Stepping into a recent professional development session, I eagerly anticipated diving deep into the world of Active Learning. My plan? To emerge armed with a comprehensive understanding of this multifaceted approach. However, as the session unfolded, a pre-evaluation of our knowledge revealed a fascinating truth: teachers yearned for specific guidance on one crucial aspect – Visible Thinking Routines. This revelation sparked a shift in my focus, leading me to craft a short-term plan with a singular mission: cultivate a culture of thinking within our classrooms.

In the dawning age of AI, where automation consumes routine tasks, educators face an urgent task. We must cultivate the uniquely human skills – creativity, empathy, and critical thinking – that can’t be replicated by machines. Fostering a culture of thought is how we’ll do it.

Culture of Thinking

A Culture of Thinking is a learning environment where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted. In these spaces, students feel empowered to explore ideas, take intellectual risks, and learn through collaborative reflection. Harvard’s Project Zero defines Cultures of Thinking as places where a group’s collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members. According to the Project Zero research team at the University, a Culture of Thinking is characterized by eight cultural forces that shape the group’s cultural dynamic: language, time, environment, opportunities, routines, modeling, interactions, and expectations. Teachers can use a variety of methods to create a Culture of Thinking in their classrooms, such as making time for thinking, developing and using a language of thinking, making the classroom environment rich with the documents of thinking processes, and making their own thinking visible.

Creating a Culture of Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based conceptual framework that can be integrated and used in a variety of contexts. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a framework that can be adapted to meet the needs of different learners and learning environments.

 

Visible thinking routines

The Visible Thinking framework uses specific cognitive routines, the Thinking Routines, a sort of

organizational structures to guide students’ mental processes and encourage active content processing.

The aim is to make cognitive processes visible and to support a culture of exploration and the

construction of critical thinking in school. Rather than simply listing facts, Thinking Routines encourage students to actively engage on a topic, to think with and beyond the facts they know, to connect new knowledge to previous one. According to this approach, going beyond the lecture-based model of schooling, with students simply memorizing contents and facts, learning occurs as a result of our thinking and active sense making. Creating opportunities to think deeply and make thinking visible turns out to be crucial. When we make thinking visible through the TRs, we get not only a window into what students understand, but also how they are understanding it.

 

Essential Tips for Implementing Visible Thinking Routines

Implementing Visible Thinking Routines (VTRs) effectively requires careful planning and consideration. Firstly, educators should start by selecting appropriate routines that align with their learning objectives and student needs. It’s essential to introduce routines gradually, allowing students time to become familiar with them and embedding them into the classroom culture.

Secondly, providing clear instructions and modeling the use of VTRs is crucial for student understanding. Teachers should demonstrate how to engage with the routines effectively and encourage students to reflect on their thinking process. Additionally, incorporating VTRs into regular classroom activities and assessments ensures consistent practice and reinforces their importance in cultivating critical thinking skills.

Conclusion

By integrating Visible Thinking Routines, we transform our classrooms into spaces where thinking becomes the central activity. Through VTRs, we can cultivate critical thinking, inquiry, and self-reflection – the skills our students need to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

Stay tuned for more resources on implementing Visible Thinking Routines effectively. Let’s join together in creating cultures of thinking and empowering our students for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead!