Understanding Student Thinking and Learning in the Classroom

Abstract

The original purpose of this chapter was to provide an account of student think- ing in the classroom. There was a time, some years ago, when the content of such a chapter would have been self-evident. It would have included research on the development of problem solving skills and on the ways in which teachers could encourage students to use higher-order cognitive skills by asking appro- priate questions and setting appropriate problems. My own early studies of 'classroom interaction' were concerned with the logical demands made by teachers' questions and the effects these had on students. The results were pub- lished under the title of Thinking in the Classroom (Nuthall & Lawrence, 1965). The categories and concepts that were used to set clear boundaries around dif- ferent types of classroom behaviour were largely borrowed from research in the psychological laboratory (e.g., Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin,A Study ofThink- ing, 1956; Skinner, Verbal Behaviour, 1957) or from logic and analytic philos- ophy (e.g., Hirst & Peters, The Logic of Education, 1970; Smith & Ennis, Language and Concepts in Education, 1961).