gulfnews.

com | Sunday, February 3, 2013 | Gulf News

E4

COVER STORY

10

THIS WEEK
PART

OF 11

of an exclusive
series for
Education

Mind
games

DR C LIF TON
CHA DW ICK
Special to
Gulf News
Dr Clifton Chadwick, centre

for research on teaching critical

thinking at British University in
Dubai

If you want to comment or ask

Gulf News | Sunday, February 3, 2013 | gulfnews.com

questions, please write to cliftonchadwick@buid.ac.ae

COVER STORY

Test of learning is quality of thinking

SET INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS FOR YOUR CHILD AGAINST WHICH YOU AND YOUR CHILD CAN MEASURE HIS OR HER PROGRESS IN THINKING

nce attitudes and

motivation
have
been
understood
and are being inculcated, and your
child is learning through cognitive strategies and metacognition, then it is time to look at
the intellectual standards you
will expect when she solves
a problem, prepares an essay, answers questions about
what is being learned, etc. We
can think of them as values or
principles about what is quality
thinking.
The general concept of
standards should be clear, but
can often be confusing. In its
basic form, standards are values or principles set up and established by authority as a rule
for the measure of quantity,
weight, extent, value, or quality. They are criteria, a word
which comes from the Greek
and means judging or deciding.

Intellectual
standards

Intellectual standards are

benchmarks
or
goalposts
against which you and your
child can measure his or her
progress in thinking. In your
efforts to help your children
learn to think critically, you
will want to adopt standards
that are directly related to the
quality of thinking and the expression of the results.
Good quality thinking is the
examination and test of suggestions which are offered for
acceptance, to find out if they
adequately match reality. Critical thinking is a mental habit
and a developed power. It is
a safeguard against delusion,
deception and superstition. By
our nature as humans, we are
subject to uncertainty, in the
form of:

1) Our mind does not always

naturally grasp the truth,

2) We do not always naturally

see things completely as they
are,

3) Do not always automatically know what is reasonable or

unreasonable,

4) We frequently see things as

we want them to be, not as they
are (confirmation bias),

5) We unconsciously twist reality to fit our preconceived ideas.

In order to reduce errors and

particularly in order to teach
our children how they can reduce errors in thinking, we
should take rational control of
our thinking processes to help
to determine what to accept
and what to reject and what to
be dubious about or more willing to trust. That means we
(and our children) need standards, principles, guidelines that
direct us to consistently excellent thinking.

So, what are such standards?

1) Clarity: How to
ensure your child
is thinking clearly

3) Precision: You
can be clear and
accurate but are
you precise as
well?

Clarity is the condition of

being clear, lucid, sharp and
apparent. It is the opposite
of cloudiness, opacity, or obscure. This is a major standard: the biggest goal post for
your children to achieve. It
means that what is said or
written is easily understandable, can be grasped free from
ambiguity, is not obscure or
vague. When a child makes a statement at home or in class,
when he or she answers a question, the response should be
clear, the concepts used should be appropriate.
Development of clarity should begin very early. Parents must
place emphasis on clarity, in a guiding fashion and through use
of clear examples, modelling what are clear statements.
Developing clarity is done by two basic actions: pointing out
when something is not clear and demonstrating how to make it
clearer. The first step is easy but requires vigilance.

Questions that encourage clarity:

Excuse me that was not very clear.

To be precise means to be
exact to the necessary level
of detail, to be specific. It
requires exactitude, fineness, preciseness, rigor, and
veracity. A statement can be
clear and accurate but not
precise (Jack is overweight).
What do we mean by overweight? How does it differ from obesity? Thinking and speaking should be
as precise as possible.
At the primary school level, and at home, precision
is taught first through spelling and math. The words
your child learns must be spelled correctly and pronounced correctly. The math answers must be precise: two plus two cannot be five.
If you wish to teach quality standards to your child
you will help them to learn about the importance of
precision, when it is necessary and how to avoid exaggeration.

Can you repeat that more clearly, please.

What did you mean by .?

Questions that encourage precision:

Can you give me more details about that?

Would you say more about_____?

Could you be more specific

Can you give an example of what you are talking about?

That was vague. Can you restate it more clearly?

Could you express your claims more fully?

Have you exaggerated any aspect of your position?

Can you be more explicit?

