Teaching Thinking

Who’s teaching thinking? It was popular in the ’80’s and is now in style as part of 21st Century Learning. I started teaching thinking in the ’70s with wonderful material in a handbook, A Cognitive Skills Manual,  written by Wes Sager, Eugene Marr and Judy Kovacs. I was teaching Science then in a 9th grade program called Higher Horizons at a large high school in Hartford, Connecticut. Both the Language Arts Teacher on the team, Thomas Smith, and I were trained by Judy Kovacs using the Cognitive Skills Manual. Using what we learned with our students transformed our teaching. Teaching thinking became a constant for both of us.

Tom continued with high school Language Arts, and I decided to go into the “thinking field” full time, but we kept in touch, constantly sharing our enthusiasm, and exploring ways to involve others.

Then we realized that a manual from the 1970’s needed some updating!  With the help of a great editor and colleague, Sharon Smith, we are about to publish a new version of the manual called The Cognitive Six: A Guide to Teaching Thinking.

I started this blog to be in touch with people who are interested in “how to teach thinking” or who are already teaching thinking. Welcome aboard!