Teaching of thinking not only includes teaching, and decision making, it also includes habituating those attitudes, dispositions or habits of mind that characterize effective, skillful thinkers. Such habits are formed over time by encountering Take, for instance, another excerpt from the Virgina Standaras of Lerning (p. 33):
Students will be able to develop scientific dispositeions and habits of mind including:
+ curiosity
+ demand for verification
+ repect for logic and rational thinking
+ consideration of premises and consequences
+ respect for historical contributions
+ attention to accuracy and precision
+ patience and –persistence
Teaching of thinking, therefore, means that these cognitive skills, operations, anddispositions are taught directly. Even with all of this------creating conditions for thinking and teaching it directly----there is still more.
TEACHING ABOUT THINKING
Teaching about thinking consists four components:
1) brain functioning, 2) metacognitaion, 3) gret thinkers, 4) epistemic cognition. A brief explanation of these may be helpful.