If I understand, you mean _____. Is that right?

Have you used questions most relevant to your current

situation

Do you know what that word means? Can you tell me using a
different word?

Teach your child to answer with the core ideas and

concepts first, then provide more details.

Would this be an example? Can you give another example?

4) Logic

Questions that encourage accuracy:

Can you be more specific?

The fourth pillar is logic,

i.e., do the parts and how
they are arranged make
sense, do they make for
sound judgement and reasoning. Obviously, thinking
can vary in its degree of logic. The main point is to lead
them to think in an orderly
way that closely resembles
reality and is logical.
When we teach our children to be logical we ask
them if what they are saying or thinking is consistent
and integrated. Does the whole thought or the components of the thought fit together sensibly and plausibly?
Does the answer demonstrate the correct structure?
Does it fit into a recognisable pattern?
One of the main tests of logic to answer is if what
your child says follows from the evidence. Can your
child identify and provide examples which help to establish the veracity of what has been said?
And there is always the test of: Does this really make
sense?

How many kids were in the park?

Are you sure that number is correct?

Questions that encourage logical thinking

Does the solution make sense?

When did that happen? What date?

Do the pieces of the solution fit together tightly?

Who said what to whom?

Are you sure that is correct?

What is the line of reasoning that brought you to this

point?

Can you explain the process you have used to come to this
conclusion?

Can you show how this answer fits into the overall structure of the domain?

2) Accuracy: How
to ensure your
child does not
commit errors
Accuracy means free from
error especially as the result
of care, such as an accurate
diagnosis. It means conforming exactly to truth or to a
standard or being able to give
an accurate result. For example, when you weigh yourself
you want the devices to give
you answers that are free from error.
This standard means that what is presented does not contain
errors, mistakes or distortions. How can your child check to
see if her ideas and thoughts and statements are true? How can
parents teach children to verify the alleged facts?

UP AHEAD

Next week
with Critical
Concluding
Thinking and Problem
Solving.

Good quality thinking is the

examination and
test of suggestions
which are oered
for acceptance,
to find out if they
adequately match
reality. Critical thinking is a
mental habit and a
developed power.

So, these are the Big Four

Clarity, Precision, Accuracy and Logic form a
group of very important standards, call them
The Big Four. They are the fundamental
standards which children must learn. As a parent, you should pay close attention to them and
encourage your children to develop respect for
them. They should have a strong grasp of the
significance of these standards and most of their
learning behaviour should be guided by the big
four.

Intellectual standards

Your child has developed a general grasp of what it means to

learn and with your help has learned cognitive learning
strategies which notably increase the eectiveness of learning

Your child is learning to think

critically. He or she has developed
a general grasp of what it means
to learn and with your help has
learned cognitive learning strategies which notably increase the
effectiveness and durability of
learning.
He or she has learned to use
mindfulness, metacognition, to
facilitate learning and problem

solving and to help provide personal feedback on progress and

adequacy of learning.
You have paid attention to, and
have understood, the importance of developing dispositions
and managing their interactions
with emotions. You know that
self-efficacy is the key to motivation and successful learning and
application.

Why I chose girls

only education
for my daughters

s a girl in Grade 1, I gleefully clapped my hands and

sang a nursery rhyme while dancing in a circle with
a group of girls during recess. Inevitably, a few boys
would leave their pebble-throwing antics aside for a while
to push us and taunt us.
For one reason or another, the boys teased, pushed and
taunted us girls throughout our school years. Teachers
seemed to spend most of the class period trying to get my
male counterparts to settle down.
They spent the rest of the time responding to Todds or
Eds ridiculous questions or comments, which were always
completely unrelated to the lesson at hand. I yearned to attend a school where civilised young ladies could peacefully
play and study without interruption from jeering, boisterous
boys.
How in the world do boys grow up to rule the world? I
often wondered.
To escape the classroom
tyranny, I delved into a world
GUEST OF THE MONTH
of girl heroines between the
pages of Little Women, Heidi, Helen Keller and Nancy
Drew. During that stage, The
Trouble with Angels was my
favourite movie, because it
featured students at an allgirls school.
While the protagonist was
mischievous, somewhat like
the heroine in Pippi Longstocking, she was able to look
into her soul and correct her
own character flaws.
Even in university, I
ADELEYA
yearned for women heroines,
and studied under womens
BENNETT
literature scholar Dr Mildred
Special to
Hill-Lubin at the University of
Florida. There, I learned about
Gulf News
the vibrant women characters developed by Zora Neale
Hurston, Maya Angelou and
Alice Walker.
There were no girls schools
But my older
to be found in Miami when I
girls, Nuola and
searched for a serene educaMoremi, say that
tional setting for my first two
as they moved to
daughters, Nuola, now age 23;
the higher grades,
and Moremi, now 19. They
ended up attending a Spanthey began comish-English, bilingual educapeting with other
tion school.

