teaching thinking

Media literacy does not mean that the learner simply learns to define the media; the learner must learn how the media can affect us. Media literacy means equipping media students with the ability and skills to analyze, critique and evaluate media content. Considering the importance of educating media literacy and the novelty of thinking and media literacy course, recognizing the teachers' professional competencies for this course is important. This research aims to examine the professional competencies of teachers in the field of thinking and media literacy. This research is a qualitative study with a case study method. The statistical population included the teachers of thinking and media literacy in Birjand city and education specialists in Iran. Using purposive sampling method based on theoretical saturation, 12 teachers and 3 experts were interviewed. The obtained data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings showed that 1) media knowledge; 2) media skills; 3) media attitudes; 4) thinking skills training; 5) media education; and 6) supporting knowledge were the six types of teachers' professional competencies in the media literacy course which were identified in the main topic of the present study.

Critical thinking, critical disposition and creativity skills are regarded to be as important output of any educational system. The rapid changes of today's world in all aspects of life, information explosion and lack of thinking skills e.g. critical thinking and creativity in students to cope with future problems have emphasized the crucial of these skills. This study intended to help students to develop their mental skills by de Bono’s six thinking hats technique. This technique covers every topics and problems from different points and dimensions. Six colorful hats e.g. positive, negative, affection, creative, impartial, and control specifies six points of view. Pre–post, test control group design was applied to gain these aims. California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) - Farsi Version- and Abedi’s Creativity test were used to examine the effects. Since the groups were intact (school classes), Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for total scores of scales and their subscales were carried out after the intervention. The results show significant difference (higher) of disposition in experimental group, but no significant difference in creativity among the groups. The direct instruction of thinking skills by six thinking hats technique can boost student's critical thinking disposition, but not creativity.

The present paper seeks to study the place of thinking as well as the impact of modern technology on promotion of thinking at schools. It first briefly reviews a number of well-known theories about modern technology and its effects on people’s lives and attitudes. Then the components of educational technology are briefly discussed and the mentioned theories of modern technology are applied to educational technology to see how educational technology affects different aspects of students’ lives، particularly their process of learning thinking at school. The place and importance of thinking and its promotion at the schools are also discussed. The paper concludes that educational technology does not contribute to the development of thinking abilities and does not pay attention to the students’ thinking when dealing with important issues of their lives. Therefore، it is necessary to rethink current educational technology and this adds to the significance of programs like ‘philosophy for children’.

The present study was an attempt to investigate whether the Iranian influential scholars who cultivated the culture of the country have practiced teaching thinking through dialogic technique or have overlooked it. By comparing Farid ud-Din Attar’s dialogic style in Mantiqu ''t-Tayr، (The Conference of the Birds) with Mathew Lipman’s teaching thinking components، it was perceived that Attar’s teaching technique in the seventh century was very close to that of Lipman’s. It is worth mentioning that the definition of child in the universal convention which asserts that a child is a human less than 18 years of age was adopted in this comparative study; however، from mystics’ perspective، a child is defined as an immature and inexperienced person، the definition which is closer to that of the p4c child. Attar and Lipman، as the study signified، not only shared ideas about teaching (philosophy) and its objectives (enhancing thinking ability and free decision making)، but also had common preferences for teaching styles; they both used story and dialogue as techniques in teaching. Additionally، the study revealed that teaching thinking and philosophy could result in change of behavior.

Teaching thinking to children (also called philosophy for children) is a program with the aim to cultivate the thinking skills in children and thus، enable them to become competent in dealing with the problems they may encounter in their future lives. This program benefits from stories as one of its main teaching tools since it is believed that stories can assist children in developing a propensity to question، seek for reasons، make rational judgments، and hence، empower their moral values. The present study aims to signify that children’s literary stories constitute a rich source of philosophical elements and thus، can be used as a tool in the process of teaching thinking to children. The literary riches of these stories permit children to use their imagination as well as their cognitive skills while reading. Literary stories allow educationists to penetrate the constraints of using stories with contents that exclusively support the process of teaching philosophical intentions of the writer. Story reading as an educating activity should be included in the curriculum for it possesses the features necessary for constructing fruitful dialog at schools. Stories facilitate adult/ child interaction and thus، contribute to children’s social and cultural understanding.