Deep Thinking
In an era where questions can be answered by Google or by asking Siri, the amount of “deep thinking” and true analysis that we see in students is becoming rare. Teachers are finding students unwilling or unable to contemplate an issue, analyze a problem, offer solutions, and evaluate a response. The effort and “focus power” required for students to exert, is deemed “not worth it” when so many of their questions are answered by Wikipedia or other means. If we are to train our young students to “Strain the Brain” a bit and learn how to be engaged in deep thinking, we need to employ teaching styles that make use of techniques that ask and engage students to actually think for themselves. One of the ways we can get students more comfortable with the struggles of thinking is to ask open-ended questions for which students are required to provide support.
Follow up by providing “Think Time” which gives the opportunity to offer support or disagreement of an opinion. In addition to asking students, “what do you think?”, follow up with “and what are the reasons why you feel this way?” Give credit not only for “final responses” on exams but for the depth of thought and analysis behind the response. Ask students what they wonder about, or what they think would happen if a factor would be changed. Be certain to not react critically to students' efforts to think or we run the risk of squashing future thinking opportunities.
There is really no limit to the creativity that teachers can weave into a classroom culture which would result in students being willing to embrace the “deep thinking” they need.
