teaching and thinking : a literature review of the teaching of thinking skills
The purpose of this literature review was to study some of the most famous works in teaching thinking skills. Teaching thinking is an arguable issue in the UAE. Some teachers are in favour of teaching thinking skills implicitly while others support the view that students have to learn thinking skills explicitly. The study aimed at answering two main questions. Firstly, why do we teach thinking skills? And secondly, how can we teach thinking skills? A number of well known books written by De Bono and Robert Swartz were used in this study because they represent good examples of the two main approaches in teaching thinking. The literature review indicates that thinking skills not only can be learnt, but also must be taught in schools. Teachers need to develop a "thinking curriculum" in schools that believe that all students can be good thinkers. BEST (Building and Enhancing Skilful Thinking) is a suggested programme by the author that uses ideas from the two main approaches in teaching thinking skills. BEST views writing as a thinking process that requires students to practice creative and critical thinking. The following are appended: (1) graphic organizer used by students to write their ideas; (2) instructional strategies to develop each of the 15 fundamental thinking skills (Kagan Structures for Thinking Skills); (3) components of infusion lessons prepared by the author; (4) model lesson based on Robert Swartz's model lessons; and (5) summary of the main features of BEST. (Contains 1 figure.) (ERIC: As Provided)