Teachers who teach thinking skills and processes directly promote learning because such explicit instruction helps students to better understand and more effectively apply the types of thinking required by the curriculum.

Direct Teaching of Thinking

Teachers interested in developing student thinking abilities have often stimulated their students through thought-provoking questions, discussions, and assignments. Activities such as these contribute to a thoughtful classroom. However, they may not necessarily result in the improvement of thinking for every student. For example, simply asking students "higher order" questions does not insure that they possess the thinking skills needed to answer them. Likewise, presenting students with a problem or a writing assignment does not teach the strategies employed by successful problem solvers or writers. And simply holding a classroom debate does not instruct students about how to structure or rebut an argument effectively. In each of these cases, a more direct approach may be needed to develop the specific skills and strategies of good thinking.

The Direct Instruction Model emerged as an outgrowth of attempts to synthesize principles of effective teaching into a practical pedagogical model. Direct Instruction emphasizes active teaching and student "time on task." Elements of the model include explicit instruction in identified skills and concepts, guided practice with immediate feedback, frequent reviews and "checks" for understanding, and independent practice. A synthesis of classroom research (Rosenshine, 1976) confirms the effectiveness of these instructional elements in producing positive effects on student achievement. The need for a systematic instructional procedure linked to student achievement gains has led many educators to embrace the principles of direct instruction. It is in this context that a Direct Instruction approach is a valuable approach for the improvement of thinking.

Any identified thinking skill or process can be taught directly. To this end, Barry Beyer (1987) has identified the following six-step lesson model for introducing any thinking skill:

Step 1 - Introduce the Skill
Step 2 - Explain the Skill
Step 3 - Demonstrate (model) the Skill
Step 4 - Review What Was Done
Step 5 - Apply the Skill (guided practice)
Step 6 - Reflect on the Skill

In addition to this directive procedure, Beyer has also developed an inductive and a developmental lesson model for explicitly introducing a thinking skill. This approach has been used to teach such fundamental thinking skills as classifying, comparing, evaluating, hypothesizing, sequencing, and summarizing. Direct instruction can also be applied to more complex mental processes, such as decision making and problem solving. Other examples of explicit instruction may be observed in the "process approach" to the teaching of writing when students are directly taught specific thinking skills related to composing, such as the prewriting strategies of brainstorming and use of graphic organizers. Likewise, the contemporary view of reading encourages the explicit teaching of comprehension monitoring strategies when necessary.

While a Direct Instruction Model can certainly be productively applied to the teaching of thinking, several caveats should be mentioned. First, we must be cautious not to fall into the reductionist trap, where dozens of micro thinking skills are "drilled and practiced" in artificial contexts without any bridging into meaningful content. Unfortunately, a number of workbooks filled with such exercises are available and frequently utilized by well-intentioned teachers interested in "teaching" thinking skills. The research on transfer (Perkins and Salomon, 1988) points out that, in general, students do not spontaneously apply thinking skills learned in one situation into new contexts. Thus, the direct teaching of thinking skills must include overt attention to transfer by helping students make the connection of newly-learned thinking skills into various content areas as well as into "real world," out-of-school contexts. Secondly, as Lauren Resnick (1987) reminds us, higher order thinking is more heuristic than algorithmic. While there may be certain identifiable elements involved in evaluation, argumentation, and problem solving, these thinking processes do not always follow a rigid, sequential series of steps. In addition, thinking is to some extent idiosyncratic, in that individuals employ different strategies for organizing information and solving problems. Teachers interested in teaching thinking directly must remember not to require all students to memorize the one "correct" thinking procedure. Rather, they should take time to discuss the various ways in which students arrive at a solution, encourage students to reflect on their own thinking, and serve as models by reflecting on their thinking process.

With these considerations in mind, the direct teaching of thinking holds a place among the various instructional approaches for improving student thinking. When it is clear that students do not understand the mental processes required for achievement of desired learning objectives, explicit teaching can help to render the invisible process of thinking more tangible and result in more effective processing of information for more meaningful learning.