How to Think, Not What to Think

by Deana Kolan

“Mine, Mine, Mine,” my students flock around me like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Drowning in students desperate for feedback,  I realized that I set up my class to tell students what to think, but I had to wonder, am I teaching students how to think?  I realized that I had a “what to think” classroom when I saw these tall tale signs.

• Students flocked to me for answer validation.
• Students asked, “is this right,” or “do you agree”

After I reached this conclusion, I spent months researching the explicit teaching of thinking.  I found a wealth of information, but these are the top three techniques that I have adapted for my classroom.

Be Mindful of Absent-minded Validations 

I did not realize how many validations I doled out in a class period, until I tried to control giving out validations. We were in the middle of a Fishbowl discussion. The students wrote questions, and as I went to pose the questions to inner circle, I found myself saying, “Oh this is a great question!” I was trying to shift the focus and have the students analyze the effectiveness of the student-generated questions based on the conversation that the questions generated, but my constant analysis made it impossible for them to have that moment. I realized that I do this all day long by saying things like “Great response!” In an active attempt to shift to a “how to think” classroom, I learned it was more powerful to ask groups, “Is this a great response?” I created a teamwork discussion flowchart to help students have conversations about the validity of their answers.

Encourage Questioning the System

I love efficient systems. Everyday I think about how to do things faster and/or more efficient, from passing out assignments to streamlining transitions. I realized that if I ask the students for strategies to streamline the classroom procedures a whole new level of engagement develops.  Collecting these student responses, I created an anchor chart in the classroom that celebrates student contributions. Students are more engaged in the learning process, and they are preparing to enter the workforce with a “see a problem, solve a problem” mindset.

Explicitly Teach Thinking 

The brain is a muscle. When I lift weights, it helps if the instructor tells me which muscle group I’m working. I realized that this is true for the students. When they think deeply, they need to know that it is a deep thought. Likewise, when they are looking at things from a surface level they need to know that they can push their brains just like they can push any other muscle in their body to perform. I developed a system called Puddle vs. Ocean. I tell the students to start with a puddle thought. Then we build it into an Ocean thought through collaboration and active thinking engagement. I created this anchor chart to help students distinguish between Puddle and Ocean thoughts.
Not only do we use the Puddle vs. Ocean anchor chart, we also use a wall display to help the students relate the learning intention to the depth of thinking required for the lesson. These visual aides and explicit instruction help the students take ownership of the thinking process.

Favorite Resources on the Topic

Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dluwVks444

How to Get Students to Listen Up: The Psychology of Paying Attention

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

Did you know it's actually a survival technique to be able to tune out stimuli that the brain deems unimportant or irrelevant? Our brains are taking in so much information constantly...but we have a limited amount of long-term storage space. Therefore, as each piece of sensory information is taken in, the brain quickly assesses whether it's important or not. The important information gets moved to working memory (and eventually maybe to long-term memory) and the unimportant gets dumped to make way for new information.

Therefore, when our students tune us out, we shouldn't take it personally. Students today have a boatload of stimuli coming at them all the time; their brains have simply adapted by heightening their "importance" and "interesting" filters. It's a sign that their brains are doing what they were born to do...and that we maybe, in this fast-paced, stimuli-driven world, we need to change something about the way that we're presenting the material.

There are four big ways that brain science tells us we can engage students' attention.

1. Help students understand the importance of what they're learning.

When the brain thinks that information is either interesting or will help us later in life, we are more likely to pay attention to it. Thus means that it's essential to set the purpose for learning. Here are ways that you can do this in your classroom:

• Make connections to real-life. Start the lesson by answering the question: Why do we need to learn this? The more relevant that students find the information, the more likely they are to pay attention to it.
• Use project-based learning (PBL). PBL inherently sets a purpose for the learning. It lets students know: you will need to understanding this information in order to complete this project.
• Emphasize learning intentions and success criteria. The learning intentions tell students WHAT they will be learning, and the success criteria tell them what success will look like at the end of the lesson. Students are more likely to pay attention when they know that the information will be needed in order to be successful.

2. Introduce novelty.

Our brains thrive on new experiences. Humans are natural problem-solvers and novel experiences give us the chance to figure out how to navigate new activities. This means that when we do the same thing day after day, students are far more likely to start tuning us out...even if that thing was originally engaging.

For instance: if the first time that you played Kahoot, your students loved it, so then you started playing it every day...you might notice that instead of the original fervor for the activity, on Day 20, you notice a collective groan when you mention a Kahoot. It's not fun anymore because our brains have figured it out. It's become the Expected rather than the Novel.

Does this mean you have to constantly do something new every day? Not at all. Rather, choose 5-10 favorite activities and go back and forth between them (more ideas for these here). Occasionally (maybe once per unit), throw in something completely new that you can then add to your repertoire. Going back and forth between activities will keep them from getting stale.

3. Vary the intensity.

Imagine yourself sitting serenely in a hammock on a beautiful tropical island, listening to the birds chirping softly and the gentle lapping of waves on the shore. Then suddenly: CRACK! A giant clap of thunder! Do you jump? Of course!

That's because our brains, in an effort to scan for changes in our environment that might require our attention, tend to filter out noises, colors, and lights that are of the same intensity. Any parent who has ever had a teenager knows that eventually you simply tune out the loud rock music emanating from their room, but you sure notice when it stops. In general, though, stimuli that are louder or brighter will get more attention (that's why stoplights use neon colors).

How can you leverage this? If you're using Google docs and want your students to PAY ATTENTION TO THE DIRECTIONS, you can do what I just did: make the directions bigger, bolder, and in a brighter color.

Going analog? Clap your hands before you say an important direction. Suddenly burst into opera voice to share an important thought, if you're the opera singing type. Play snippets of music. Watch video clips (but make sure to stop and talk about them in order to get the full effect). Speak louder and then softer at different parts of your lesson. All of these help students keep their focus on you.

4. Move more!

This goes for both you and your students. Remember that scene in Jurassic Park where they evade the T-Rex by simply sitting very, very still, because T-Rex can only see things that move? Turns out, our brains work similarly in that they are also drawn to movement. A teacher who moves around the classroom while speaking will draw more attention than a teacher who stands still (just don't pace SO much and induce motion sickness).

Not only that, but students who move will get more oxygen flowing to their brains. Yes, it's true that a lot of students are quite happy sitting in their desks and zoning out, but the more that we get them used to being up and moving, the more they'll accept (and maybe even appreciate) it.

So, what does it all mean?

Does this mean that we have to all be singing opera while jumping on desks to capture our students' attention? Of course not (though I'm positive you'll get their attention if you do). But used purposefully, each of those can help compete with all the other stimuli that students face on a daily basis.



Read more here: Schunk, D.H. (2016). Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective (7th edition). Boston: Pearson.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation & Professional Learning at Hampton City Schools in Hampton, Virginia. She can be reached at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.