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High-school science teacher Joan Gracek faced some challenges when she changed the emphasis in her tenth-grade biology class. Joan wanted students to take a more active role, solving problems in biology and reasoning with biological concepts. Her students, however, were disappointed to lose the “easy A” many of them were counting on getting by memorizing the textbook and writing a few essays. Joan rose to the challenge by developing new methods of introducing concepts, such as the various groups of animals, and interesting class activities, like the “mystery animal” game, that encouraged students to examine clues and use reasoning to solve biological problems. As Joan realized, encouraging students to think critically and effectively requires some special efforts on the part of teachers. This chapter discusses several important thinking skills, beginning with concept formation, the ways students come to learn the many concepts introduced in school. The authors also point out the importance to students of both inductive and deductive reasoning. Problem-solving can be thought of as a cycle, influenced by the type of problem involved. The chapter discusses several problem-solving heuristics and obstacles to problem solving. Teachers must also encourage students to transfer information appropriately from one situation to another. As the authors reveal, there are several methods teachers can use to encourage all of these thinking skills.
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