THINKING ABOUT THINKING

There are 5 main ways in which we think about things and process information.

No matter what our preferred learning style (VAKOG) we should try to use as many different ways of thinking about things as possible to keep our brains active.

Below are details of the 5 main ways of thinking about things and as well as a number of questions you can ask yourself to check your thinking processes.

Processing Information

• Find Relevant Information
• Sort and Classify Information
• Put information in the right order
• Compare and Contrast information
• Analyse how things are connected
  

Reasoning Skills

• Give reasons for opinions and actions
• Make inferences and deductions
• Explain what you are thinking
• Make well informed judgements and decisions

Enquiry

• Ask relevant questions
• Set and define problems
• Plan what to do and how to research
• Predict / anticipate what might happen – outcomes and consequences
• · Test conclusions and improve on Ideas
  

Creative Thinking

• Generate and develop ideas
• Suggest hypothesis
• Apply your imagination
• Look for alternative and original outcomes
  

Evaluating

• Evaluate information
• Judge the value of what you’ve read, heard or done
• Develop ways of judging the value of work / ideas

• How did you …
• Why did you …
• What have you learnt about …
• Could we …
• Do you think / prefer / feel …
• Can you think of / give an example of …
• Can you show me …
• Where else might we …
• What if we …
• I wonder why …
• This is quite like when you …
• Is this successful? Why / Why not?
• How do you know …
• Where did you find …