MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

Promoting Thinking Skills with Problem-Solving

Tasks through Short Stories

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2017

Supervisor: Author:
Mgr, Ivana Hrozková, Ph.D. Miki Kano
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Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze

citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro
studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu
autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský
zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

Brno, 30th March, 2017 ______________________

Miki Kano
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Abstract

The aim of this thesis, Promoting Thinking Skills to Young Learners with Problem-
Solving Tasks through Short Stories, is to illustrate practical use of the revised Bloom’s
taxonomy to design activities for teaching thinking skills and to find out find whether and how
problem-solving tasks promote pupils’ thinking skills. The theoretical part characterizes young
learners and their cognitive development, introduces thinking skills and 21st century skills and
discusses strategies of teaching thinking skills and implementation of problem-solving activities.
The practical part introduces designed lessons and used strategies for teaching thinking skills and
qualitative research conducted in two schools. Finally, this thesis discusses findings from
qualitative research and further suggestions.

Keywords: young learners, thinking skills, 21st century skills, Bloom’s taxonomy, cognitive
development, problem-solving, cooperative learning
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Acknowledgement

I would like to express my thanks to my supervisor, Mgr. Ivana Hrozková, Ph.D, for all her kind

help, encouragement, valuable advice and enormous patience.

I would also like to express many thanks to my partner for his great support and understanding.

Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks my mother for her support and

encouragement.
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Table of Contents

I Introduction

II Theoretical Part
1. Young Learners

1.1 Definition of Young Learners

1.2 Students’ Development

1.2.1 Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

1.3 Social constructivism; Assisted performance

1.3.1 Vygotsky’s theory of learning

1.3.2 Instructional Scaffolding by Bruner

1.4 Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences

2. Thinking Skills

2.1 21st century skills

2.2 Thinking skills in Czech curricular documents for elementary education

2.3 Bloom’s taxonomy for 21st century skills

3. Teaching thinking skills

3.1 Importance of Teaching Thinking Skills

3.2 Teaching thinking skills to young learners

3.3 Reasons to teach thinking skills with short stories

3.4 Strategies to teach thinking skills

3.4.1 Structured activities and tasks

3.4.2 Questioning Strategies

3.4.3 Scaffolding strategies

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4. Implementation of problem-solving activities

4.1 Steps in problem solving

4.2 Group work for problem solving

4.3 Problem-solving assessment

III Practical Part

5. Methodology of the research

5.1 Aims of research and research questions

5.2 Research method

5.2.1 Qualitative research

5.2.2 Research context and research sample

6. Activities with problem-solving tasks and lesson observations

7. Research findings

7.1 Case study – Montessori and private English school

8. Discussion and further suggestions

IV Conclusion
References

List of Appendices
Appendix 1

Appendix 2
Appendix 3

Appendix 4
Appendix 5
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I Introduction

Nowadays, buzzwords such as ‘thinking skills’, ‘21st century skills’ or ‘needed skills for
the new global economy’ have been popular and spread all over the world. Not only educators
but economists and business people claim that new generation needs to obtain thinking skills,
including thinking critically, solving problems, evaluating, making decisions and creating new
ideas or things. Thinking skills have been more valued since knowledge societies exceeded
industry societies. Artificial intelligence and robots are being applied in manufacturing and will
replace most human labor works by 2020. Majority scholars have claimed the importance of
thinking skills as well as collaborative and communicative skills, which are assumed that
artificial intelligence cannot replace. On the other hand, there is no concreate definition of
thinking skills and the term is still vague. In contradiction to the newly required skills, it has
been claimed that people especially young generations are losing communication skills due to
the diffusion of technology including smartphones, social network services and text messages.
Social network services aim to connect people more than before, however, people in fact lose the
sense of communicating with people especially in real life context. The reason can be claimed
that time of communicating directly face to face is decreasing due to such network services and
text messages. It is, today, normal to see people having lunch together at a restaurant do not talk
each other and check Facebook or text messages instead. Besides, there is a statistic data that
reading time has been decreasing year by year due to the diffusion of smartphones or tablets.
Considering new required skills for the 21st century as well as concerned negative tendency in
terms of communication skills and reading habits, I focused on teaching thinking skills with
short stories in primary schools.

