in the classroom
Thinking about thinking
Educators ’ vital role in shaping children ’ s conceptual understanding .
By Lili-Ann Kriegler
In the Mantador zone , on the razorcleft planet of Scyla , Humphrey stared desolately at the strothometer . Trouble was abroad . He slapped the stone console and hauled his two-elon body awkwardly onto his webbed hoofs . The vibratagraph meant the Corastians ’ galactojets were less than an astraleague away . He would have to initiate the Trogon Protocol . Life was not going to be pretty for a while .
Despites its unfamiliarity , you understand the opening paragraph because of the conceptual framework you ’ ve mastered over time . Everything encountered during learning can be divided into content and process — and you activated both . Content is what is learned , and process is how it ’ s learned . You recognised content labels like zone and hoof . But , more importantly , you launched cognitive processes to negotiate the text . You used focus , recognition , comparison , visualisation , contextualisation and imagination .
To understand something , we compare what we are encountering with information and experience stored in our long-term memory . How well we do this depends on how well the information is understood and organised in the first place .
As educators you are in a perfect position to help children develop five kinds of thinking .
1 . ABSTRACT THINKING The simplest conceptual learning is acquiring labels . In early language learning , children label what is observable in the here and now . But as soon as possible , we want them to move past their reliance on the concrete world and think about , visualise and transport ideas .
Complex learning requires decontextualised thinking . Abstract thought is encouraged when children engage in visualisation . If you are talking about shape , perhaps a rectangle , ask them if they know of something at home that has that shape . Chances are one might say , ‘ The flap on the back of my yellow tow-truck is a rectangle !’
2 . ORGANISED THINKING The words ‘ strothometer ’, ‘ vibratograph ’ and ‘ galactojets ’ are lower order concepts . The reason you understood them is your knowledge of the higher order categories they each belong to . A strothometer is an instrument of measurement like a radar . The vibratograph is a report like an x-ray , and a galactojet could be compared to other vehicles .
Effective concept teaching primes students to connect things to their umbrella categories . For example , rain and hail are kinds of weather . Once children know these are related , they can conceptualise how they are the same and different from one another in an organised way .
Knowing things without these organisational linkages leaves the student with an episodic grasp of reality . They learn things as isolated rather than in connected ways .
3 . RELATIONAL THINKING In the opening paragraph , you recognised several conceptual relationships . Space , time , materiality , texture , size , role , force , shape , distance , density , emotion and sequence are all implicit in the description . These relationships need to be inferred because there is no-one saying , ‘ When
Humphrey slapped the stone console , he used more force than when you tap a console ’.
When you read to children , spend time surfacing the implied meanings . ‘ How do you think Big Ted is feeling ?’ ‘ How do you know ?’ Conceptual understanding relies on understanding relationships and providing logical evidence .
4 . REPRESENTATIONAL THINKING I imagine the Mantador zone would have coordinates , G97 L21 . I have no idea what they represent , but I do know what 37.8136 ° S , 144.9631 ° E means . I live in Melbourne ! Students need to master the precise meaning of symbols which abbreviate and capture chunks of information . It assists students when they realise that all the units they encounter do the same thing . They measure and quantify something .
That constancy helps them make sense of diverse science and mathematics content . When they build a long column of wooden blocks , encourage them to measure it using a paddle pop stick . Have them draw it and write how many sticks long it was .
The more children understand what things represent , the more capable they will be of interpreting the world around them and solving problems .
5 . METAPHORICAL THINKING Comparison is key to metaphorical thinking . The word ‘ desolately ’ surfaces an empty remote place and implies hopelessness ; razor-cleft enables us to visualise an inhospitable , mountainous landscape . Figurative language , in literature and life , compares things by dislocating meaning from an original location and applying it somewhere completely removed .
Young children benefit from having metaphorical associations discussed in detail . Asking them to move like an elephant , butterfly or train , starts to instil how these qualities of things can be transferred from one thing to another .
For students to develop efficient conceptual understanding we need to ensure that they master abstract , organised , relational , representational and metaphorical thinking as they engage with content every day . ■
Lili-Ann Kriegler is an education consultant and author of Edu-Chameleon .
20 | educationreview . com . au