Learning to Think

The Child's initial discoveries in concrete thinking include operations in classification and conservation (Piaget, 1962). T. Gary Waller and G.E. MacKinnon in their book Reading Research , Advances in Theory and Practice; Volume 1, (1979), describes this statement by Piaget as focus on the identifying of categories, classification of thoughts and ideas and recognizing similarities and differences between classes. Through this process of thinking development, the child learns to determine irregularities in his/ her environment.
In my opinion, this process of learning to think can be heightened and indeed sped up through the use of web 2.0 technologies, since one has to become proficient in that way of thinking, to decipher fact from fiction and to draw out pertinent information from a virtual sea of knowledge.
Waller and MacKinnon proceed to suggest that if teachers and students are to complement each other in this learning process where “the child becomes an active participant in observing, manipulating, deciding and explaining.” The teacher is the questioner and the listener “who devises situations, selects and presents materials and expects and permits the child to invent, explain and defend his decisions” – at times from the illogical to the logical. Web 2.0 applications can most certainly create a situation that allows for this kind of independent thinking and interactive learning to take place.

Reference:
Waller, Gary, T., and MacKinnon, G.E. Reading Research, Advances in Theory and Practice; Volume 1, (1979)

Syndy Jahoor