Primary education I had had in my home country brought me this topic, teaching thinking
skills, because Japanese education has not appreciated ‘thinking outside box’ yet. Japan’s
newest Courses of Study focuses on uniqueness, critical thinking and problem-solving skill. The
Course of Study is a guideline for teachers officially published by Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology in Japan and has been implemented since 2011 (Tahira, 2012).
It is often said that Japanese children have less critical thinking skill compared to children in
Western countries due to its collective education. Teachers should not exclude children who
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think outside box, rather, should appreciate them, let them share the ideas and encourage pupils
to do so. I aim at focusing on importance of thinking outside box and teaching how to do.

In the theoretical part, I will start with describing the definition of young learners and
related theories to cognitive development of children aged seven to ten. After discussing young
learners, I will clarify the definition of thinking skills and 21st century skills and introduce the
revised Bloom’s taxonomy and its action verbs. Then, the theoretical part will focus on
importance of teaching those skills to children and highlight questioning and scaffolding
strategies. Moreover, I will discuss implementation of problem-solving activities. In the
practical part, methodology of the research is first introduced. I decided to carry out qualitative
research that was conducted on the fourth and the fifth graders. The research was held in two
different schools. After introducing the research context and sample, I will discuss the way of
designing lessons and strategies I used to scaffold my participants and describe observations of
four lessons. Finally, the thesis argues findings from the qualitative research and further
suggestions.
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II Theoretical Part

1. Young Learners

1.1 Definition of Young Learners

It is not easy and simple to define who are young learners since primary education differs
in each country and each country has its own definition of young learners, however, young
learners are covered at age from five, six or seven to ten or eleven, or sometimes to fourteen.
Scott and Ytreberg (1990) assumes that young language learners are between five and ten or
eleven years old and have divided the children into two groups – the five to seven year old and
the eight to ten year old children. There are distinct differences between children aged five to
seven and children aged eight to ten. According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), children aged five
to seven can argue for something and use logical reasoning and imagination although their
understanding comes from the physical world such as hands, eyes and ears and tell the difference
between fact and fiction. They are likely to be self-centered therefore they cannot see and think
something from someone’s point of view. On the other hand, generally speaking, children aged
between eight and ten or eleven can tell the difference between fact and fiction, try to understand
by asking questions and work with others and cooperate with others although five to seven year
old children tend to like work and play alone (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990). Scott and Ytreberg
(1990) point out that eight to ten year old children convey and understand meaning using both
spoken language and the physical world. That is to say, children aged eight to ten or eleven are
more mature than younger children and start having both adult side and childish side. However,
Scott and Ytreberg (1990) warn that it is not possible to conclude what all children aged five can
do something or not it is simply because there are also individual differences in developing their
own personalities, abilities and skills. In addition, Pinter (2006) notes that teachers and parents
know that every child learns at their own pace and occasionally develops new skills and abilities,
therefore, there is no obvious differences between children of the same age. Yet, it is worth
understanding some basic characteristics of young language learners so that teachers are able to
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prepare appropriate lessons and activities which comfort children and develop their skills
effectively when children learn something.

1.2 Students’ Development

Knowing basic knowledge of cognitive development helps teachers to understand how

children learn and understand the concept, and also teachers can make more effective lessons and
activities according to the children’s cognitive level (Sternberg & Williams, 2009). Sternberg
and Williams (2009) insist that cognitive development takes process in maturation, in learning or
in both. Maturation is a permanent cognitive, emotional and physical change that occurs as a
result of biological age regardless of personal experience. Teachers should know how cognitive
development occurs at certain age of pupils so that teachers know which activities can be
appropriately challenging and give them right amount of help at the right time to still develop
their skills. Teachers should also understand that cognitive development is one-way process that
goes forward and never goes backward, however, the rate and speed of development usually
differs from individuals (Sternberg & Williams, 2009). This is a basic but crucial point because
pupils learn and understand new things at their own pace and their speed of learning always
differs from each other. Teachers have to observe individual progress in order to decide when
and how to give a needed support to the individuals.

1.2.1 Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Teachers need to learn and understand Piaget’s theory in order to be able to know the
needs and interests of each age group and to monitor children’s changing needs, so that teachers
can offer more appropriate lessons, materials and helps to their pupils (Pinter, 2006). Pinter
(2006) discusses the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, or also known as constructivism.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed his theory of stages of development. He created the
framework with four different stages according to ages, which are the sensorimotor stage, the
pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. Seifert
and Sutton (2009) describes that the sensorimotor stage from birth to two years of age is when
infants learn and develop their cognitive skills by touching, manipulating, looking, listening and
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biting and chewing objects. Interacting with the environment surrounding infants is the way of
learning (Pinter, 2006).

