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METHODS


Teaching Environment & Pedagogical Actions
To cultivate the thinking dispositions of my 5th graders I began the school year with the
intention of making thinking more visible in the classroom. There are many proposed methods
for creating a culture of thinking to help develop students thinking abilities and inclinations. I
selected a subset of routines and procedures to employ that I anticipated would be both
manageable for me and constructive toward the goals I have for my students.
1. First, I selected a visible thinking routine that supports the development of intellectual
behaviors I noticed lacking in my fifth grade students over the past two years. These skills
relate to their ability to actively think about a new topicto develop their own connections
to something new and generate questions to push their thinking toward uncovering the
complexity in this new area. The routine I used to foster these behaviors is the Project
Zero Visible Thinking Routine of Question Starts (Appendix D) (Visible Thinking
Questions, n.d.).
2. Secondly, I made thinking visible by capturing discussions we had in class in writing. I
hung these posters around our room to remind us of the thinking we did at various points
throughout our projects. Brainstorming, asking questions, making connectionsas these
things happened, we transcribed them so we could see in our classroom the type of
thinking we were using. We posted wonderings at different times about various aspects of
our project. We also created connection webs to make visible how prior knowledge and
experiences connected to new information. Depending on the thinking we were doing, we
developed graphic organizers to display the results of our mental activities.
3. To further cultivate thinking I explicitly modeled the behaviors Ive identified and
enriched the thinking vocabulary I use in the classroom. For example, I verbalized my own
questions as they developed during reading a short article or while listening to an audio
clip. I also scribbled my own wonderings and connections on chart paper while listening
to a speaker or watching a video so that students could visualize what was happening in
my head as it was happening.
4. Finally, since reflective activities in the classroom help to make thinking visible (Douillard,
2000) I offered the class frequent opportunities for reflection around thinking. I gave
students time to focus on how they reached new levels of interest or learning through a
thinking routine, and then we discussed their experiences together. Sometimes students
wrote in reflection journals about thinking and about their experiences asking questions
and making connections. Also, students videotaped themselves sharing individual
experiences about thinking.

Data Collection & Analysis

Goal Data Collection Technique
Growth and comfort level in thinking
abilities specifically, making connections
and asking questions
Pre/post-research performance tasks
Thinking journal (work samples)
Videotaped reflections regarding use of
thinking routines
Observations
Growth in sensitivity to opportunities for
thinking
Observations
Thinking journal (reflections) & reflection
videos
Growth in inclination to use thinking
strategies
Observations
Thinking journal (reflections) & reflection
videos

As recommended by Herr & Anderson (2005), many of these data gathering techniques are
researcher friendly (p. 78) because the activities (e.g., reflection and small group discussions) are
already part of what I do with my class. I simply modified the focus of these activities to pertain
more to my goals for thinking in the classroom and then analyzed the data regularly and, at times,
with the students.

Going into this research I was cognizant that measuring growth of thinking dispositions would
be difficult. Just as it is hard to measure loyalty or friendship, thinking dispositions (the skill AND
will to use skillful thinking) is challenging to assess. Ritchhart claims measures of intellectual
character or dispositions are hard to come by and to my mind very ill-advised. We have a tendency
in education to want to measure everything, but dispositions by their very nature dont lend
themselves to easy measure (personal communication, April 8, 2013). That said, I expected that
growth could be observed through student reflections over time, in their responses to thinking
routines, and in videotaped activities in the classroom as viewed over time. A disposition like
kindness may not be easy to quantify, but it can be observed through the actions of a person. I
hoped to observe a change in the actions of my students around thinking so that I could notice an
improvement in their thinking practices. My hope was that my students would demonstrate more
active thinking in the written questions and connections they make. I also anticipated being able to
recognize student inclination to use these thinking practices through their own reflections and
videotaped recordings of their experiences in the classroom.

Pre/Post-research Performance Tasks
Prior to any discussion with students about thinking and any overt attempts at developing their
skills, in September I initiated an activity to help capture current thinking skills. I gave the class a
very general topic, hamsters and asked them to think about the topic and write down what they
think about. Then, we did a lesson around the topic so that they had the opportunity to learn
about it, and I gave them a chance to add to their writing with anything new that came into their
minds. I didnt give specific direction to write questions or connections (and in fact, didnt even
mention these categories), but rather pushed them to try to capture whatever they were thinking
about pertaining to the topic. I asked them to write down their new thoughts in a different color
so that it could be recognized as follow-up thinking.

In March, students did this same activity with a different topic, wild/domesticated animals to
demonstrate whether or not students were more inclined to actively think deeply about a new
topic (asking questions and making connections) and to examine if their written thinking was
different than in September.