Looking
ahead

girls for the attention of boys. They

also said they felt
like they had to
dumb down
their academic
prowess in front
of boys so their
male egos would
not feel threatened
by the girls intelligence. I believe
that we are doing
things the right
way at the American Academy in
Al Mizhar: letting
boys and girls mix
in the younger
grades, but separating them when
they get older.

Rough and tough

I was in Dubai when my
now 5-year-old twins, Breanna and Brooke, were ready
for KG1. I consider myself
quite fortunate to work at
the same place where my
girls study, at the American Academy in Al Mizhar
(AAM). It is the only accredited American-curriculum
school that provides a girlsonly education for students
in Grades 1-12. Kindergarten
classes are, separately, co-ed
or girls-only.
Breanna was in a co-ed
class last year in KG1, while
Brooke was in a girls-only
class. Now, they are both in
girls-only classes. Unlike me,
Breanna who enjoys roughhousing actually enjoyed
playing with boys.
You talk to girls, and they
cry, Breanna said. But boys,
you can tell them anything.
You can push them. You can
punch them. You can kick them, and they dont cry.
Brooke, on the other hand, prefers a softer approach,
which comes from being in class with girls.
Girls are nice and smart, she said. The girls are nicer than the boys, but I like just one nice boy in another
class. She likes to head to the playground and play with
them.
At their young age, its not very significant for them to be
in class with mixed genders.
But my older girls, Nuola and Moremi, say that as they
moved to the higher grades, they began competing with
other girls for the attention of boys.
They also said they felt like they had to dumb down
their academic prowess in front of boys so they would not
feel threatened by the girls intelligence.
I believe that we are doing things the right way at the
American Academy in Al Mizhar: letting boys and girls
mix in the younger grades, but separating them when
they get older. In this way, girls can develop and mature
on their own, without having to worry about snips and
snails.
The author is Director of Development and Admissions at the

American Academy in Al Mizhar.

E5
C ON F E R E NC E

Dubai hosts
Harvard
congress
DUBAI

The American University in

Dubai recently hosted the
Harvard Model Congress
Dubai (HMCD) with more
than 300 delegates from 10
countries and 26 schools for
the first time in the region.
The HMCD is one of the largest high school conferences
of its kind in the region and
is a government simulation
conference run entirely by
Harvard students who are
passionate about international relations, government
and teaching. (Sta Report)

G E M S E D UC AT I ON

Giving
students
a voice
DUBAI

GEMS Education recently

partnered with Canon Middle East to launch the Student Voice initiative aimed
at giving parents insight
into the life of todays student. The Student Voice
was recently inaugurated at
Al Khaleej National School
in Dubai as a part of GEMS
Educations ongoing Parental Engagement campaign,
highlighting the importance of parental involvement in the youth education process. (Sta Report)

E X H I B I T I ON

Making smart
learning a
priority
DUBAI

The Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS)

and the Ministry of Educations Global Education Forum recently announced the
theme of this years exhibition to be Smart learning
and technical advanced in
education. The latest data
from the World Bank shows
public education expenditure in the region stands at
18.6 per cent of total government spending compared to
the world average of 14.2 per
cent.(Sta Report)

R E LO C AT I ON

Repton
appoints
headmaster
ABU DHABI

The founding Headmaster of

Repton School, Abu Dhabi,
was recently announced by
Evolvence Knowledge Investments. Robert Relton is set
to take up his post once the
school opens on Reem Island
in September (construction
is underway). Relton is set
to relocate to the UAE with
more than 20 years experience in British education. He
will join Repton Abu Dhabi
from his previous post as
headmaster at Ravenscourt
Park Preparatory School in
London. (Sta Report)