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Asia-Pacific
Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2006) Philip ADEY Thinking in Science - Thinking in General?
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Asia-Pacific
Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2006) Philip ADEY Thinking in Science - Thinking in General?
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Intuitively such a total separation of different types of thinking does not seem plausible and in fact the psychological evidence is clear (Anderson, 1992; Carroll, 1993) that there is always a significant correlation between higher level thinking across all different subject domains. Notwithstanding claims for completely independent ‘multiple intelligences’, all of the evidence points to the existence of one general intellectual processing mechanism (general intelligence, or ‘g’), which is supplemented by a range of specialised abilities such as verbal, quantitative, and spatial (Demetriou, Gustafsson, Efklides, & Plastidou, 1992) . In the terms outlined above, this might be represented more like figure 2:
Fig 2: A general plus specialised model of thinking.
Here, while each domain does have its special characteristics, all are underpinned by a general processing mechanism.
This model of thinking abilities raises an intriguing question: If we could, within our science teaching, improve our students’ ability to use higher order thinking skills, would this transfer to other domains and to their daily lives? Would they approach all sorts of problems in a more intelligent manner? In the Cognitive Acceleration projects initiated at King’s College London in the 1980s we have explored these questions, and now we believe that we can answer a clear “yes”: stimulating higher order thinking in science improves students’ general intellectual ability across the board. This may seem somewhat surprising, since the literature (for example Detterman & Sternberg, 1993) on ‘transfer’ (the transfer of a mental ability developed in one context into a completely new context) suggests that it is very rare. Nevertheless, I propose to use the opportunity of this foreword to Volume 7 Issue 2 of APFSLT for a plea to use science teaching as much as an opportunity for the development of our students’ general thinking ability as for the development of specific conceptual understanding in science. Firstly I will say something about principles of cognitive stimulation derived from cognitive psychology, then a little about how these principles may be interpreted as a teaching method and curriculum materials, and finally refer to some evidence for the effects of this approach.
Copyright (C) 2006 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 7, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2006). All Rights Reserved.