Analysis
I analyzed the data from both the pre- and post-research performance tasks similarly. First, I
collected and read through all student work (their thoughts written on paper). I noted categories
of thinking as I began to recognize them (e.g., questions, facts, opinions, connections, etc.). Then,
I went back through each students work and categorized every item written both before and after
students learned about the topic (i.e., through watching a video or reading an article). I tallied the
number of items that fell into each category and created charts to represent how many of each
category students noted before they learned about the topic and how many after. I was mostly
interested in the various types of thinking students were demonstrating (represented by different
categories), rather than the sheer number of thoughts they had on a topic.

Analysis of the pre-research performance task provided a baseline to which I could compare
thinking six months later when I gave a similar post-research performance task. Knowing Id be
focusing on questioning and connecting throughout the year, I anticipated seeing more of these
categories of thinking in student work in the post-research performance task indicating student
ability to use these thinking techniques and inclination to do so (without prompting). To avoid
influencing the results later, I did not share the information of the pre-research performance
activity (or the reason I had them participate in it) with my students. I feared that if I discussed
what I was looking at through this exercise, it would affect how students responded to the similar
task I planned to give at the end of the research project.

Thinking Journal

Part 1 of Journal: Visible Thinking Routine Work Samples
Throughout the school year, students kept their work with the Question Starts Visible
Thinking Routine in one notebook (combined with their reflections) so that over time, we could
compare their thinking in response to these activities.

Analysis
To analyze the Visible Thinking Routine I initially thought I would code the questions so that I
could quantitatively track the development of thinking through the use of this routine. My
thinking was that there are questions that get at the basic facts about a topic and questions that dig
deeper and initially, I thought I was interested in getting my students to write more of the latter.
After a few experiences with the Question Starts Routine, the class and I discussed how we could
code the questions. We recognized that there are many different types of questions, but that
depending on your initial understanding of a topic, different types may be appropriate at helping
you develop understanding of the topic and its complexities. I randomly selected about five
student journals and looked through their first few responses to the Question Starts routine. I
noticed some students wrote a great number of questions and others struggled to come up with
ten. The types of questions throughout each students work varied (as I anticipated) based on how
familiar they were with a topic. For example, a student who knew very little about the human body
asked questions like, What do the lungs do? and a student who knew more asked, Why can I
only hold my breath underwater for a short time? Though I could have tracked the types of
questions students asked, I had different interests. More important to my research was 1)
understanding how comfortable students were with asking any questions, 2) observing their ability
to have discussions about questions, and 3) determining whether or not this helped them become
more engaged in digging deeper into a new topic.
1) To assess comfort level around asking questions I looked at the number of questions
students wrote down. After several of the Question Starts routines I counted every
students questions. Based on fluctuations I saw, I modified the types of topics I gave
students (e.g., honing a topic to help students generate questions better) and spent more
or less time with the class discussing how to generate questions. My goal was to help them
improve their ability of asking questions of any kind and so I continually looked at
whether or not all students were generating questions in response to new topics, struggling
with certain topics, or repeatedly having trouble devising questions at all.
2) To gauge student discussions, I observed students following the question generation step
of each Question Starts routine. Through these observations I was able to recognize
changes in student participation (i.e., initially, many students didnt offer much to the
conversation and later, their involvement increased). I also looked at the content of
student discussions. Were students talking about the topic and making connections or
quickly getting side-tracked and veering off into socializing instead? Then, during the
reflection at the end of each Question Starts routine, I looked at the number of students
who commented about new thinking they had based on discussion. In our first few
sessions, very few students had new thoughts as a result of discussing the questions; later,
more students were responding in this reflection piece.
3) Through informal observations, I looked for more active engagement in activities (in
which we pursued learning about a new topic) that followed the Question Starts routines. I
looked for students showing interest by asking their own questions, paying attention to
whatever the activity was in the lesson, and demonstrating enthusiasm in seeking and
coming across new information. Occasionally, I asked students to reflect (either in writing
or orally) on how they felt questioning and discussing questions may have impacted how
they felt about learning a new topic. In these reflections I looked for comments regarding
their increased engagement in learning based on the questioning experience.

Part 2 of Journal: Reflections on Thinking
Students were prompted every few weeks to reflect on their thinking. Sometimes this was free
form without scaffolding (e.g., sentence starters or prompts) and other times, it was more
specifically directed (e.g., students were asked to reflect on a specific experience employing a
thinking strategy).

Analysis
Each time I had students reflect in writing, I reviewed all journals to look for common themes
to help direct my actions toward fostering thinking in the classroom. Rather than select only a few
students to follow, I chose to consistently look at the whole class to search for themes that
pertained to many students, while also remaining cognizant of potential outliers (i.e., students who
responded very differently from their peers). Since students only responded with a paragraph in
each reflection reading through twenty-six paragraphs was manageable.

