then they will do it. They detest independent work, projects, discussions, research. They are the lesson learners of our school society. They don’t want to be in any doubt about the standards of accomplishment. They believe that the teacher should do the thinking and the student should give the right answers, which are to be found in the texts. These students have habits that tend to make them resistant to change and difficult to work with if the curriculum emphasizes thinking. Steady exposure to many kinds of thinking operations, judiciously applied, and informed, thoughtful guidance all help in getting the processes of change started.
Some qualifying moments
Only eight categories of behavior were listed in association with lack of thinking experiences. These were the most frequently mentioned by classroom teachers when so-called thinking-related behaviors were discussed. Are there more? Almost surely there are many more, and thoughtful teachers will recognize the relationships between those other behaviors and thinking. Are these offered as ironclad categories with no overlapping? Not at all. We do not have categories of behavior of that kind. These categories represent a rather crude way of going about a diagnosis. A student does not fit exactly into one of the categories; he or she approximates it. He or she is not just like that all the time and in all the situations. Teachers, however, have found these categories helpful in pointing a direction for teaching.
References:
- Edward Fry: Reading Faster (Cambridge University Press,) A series of easy passages for practice, with answers.
- Eric and Manya de Leeuw: Read better, Read Faster(Penguin Books,Harmondsworth)
