How to Build Thinking Skills Levels

Holding group discussions about challenging subjects can help to increase thinking skills.

Thinking skill is the ability to think about the environment and situations in an intelligent manner. The more complex situations your mind can comprehend, the higher your thinking skill level is. Thinking skills are typically built throughout your life, beginning in primary school.

Instructions

1. Find a story to tell your students. The story should be relatively complex, and you should have questions that will help lead the students to several conclusions on what may have happened.

2. Gather your students together in a discussion setting. Depending on their age and the space in your classroom, you can gather them all on the floor in a circle or group, rearrange the desks so that everyone can be a bit more comfortable, or bring in pillows for everyone to sit on.

3. Tell the story to the students and, in an organized manner, allow the students to comment on the story or ask questions. Answer their questions and come up with as many explanations for the story as possible. Write down their explanations of the story so you know where their skill level is.

4. Plan another discussion group to build thinking-skill levels. Use a harder story and see who all can process the information provided to come up with a reasonable explanation. Make notes on the story that you use to determine how quickly the students are building their thinking skills.

Tips & Warnings

• There are several education stores and Web sites that will provide these types of stories for free or in books available for purchase.

References

• University of Dayton: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills