Over 10 years ago our school began an evolutionary process that finally envisioned a community of learners who could move beyond “tacit use” of thinking skills. Through research, practice, personal discoveries, and many rich conversations, we made a multiyear commitment to integrating the thinking maps language into our community. Over the past four years we believe that our school achieved “reflective use” of these tools—a sophisticated metacognitive use involving reflection and evaluation (Swartz & Perkins, 1989). We came to believe that if our students functioned as reflective users of thinking maps, that this would increase their thinking skills repertoire and encourage autonomy of thinking and collaboration, certainly important if not essential outcomes for every school in a democratic society.

An assumption underlying the explicit teaching of thinking is that instruction in thinking skills can enhance the development of a student’s thinking skills repertoire (e.g., you can identify and teach the skills required for conscious decision making). In a narrow sense, it is always possible to teach thinking skill strategies and tools and to test a student’s cognitive comprehension of these skills or even their ability to apply these skills to a given problem. In a broader sense, the vision of many educators and researchers of the thinking skills movement of the past few decades has been that the direct teaching of thinking is possible and is a necessary next step in the evolution of teaching and learning toward transfer of thinking skills across—and deeply into—content areas, for interdisciplinary problem solving and lifelong learning. Our story is of a school wanting it both ways: direct, formal teaching of thinking skills and explicit transfer into content areas.

St. Cuthbert’s College, in Auckland, New Zealand, is a unique, single sex, independent school spanning the K–12 grade levels, with a student population of 1500 girls aged 5–18. The college is expected to provide an outstanding education that encompasses not only academic, sporting, and cultural excellence, but also adds the dimensions of character and values education. Thus, the long-term development of a systematic, fully integrated use of thinking skills, ultimately leading to our use of thinking maps, took a continuous focus and persistent attention to the goal.

Read the complete chapter in the book Student Successes With Thinking Maps. Key sections from the chapter Embracing Change: The Evolution of Thinking in a K-12 School with excerpts above include:

• Phase 1: Discovering Too Many Possibilities!
• Phase 2: Focus on Transfer and “Double Processing”
• Phase 3: Uniting the School with a Common Language
• Year 1: Introducing Thinking Maps in 1999
• Year 2: Evidence of Independent Use in 2000
• Year 3: Reviewing and Moving Forward in 2001
• Year 4-5: A Common Language in 2003

Gill Hubble M.A., LTCL Dip Tching is an international consultant on teaching thinking strategies, the design of whole-school thinking and learning programs, and organizational change. Associate Principal of St. Cuthberts’ College for 16 years, she is now researcher and consultant to the Advanced Learning Center and Centre for Excellence at the College’s Collegiate Centre.