Thinking and Learning Skills

Volume 1: Relating Instruction To Research

J. W Segal, S. F. Chipman, R. Glaser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780898591651
• eBook ISBN: 9781135876050
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 1985. This is Volume 1 on Relating Instruction to Research borne from a conference that took place at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) of the University of Pittsburgh, one of the major research and development centers The chapters are structured into sections on cognitive skills into three groups: intelligence and reasoning, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving. Each chapter in these volumes was especially requested to fulfill a particular function.

Introduction to Volume 1: Approaches to Instruction

Judith W. Segal

National Institute of Education

This volume represents an attempt to bring the theory and practice of instruction in thinking and learning skills into a closer relationship. In recent years, many new programs for teaching these critical skills have been proposed. The basic goal of the developers of such programs is an ambitious one—to enable students to adopt new ways of thinking and learning that will permit them to function more effectively in everyday learning and problem-solving situations, both within and outside the classroom.

We do not yet know whether these programs have been successful in accomplishing this ambitious goal. Many have not yet been evaluated systematically. In those instances where carefully controlled evaluations have been undertaken, one can often point to improvements in performance on tests of both intelligence and academic achievement. However, attempts to look more closely at the extent to which students have come to adopt more effective ways of thinking and learning have been hampered because we do not sufficiently understand many of the skills the developers are seeking to instill. As a result, we are unable to determine in unambiguous fashion whether students are actually using the skills taught in coping with novel learning and problem-solving tasks.

In building these instructional programs, developers have had to make assumptions about the kinds of skills and understandings involved in successful thinking and learning and about ways in which these can most effectively be acquired. In some instances developers have been quite explicit about the theories underlying their programs; in others, although they have been less explicit, we can infer their assumptions from the practices included in their programs. The developers have drawn from a wide spectrum of the research literature in psychology and related disciplines in selecting theoretical underpinnings for their programs. In addition, some of them have proposed new theoretical positions to guide their work.

While developers have been building assumptions into their programs, researchers have continued to add to the knowledge base from which program developers can draw. During the past several years, a substantial amount of work in cognitive psychology has focused on exploring the nature of competence on complex learning and problem-solving tasks typical of those that children encounter in school. As a result, we now have new insights concerning what successful thinkers and learners know and can do that distinguishes them from less successful individuals.

The chapters that follow attempt to bring the theory and practice of instruction in thinking and learning skills into closer relationship by examining the assumptions behind the various programs and by asking whether these assumptions are consistent with views emerging from basic research. More specifically, these chapters explore several programs of instruction in considerable detail, looking at the activities that students are encouraged to adopt, the instructional methods and materials used, and the evaluation data collected. A major theme in these explorations is to consider whether the programs are teaching skills that are consistent with our present knowledge of the processes involved in effective thinking and learning and whether they are using techniques consistent with our present knowledge of how these processes are acquired. Through this analysis, we hope to assist our readers to achieve a deeper understanding of the different approaches that program developers are recommending and of the strengths and limitations of these approaches.

Relating the programs to the research literature has the benefit of suggesting conclusions not only about the adequacy of the programs, but also about the adequacy of the research literature as a basis for supporting practical attempts at instruction. In building these instructional programs, the developers have encountered many issues about which the current theoretical literature is not able to offer any clear guidance. The chapters that follow call our attention to these issues and discuss additional research that might be undertaken to further extend theory in practically relevant directions. In short, we hope that the attempts made in this volume to relate the programs to the research literature will open a continuing dialogue between basic and more applied researchers that will serve to enrich the work of both groups.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PROGRAMS

A total of nine instructional programs have been selected for detailed discussion in this volume. We used four criteria in selecting these programs.

A first criterion was to focus on programs that had actually been tried in at least one site and that were sufficiently well documented to permit others to understand their nature through an examination of written materials. Secondly, we sought programs that, taken together, offered instruction in a wide range of thinking and learning skills and used many different instructional methods, so that an examination of the programs as a whole would familiarize readers with current debates concerning which skills to teach and what methods to use. To ensure that the programs covered a wide range of skills, we extrapolated ideas from current research in cognitive psychology about major domains of competence, and sought examples of programs within each domain. Our domains were: intelligence and reasoning, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving. Thirdly, we selected programs that we considered interesting either because they illustrated ways of applying new theoretical ideas or because they were receiving widespread usage.

