Unit 3 - Developing thinking skills: How can I help children develop cognitive strategies in language learning?

Summary

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit, you will…

KNOWLEDGE: know more about the role of language learning in helping children to develop cognitive strategies

SKILLS: be able to identify a range of cognitive strategies and ways of helping children to develop them through language learning

■ Starter Question

Before you begin this unit, read the starter question and make some notes. Then read the commentary and compare it to your notes.

What does the term ‘cognitive strategy’ mean to you? Use a dictionary to check if you need to.

COMMENTARY

Cognition is a word meaning thinking, so cognitive strategies are the mental skills children use in order to process and understand the content or the language they are learning. As children practise using cognitive skills in different ways, they will be able to develop them for use outside of language learning. For example, they might predict what happens next part of the way through a story, or deduce the meaning of an unknown word they hear from the context in which they meet it.

Cognitive strategies are important because they are essential to children's learning in all school subjects. Helping children to develop cognitive strategies while they are learning English therefore plays an important part in children's general development as learners and thinkers. Thinking skills development is seen as one of the ‘4Cs’, which are the four main life skills children need to develop to help them be prepared for their future as adults in the 21st century: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity.

■ Key concepts

Reflect on the key concept question. Brainstorm your ideas, then expand your notes as you read.

What are the cognitive skills and what kinds of strategies might children use to practise them? Try to think of three or four examples.

COMMENTARY

Part of Bloom's Taxonomy, first published in the 1950s, identified cognitive domains and put six related goals in order of complexity. This was later revised and is now often presented in a hierarchical triangle (see Figure 1) to show how the goals build upon one another. For example, as part of the cognitive process of evaluating something, we need first to understand and analyse it.