I never had an expectation of themes I thought to find in the reflections, but rather looked for
repeated sentiments or ideas throughout the group. For example, when I asked students to reflect
on the benefits of questions, I noticed groups of students had similar ideas such as questions get
us answers or questions help you become more interested in a topic. Reflections helped me get
a better idea of how students were developing in terms of valuing the thinking techniques I was
trying to encourage. Based on student responses, I modified my actions by either having
discussions with the class or using different techniques to connect the questions and discussions
better to the follow-up learning. For example, based on one reflection on how question
discussions impact engagement, I realized many students did not understand what it means to be
engaged in an activity or in learning. As a result of this finding, I took time to discuss this and then
made an effort to point out students who were seemingly very engaged in future activities (e.g.,
they were asking questions or connecting to things they came across).

I also used written reflections to gauge if students were recognizing opportunities for using
thinking techniques outside of those moments in which I specifically guided students to do so in
the classroom. Since I couldnt always observe students practicing this type of thinking, I was
hoping students reflecting on their behavior would highlight moments of thinking that I missed.

Observations
I set aside a specific time each week to observe the class responding to presentations or new
information so I could look for improved practice of the thinking strategies designated for study
(i.e., asking questions and making connections through other questions raised). For example, I
would have two students facilitate an activity so that I could observe the class brainstorming
questions on a new topic. I also video-recorded a couple of class activities over the time I carried
out this research to look for demonstration of thinking skills. Finally, I observed students on field
trips, out on the playground or at lunch, and in other classrooms with school buddies to see if I
noticed practice of thinking techniques (e.g., students asking questions or connecting one thing to
something else). For example, when reading to a Kindergarten buddy, I noticed one student
connect a detail from a book to an experience the student had had that helped the buddy better
understand the story.

Analysis
Throughout these observations (or following them, in reviewing the video) I looked to see
whether students were asking questions. Were they making analogous connections to things they
knew or experienced? Were they bouncing off of others questions and digging deeper into new
content with additional wonderings? Then, I typed up informal observations I made as part of my
online journal to gather quotes and descriptions of moments in which I noticed students
exhibiting the intellectual behaviors we were working on cultivating. Through these observations I
was looking for the ability to use thinking techniques, but also spontaneous use of these
techniques (indicating improved sensitivity and inclination toward using these techniques, as well).
Sometimes, I looked at videotape with a specific goal such as determining how many students
were asking questions. For two class presentations (one early in the year and one later on), I
counted the number of students who raised their hands to ask questions following presentations
from guest speakers. I was looking to see if more students were comfortable speaking up as we
practiced asking questions during the year. I also observed the types of questions students were
asking looking to see whether or not students were asking questions that had popped up for them
during the presentation or if they were asking questions following the speakers response to
another students question (which would demonstrate the ability and inclination to use questions
to dig even deeper).

Videotaped Reflections
A couple of months into the project, I asked students to interview each other on videotape
using the following set of questions.

What helps you understand a new topic or information?
What happens in your head when you watch a video or listen to a speaker?
Do you think it has been helpful to use your thinking notebook?
What is the purpose of discussing questions with other students?
What do you do in your head when you are thinking about something?
How do you feel about the Question Starts routine?

Analysis
All students were interested in doing these interviews, but we did not have time to complete
them all in the week I allotted for reflection. In the end, I transcribed the 16 interviews that were
completed and looked for themes among them. I was hoping to see that students were more
aware of what they were doing as they were thinking and then hoped to gauge their feelings
around questioning and the act of taking the time to write down questions and discuss them.
Based on common themes, I made modifications to the work I was doing in the classroom with
my students. For example, I recognized that many students were still claiming to be memorizing
or trying to remember things from videos or speakers in the classroom as they were listening
during these activities. They seemed to believe that this was a way (or the only way) to really think
about what they were hearing. This compelled me to start modeling my own thinking during these
activities. When we watched our next video, I stood right next to the screen and scribbled down
my thinking throughout it. Then, we discussed the types of thinking techniques I used
(questioning, connecting, or reacting to things I heard). Students were surprised when I admitted
to not catching everything in the video because I was thinking about one part or another for a bit.
We also talked about why it would be helpful to think this way rather than just memorize what we
hear (e.g., it inspires us to learn more than whats presented or it helps us make sense of
information thats new to us).

These methods combined to help me both create a culture of thinking in my classroom and
analyze the results of these actions. Following completion of the project (and even throughout), I
had thoughts about other potential methods to use (mentioned in my Conclusions, such as focus
groups or one-on-one interviews with students), but found time limited and therefore, stuck with
the procedures described here.