Fourthly, we sought programs appropriate for use with older children and adolescents, rather than preschool and primary school children. Our interest in older children grew out of a practical concern with improving performance on the complex thinking and learning tasks that enter the school curriculum beginning in the upper elementary grades as students become involved in systematic attempts to acquire knowledge and solve problems in different academic content domains. Although this volume does not discuss programs for use with very young children, the programs discussed in the chapters that follow do cover a broad age range, including, at the lower end, some for use with upper elementary school children, and at the upper end, some for use with college students.

Our focus on older children and adolescents is consistent with recent suggestions that cognitive skills instruction be made available to individuals at many different points in their development. Many programs now exist for teaching fundamental cognitive skills such as perceptual analysis, classification and seriation, awareness of temporal and spatial relationships, and planning to young children (see Evans, 1975). For the most part, these programs have grown out of experimental efforts undertaken during the 1960s to help children from low-income families achieve greater success in school. Underlying these programs was the hypothesis that by teaching children from low-income families basic skills considered important to success in school, one might help them begin school on a par with children from middle-class families, thereby narrowing the academic achievement gap between these groups.

Long-term follow-up data on several of these programs are now available. Students participating in them appear to derive many benefits, some of which are more stable over time than others (Lazar & Darlington, 1982). On standardized tests of intelligence and academic achievement, experimental students typically attain substantially higher scores than controls immediately after training, but fail to maintain this advantage over time. On other measures, however, experimental students continue to look quite different from controls even ten to fifteen years later. For example, during the 10-year period following training, experimental students are less likely to be retained in grade or assigned to special classes for individuals failing to cope successfully with a normal school curriculum.

Although many educators and researchers have found it encouraging that instruction in thinking and learning skills administered during early childhood has had effects still evident 10 to 15 years later, others have begun to raise questions about timing issues (Rohwer, 1971). As children progress through the school curriculum, they confront increasingly complex thinking and learning tasks which demand use of more complex skills. Many of the skills needed to cope with these tasks are not typically displayed or mastered until late childhood or adolescence. These skills could be emphasized in programs of instruction for older children. By teaching thinking and learning skills at several appropriate points in a child’s academic career, it should be possible to produce even more impressive and enduring improvements in academic performance. This volume should contribute to the exploration of this issue by offering to practitioners who are interested in working with older children and adolescents some ideas about the kinds of skills older students require and about appropriate instructional methods for developing them.

VARIATIONS IN THE PROGRAMS

Skills in Which Instruction Is Offered

Consistent with our program selection criteria, the programs presented here do provide instruction in a wide range of skills. The skills range from very fundamental ones, like learning to make simple perceptual comparisons, to more complex ones, like learning to trace the relationships among ideas in long and complicated passages of text. Many children have mastered certain of these skills by the time they reach the upper elementary grades; others pose a challenge even for sophisticated adults.

Underlying the variation in skills are variations in the kinds of students with whom the program developers work. Feuerstein, for example, working with adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds, prefers to begin instruction with simpler skills and gradually build up to more complex ones. Dansereau, in contrast, working with college undergraduates, prefers to begin instruction at a more advanced level, assuming that his students have already mastered many simpler skills.

Differences among the developers with respect to the kinds of skills they are seeking to instill center around three issues. One is whether to teach thinking processes or thinking strategies—that is, whether to teach basic processes that are considered essential to successful thinking or rules for using these processes in coping with different kinds of learning and problem-solving tasks. Although most of the program developers do not consider this to be an either-or question, there are differences in emphasis across these programs. Feuerstein, for example, devotes extensive instructional time to having students practice basic thinking operations like comparing and categorizing so that they will become more proficient in these areas. Covington, in contrast, argues that he is not attempting to help students acquire new cognitive abilities, but rather is teaching them strategies for using already acquired abilities in more effective ways. Dansereau shares Covington’s preference for offering instruction in strategies. For example, he does not want his students to become more proficient comparers and categorizers, but he does want them to learn that making comparisons and noticing categorical relationships can be effective techniques for understanding and remembering information acquired from reading.

