Hi Albert,

Thinking skills , the fifth skill as John Mc Rae wonderfully put it, may not be just essential, they should be a must for teacher trainers, trainees, and school administrators.

Dear Pilar

I'm glad that you have mentioned thinking skills are a must for teacher trainers. Are trainers aware that thinking skills are important for them? What are the ways to develop these skills in trainers and trainees?

Albert

hi Albert,

I would start by showing them chunks from movies and have them reflect on the roles those films show.Watching films about teachers and having trainees reflect on them following a metacognitive approach can make the trick.

Hi Pilar

Wow... Showing movies to the trainees is a good strategy.  Movies have the potential to break monotony and at the same time make participants think.

I give trainees 'problem-solving' situations and  ask them to discuss the  problem and suggest solutions. At times certain case studies also help them develop their thinking skills. 

Albert

Hi Pilar and Albert,

Reflection - as an important element in a training session - can also make trainees develop that skill.

What I mean by reflection is, that during the training session there is a central topic we are focusing on. As activities follow each other, at a certain point we stop and reflect on what we have done so far, and why or in what order (if for example the focus area is sequencing), or what learning styles have been triggered (if the focus area is learning styles) etc.

Was that what you meant by developing trainees' thinking skills?

Gabriella, reflection helps teachers develop their thinking skills.  The one who thinks asks questions and until s/he finds a convincing answer s/he goes on raising questions. 

A thinking teacher does anything blindly. 

The characteristics of a critical thinker are:

1) openmindedness

2) ability to differentiate emotion from reason

3) arguing from knowledge

4) clarity of thought 

5) clarity of expression

6) not jumping to conclusions easily

Albert 

Hi

I agree with all what has been said regarding critical thinking skills and wish to add that teachers will benefit more from the courses or training they take when they reflect, criticize and evaluate their work. In fact without this dimension, the training value will be minimla and teachers will not change their teaching methods or usual routines

Inas

Hi Inas,

This is exaxtly what I believe in and do during my training sessions. Reflection and - I would use the word "analysis" instead of criticism or evaluation.

Hi Gabriella,

 Will you please expand your answer ? I´m very interested in knowing why you are putting the stress on analysis rather than on criticism or evaluation. I think you have made a very interesting point here.

Pilar

Hi Gabriella

I too want to know how you differentiate 'analysis' from 'criticism'.  (I want you to translate your 'critical thinking' skill into action.)

Albert

Hi Pilar and Albert,

In my view analysis and reflection are ways that help us improve. For me the word 'evaluation' means more the decision of what is right and what is wrong which is the same with 'criticism'. When we do analysis in a training session we rather look at the activities or steps or whatever the main focus of the training session was than find what was mistaken and what was correct.

There are  certain terms that I prefer. So when Inas wrote about teachers 'criticising' or 'evaluating' their work, somehow I found that for me analysis leads to improvement. When we talk about critical thinking aren't we looking at the teaching / training process from different viewpoints or taking into consideration different factors that we didn't think of before? 

To give an example: I am delivering a session on writing tomorrow. We are running a 2-week-long teacher training seminar and when I planned my session I knew very little about our trainees. Now that we are in the second week of the seminar, I found that my writing session is simply not appropritae for this audience so I have to redesign it. Certain aspects that I wanted to use would not work and the trainees cannot benefit from my original session. I tried to analyse my session plan and  have decided to change it.

It doesn't mean that the session was wrong - just inappropriate for this special audience, but could work perfectly with different trainees.

Is that critical thinking? I think yes. Through analysis it is - that's why I prefer this word.

Hi Albert and everybody!!

I'm Vladimir Alvarez. I am an English teacher and a teacher training for a university located in the southwest part of Venezuela called Táchira-State. I also focus on the critical thinking with the students, so far that has been one of my main goals, to make them think and reflect.

Good points of view from you Albert and from you Gabriella. I do strongly agree with you both. I consider, what Albert mentioned at the beginning, "Creative and critical thinking skills are essential for teacher trainers". That's the heart of what being a teacher is about. As you said, in one of the forums, "teachers need to be creative" and being creative lead to be critic.

Now, reflection comes together with all these things. Reflection leads us to be analytic. In teacher training sessions it is good create situations in which creative and critical thinking have to be the main discussion and topic, so teachers can improve themselves as Gabriella pointed.

Good points of you both...

Vladimir