Another issue on which these developers differ is whether to teach general or specific skills. Herber, for example, seeking to have his students apply text-learning skills in different content domains, tends to work with skills that are deemed very general—for example, drawing inferences, noticing cause–effect relationships, and so on. Jones, in contrast, finds that her students frequently have difficulty modifying general skills for use in particular situations. She attempts to teach algorithms, or step-by-step procedures for applying specific skills to the different tasks for which they are appropriate.

Still a third issue dividing these program developers is whether to limit instruction in cognitive skills to cognitive processes or to attempt also to teach related affective dispositions. Lipman, for example, seeking to help his students become more effective thinkers, recommends not only teaching a wide range of skills that he considers essential to effective thinking, but also transforming the classroom into a community of inquiry that highly values use of these skills.

Instructional Methods

The program developers offer many different ideas on instructional methods. Some favor a more direct approach to instruction than do others. They are explicit in describing to students the exact nature and uses of the skills they want them to acquire. Whimbey and Lochhead, for example, attempt to help students understand the processes underlying effective thinking by providing protocols of experts thinking aloud as they work out solutions to problems, thereby revealing the different mental steps involved. Dansereau also favors a direct approach to instruction. He not only prescribes specific thinking processes, but also explains why he considers them effective and specifies the kinds of tasks to which they should be applied. Herber, in contrast, favors a more indirect approach to instruction. He argues that students can obtain deeper insights into the nature of effective learning strategies if they can be helped to invent these strategies, rather than learning about them from others. Thus, he devotes considerable attention to placing students in situations he considers conducive to facilitating such inventions.

A second difference of opinion with respect to teaching methods involves whether to offer separate courses of instruction in thinking and learning (a position recommended, for example, by de Bono), or whether to integrate instruction into already existing content area courses (a position recommended, for example, by Herber). The first approach has the advantage of calling students’ attention to aspects of thinking and learning that may be general across different content areas, so that they have at their disposal a set of techniques that can be applied in many different domains. The second approach has the advantage of making instruction in thinking and learning more specific, so that students are not left to figure out how to adapt general techniques for use in various domains. A related issue involves the kinds of content to be used in instruction. Feuerstein, for example, works with exercises involving abstract content such as geometrical figures and symbols; de Bono, in contrast, works with content taken from everyday thinking and reasoning situations; Herber, exemplifying still a third position, works with more specialized content drawn from different academic disciplines.

Still another difference of opinion with respect to teaching methods centers around the issue of how to organize instruction. Jones, for example, argues that complex thinking and learning skills can best be taught by breaking them down into subskills and offering instruction in each. Dansereau, in contrast, argues that the gestalt of the more complex strategy should be conveyed from the very beginning so that students can have some sense of the kind of skill they are trying to learn.

A fourth issue involves the level of proficiency developers would like students to achieve in the skills they are attempting to instill. Feuerstein, for example, recommends extensive opportunities for practice so that students will come to execute the skills in a fluent and effortless manner. He argues that, if use of these skills requires a great deal of special effort, students will abandon them in favor of responses requiring less effort once the training intervention has ended. Although other developers also recommend opportunities for practice, there is less emphasis in their programs on repeated practice.

OVERALL PLAN FOR THE VOLUME

Having selected our nine programs, we asked their developers to prepare chapters for this volume describing their general approaches to instruction, the theories and evidence supporting these approaches, and some typical instructional materials and techniques. To obtain a deeper understanding of the possible benefits and practical difficulties associated with use of these programs, we also requested contributions from practitioners who have been deeply involved over the past several years in conducting cognitive skills instructional programs in schools and other settings. We asked the practitioners to discuss their reasons for wanting to provide instruction in thinking and learning skills and to discuss their practical experiences implementing programs of instruction in different settings. Our practitioners include classroom teachers who have implemented programs on an individual classroom basis, school administrators who have implemented programs on a schoolwide or districtwide basis, and a representative from Venezuela, a country now engaged in a massive attempt to improve the thinking and learning skills of its entire citizenry.

In addition to practitioners and program developers, we invited several leading cognitive psychologists to contribute to this volume. The psychologists were asked to analyze the instructional programs—that is, to look carefully at the ideas and practices recommended and to determine how these relate to ideas discussed in the relevant basic research literature. As noted previously, we grouped the programs into three sets on the basis of the kinds of skills emphasized: intelligence and reasoning, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving. We asked three leading cognitive psychologists specializing in these skill areas to serve as program analyzers. Each was asked to analyze one of the three sets of instructional programs.

More specifically, we asked these researchers (hereafter referred to as analyzers) to identify the assumptions built into these programs about the nature, development, and acquisition of thinking and learning skills, and to comment on whether these assumptions are consistent with views emerging from the relevant basic research literature in cognitive psychology and related disciplines. Secondly, we asked them to review the evaluation data on these programs, and to discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from the data and how one might go about conducting more adequate evaluations. Thirdly, we asked them to point out additional ideas in the research literature that might be worth exploring in future instructional programs and to suggest areas for future research, including new areas emerging from attempts to build programs of instruction.

In reading the analysis chapters, one should keep in mind that, with the exception of one of the nine programs, the analyzers have not had an opportunity to observe these programs in action. Their analyses are based on a review of documentation and on samples of typical instructional materials. In studying the different chapters in this volume, the reader will notice some redundancy between the developers’ and analyzers’ descriptions of the instructional programs. In the analyzers’ chapters, however, these descriptions are quite brief; their purpose is to permit the analyzers to clarify their interpretations of basic program features before discussing them. These brief descriptions should be read in conjunction with the richer descriptive information about the programs and the kind of thinking that went into building them that is available in the developers’ accounts.

ORGANIZATION OF THE VOLUME

The volume as a whole is organized into four sections. The first three, entitled respectively Intelligence and Reasoning, Knowledge Acquisition, and Problem Solving, contain contributions from the program developers and analyzers. Each of these focuses on a different domain of cognitive competence. Within each domain: (1) the developers discuss their instructional programs to help individuals become more proficient in the skills associated with that domain; and (2) an analyzer relates these programs to the relevant basic research literature in cognitive psychology. The fourth section of the volume, entitled Educators’ Experience, offers contributions from practitioners. The prac...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Higher Cognitive Goals for Education: An Introduction
• Introduction to Volume 1: Approaches to Instruction
• Program Presentations and Analyses: Intelligence and Reasoning
• 1 Instrumental Enrichment, An Intervention Program for Structural Cognitive Modifiability: Theory and Practice
• 2 Thinking Skills Fostered by Philosophy for Children
• 3 Teaching Analytic Reasoning Skils Through Pair Problem Solving
• 4 Improving Thinking and Learning Skills: An Analysis of Three Approaches
• Program Presentations and Analyses: Knowledge Acquisition
• 5 Learning Strategy Research
• 6 Learning Strategies: The How of Learning
• 7 Teaching Cognitive Strategies and Text Structures Within Language Arts Programs
• 8 Developing Reading and Thinking Skills in Content Areas
• 9 Acquiring Information from Texts: An Analysis of Four Approaches
• Program Presentations and Analyses: Problem Solving
• 10 The CoRT Thinking Program
• 11 Strategic Thinking and the Fear of Failure
• 12 Instruction in General Problem-Solving Skills: An Analysis of Four Approaches
• Educators' Experience
• 13 A Practitioner's Perspective on The Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program with Learning Strategies
• 14 Making Choices: It Ought to be Carefully Taught
• 15 Teaching Problem Solving to Developmental Adults: A Pilot Project
• 16 Thinking Skills: The Effort of One Public School System
• 17 The Development of Human Intelligence: The Venezuelan Case
• Author Index
• Subject Index