Children start thinking logically and can represent an object in various ways when they
are in the pre-operational stage from two to seven years of age (Seifert & Sutton, 2009). Seifert
and Sutton (2009) give an example that children can use a banana when they play talking on a
phone. The children can represent the banana as a telephone, but it does not mean that they
believe the banana is a telephone, rather they know the banana is still a banana. This is a dual
processing, thinking imaginatively and realistically, and this is an example of early
metacognition (Seifert & Sutton, 2009). Children in this stage yet have lack of logical thinking
and have egocentrism, thus, the children are not capable of thinking in other’s perspective (Pinter,
2006).

Pinter (2006) mentions that the concrete operational stage from seven to eleven years of
age is “the ‘turning point’ in cognitive development because children’s thinking begins to
resemble ‘logical’ adult-like thinking” (cited in Pinter, p. 7). Children develop their thinking
skills therefore they are able to apply logical reasoning and solve problems more systematically
than before, although they apply their thinking skills simply and unconsciously, and this ability is
yet restricted (Pinter, 2006, Seifert & Sutton, 2009). Compared to the pre-operational stage, they
have logical thinking skills and can apply their knowledge when solving problems or reasoning,
while children in the pre-operational stage cannot use thinking skills in a complex context,
however, children in the concrete operational stage also need appropriate help from adults
because their ability is limited.

Seifert and Sutton (2009) also mentions that children in the concrete operational stage
have two abilities, reversibility and decentration, which children in the pre-operational stage do
not have yet. According to Seifert and Sutton (2009), the ability of reversibility is an ability to
think about and recall steps of process in any order, and this ability helps people to work on tasks
having multiple steps. Decentration is an ability to “focus on more than one feature of a problem
at a time” (Seifert & Sutton, 2009, p. 49). The similar ability is seen in children in the pre-
operational stage that the children represent a banana as a telephone, however, children in the
concrete operational stage can use this ability more deliberately and consciously, and apply this
ability when solving problems or working on tasks. Indeed, as Pinter (2006) points out, the
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concrete operational stage is the turning point for children to acquire the thinking skills or
cognitive skills. They start developing their cognitive skills, therefore, they can imagine
something in someone’s perspectives and apply their knowledge when reasoning or solving
problems. They are able to see concepts and tasks in various ways as well. Although their skills
are yet limited, they are on the process to think things in complex ways and focus on more than
one thing.

The last stage Piaget claimed is the formal operational stage, that starts from eleven years
and this is onwards stage (Pinter, 2006). Children in the formal operational stage can operate
more logical thinking such as deductive reasoning systematically, and can reason even abstract
things (Pinter, 2006, Seifert & Sutton, 2009). Seifert and Sutton (2009) also argue that children
in the formal operational stage can operate hypothetical reasoning and they can think about
events using ‘what if’. That is to say, children in the formal operational stage are able to
hypothesize when being asked ‘what if?’, and indeed, they use the ability of hypothetical
reasoning rather than simply imagining as small children can also achieve. The ability to think
hypothetically is desirable, but Seifert and Sutton (2009) point out that it cannot be said that
children having this ability is motivated or well-behaved and will succeed in education. This
ability is required in a specific field such as scientific field or academic filed like researchers,
thus, it is normal that many people actually have not achieved this stage although they are
already adults, and it is simply because that they have never had a chance to use this ability
(Seifert & Sutton, 2009). However, as World Economic Forum (2016) concludes that needed
skills by 2020 will change dramatically compared last two decades, and many jobs will be
replaced by artificial intelligence. People with abilities of cognitive skills such as solving-
problem skills, creativity, innovative skills are required in the near future. It can be said that
people having the ability to think hypothetically will be needed sooner or later in the new global
economy.

1.3 Social constructivism; Assisted performance

1.3.1 Vygotsky’s theory of learning

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Pinter (2006) argues that social environment, social context and interaction with peers,
teachers and parents are also important factors of children’s development. Lev Vygotsky (1896-
1934) agreed on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, but Vygotsky also argued that social
environment had an important role to help children develop their cognitive skills (Pinter, 2006).
Vygotsky insisted that when a child learns a new thing, he or she can perform better or achieve
something that is assumed to be impossible to his or her age if adults or experts help the child
than if the child works alone, and the difference of between solo performance and assisted
performance is called ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (Pinter, 2006; Seifert & Sutton, 2009).
Teachers (or experts) need to assist and provide experiences to allow children learn new skills or
knowledge, and children need to be exposed continued experiences matched to their cognitive
development, thus, children will appreciate and accommodate the new knowledge or skills
(Seifert & Sutton, 2009).

1.3.2 Instructional Scaffolding by Bruner

Jerome Bruner an American psychologist proposed the term ‘scaffolding’ with his
colleagues in 1976 (Pinter, 2006).

“Scaffolding is essentially an instructional strategy which ensures that the child can gain
confidence and take control task (for example, counting stars) or parts of the task as soon
as he or she is willing and able to. At the same time, he or she is offered immediate,
meaningful support whenever stuck” (Pinter, 2006, p. 12)

As same as Vygotsky’s theory, ‘scaffolding’ allows children perform better and achieve a task
with appropriate supports from adults. In other words, the role of a teacher in a language
teaching is also to carefully observe how pupils work on a task and have difficulties with it.
Teachers are required to judge when and how to give a support to help the pupils understand well,
work on comfortably, achieve the task and gain confidence on them. This is an essential aspect
in teaching, because if teachers did not offer appropriate supports to the pupils, the pupils would
lose confidence and would not be motivated anymore. Pinter (2006) points out that adults, or
teachers in a classroom, encourage pupils by praising them, telling possible difficulties and make
sure that the pupils are motivated to finish a task.
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1.4 Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences

Pinter (2006) discusses that framework of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard

Gardner (1943-) helps teachers create meaningful lessons to their pupils with any one
intelligence or any combination of those intelligences. Gardner proposed that intelligence is not
formed in one particular form, rather, intelligences can be seen in many different ways in
individuals (Pinter, 2006). Gardner formulated seven intelligences: linguistic intelligence,
logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, spatial
intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence, and the first two are typical
intelligences valued in schools, the next three are related to arts and the last two intelligences are
called ‘personal intelligences’ by Gardner (Pinter, 2006; Smith, 2002 & 2008). Although my
research did not implement Gardner’s theory, it is worth mentioning about relation of thinking
skills and Gardner’s theory. According to King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.), Gardner’s theory is
related to thinking skills. Some intelligences that Gardner claimed are about cognitive thinking
such as analyzing a problem logically, detect or solving-problem. Also, King, Goodson &
Rohani (n.d.) mention that many schools are shifting their curricula to adjust diverse abilities and
talents and teachers use various teaching styles. Teaching skills can be taught effectively
applying Gardner’s theory. The brief summaries of each intelligences are described below;

Linguistic Intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language and the
meaning of words, the ability to learn languages, and the ability to use languages (Pinter, 2006;
Smith, 2002 & 2008). According to Smith (2002 & 2008), Gardner sees writers, poets and
lawyers have high linguistic intelligences, and those people can express oneself rhetorically and
poetically.

Logical-mathematical intelligence involves sensitivity to and capacity to analyze

problems logically and to detect logical patterns, and an ability to reason (Pinter, 2006; Smith,
2002 & 2008). According to Seifert and Sutton (2009) and Smith (2002 & 2008), activities
using the logical-mathematical intelligence is to detect, to solve mathematical problems easily
and accurately, to think logically and to reason deductively.
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Musical intelligence entails skills to produce pitch and rhythm and aesthetic-sounding
tones, to understand the forms of musical expressiveness, and to compose music. According to
Shabani (2014), students with high levels of musical intelligence showed the better result in
foreign language learning since they are more sensitive to sounds or phonology, which is crucial
element when learning a language. Those students also performed better in the field of verbal
memory, vocabulary and phonetic awareness in several studies (Shabani, 2014).

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence consists of the ability to use the body and to handle
objects skillfully, and even to use the whole body or part of the body to solve problems (Pinter,
2006; Smith, 2002 & 2008). Beare (n.d.) recommends to connect language to actions for
learners with bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to make lessons and activities more effective, thus,
role-plays, drama activities, movement games pantomiming are effective.

Spatial intelligence involves the ability to imagine, to perceive visual world and to
recreate objects seen in a different angle, sometimes in the absence of relevant stimuli (Pinter,
2006; Walters & Gardner, 1986). Learners with spatial intelligence perform better when
learning with visual aids, or by highlighting with different color to indicate function or tense,
thus, mind maps, videos or graphs can be good learning materials (Beare, n.d.).

Interpersonal intelligence consists of the ability to understand and respond

appropriately to the moods, temperaments or intentions of others, therefore, people with the
intelligence can work effectively with people (Pinter, 2006; Smith, 2002 & 2008). Seifert and
Sutton (2009) point out that interpersonal intelligence is the ability to detect other’s nonverbal
feelings or thoughts, therefore, this intelligence allow people to sense the implied message in a
statement, that is one of important elements in learning languages.

Intrapersonal intelligence involves sensitivity to one’s inner feelings and the ability to
know one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires and intelligences (Pinter 2006; Seifert & Sutton,
2009). Since people with intrapersonal intelligence are better to understand themselves and
know what motives them, thus, they can apply the information into the regular life (Smith, 2002
& 2008). It can be claimed that it is important skill to keep motivation and know in which field
they can perform well or not when learning.
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In addition to those seven intelligences, Gardner added two more intelligences which are
naturalist intelligence and existential intelligence. Naturalist intelligence consists of the ability
to recognize, classify varieties of animals, minerals and plants, and describe certain features of
the environment (Pinter, 2006; Smith, 2002 & 2008). Smith (2002 & 2008) also mentions that
naturalist intelligence allows people to characterize the role that many culture values. Existential
intelligence is concerned with the ability to sensitive to or to have capacity to conceptualize or
tackle deeper about human existence, in other words, the ability to seek for the meaning of life
(Pearson, 2011).

Pinter (2006) argues that it is essential for teachers to know that each student has their
own strengths and weaknesses of their multiple intelligences in learning as well as preferred
learning style. All classes are mixed ability classes, that is, there are many learning styles and
many types of intelligences in one class. It is important for teacher to know each aspect of
multiple intelligences theory and find out activities which are corresponding students’ preferred
learning style and intelligences. Presenting several techniques when teaching one thing is
preferable and ideal for language learners.

2. Thinking Skills

Today, thinking skills are focused on in education. Many educational institutions have
started including the set of thinking skills into curriculums, educational goals and classrooms.
Teachers of any subjects are asked to teach thinking skills as well as their subject matters, yet,
only few teachers are able to define the thinking skills (Bond, n.d.). Some scholars and
institutions have defined their own definition of thinking skills. Fleetham (n.d.) defines thinking
skills as mental processes which are used when solving problems, making decisions, asking
questions, planning, evaluating, and creating. According to Polette (2007), thinking skills are
essential to deal with the multitude of information.

Furthermore, thinking skills are recognized as parts of 21st century skills, that are crucial
skills in the new global economy and world. Lawrence (n.d.) identifies job skills for the 21st
century, which are known as foundation skills divided into four groups; basic skills, thinking
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skills, people skills and personal qualities. According to Lawrence (n.d.), the set of thinking
skills in the job skills for 21st century is as follows;

- Creative thinking: use imagination freely, combining ideas or information in new ways; make
connections between ideas that seems unrelated.

- Problem-solving skills: recognize problem; identify why it is a problem; create and implement
a solution; watch to see how well solution works; revise as needed.

- Decision-making skills: identify goal desired in making the decision; generate alternatives and
gather information about them; weigh pros and cons; choose best alternative; plan how to carry
out choice.

- Visualization: see a building or object by looking at a blueprint, or sketch; imagine how a

system works by looking at a schematic drawing.

World Economic Forum (2016) mentions that some skills considered necessary in 2015
will change by 2020 because artificial intelligence and robots will take over in the current
workplace. World Economic Forum (2016) published Top 10 Skills considered important in the
workplace of 2020.

Top 10 Skills

1. Complex problem-solving
2. Critical Thinking
3. Creativity
4. People Management
5. Coordinating with others
6. Emotional Intelligence
7. Judgement and decision making
8. Service Orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive Flexibility
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As the ranking shows, four thinking skills will be needed in the new global economy, which are
complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, judgement and decision making.
Needless to say, other skills indeed require the thinking skills or are based on thinking skills. As
Lawrence (n.d.) and Trilling (2005) point out that 21st century skills such as critical thinking,
creative thinking, collaborative and communicative skills are required in the new global
workplace, since knowledge societies where human services are more needed replaced industrial
societies. The research also shows that cognitive skills such as critical thinking or problem
solving skills influence individual earnings (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2008). In other words,
the more people have and utilize cognitive skills, the more they tend to earn.

Cognitive skills are crucial not only in terms of individual earnings, but also in terms of
national economic growth. Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2008) discusses that the critical
thinking and problem solving skills that are called cognitive skills are the key skills to raise
economic growth. Hanushek and Woessmann (2008) points out that countries that scored higher
cognitive skills on the PISA international test have higher GDP than countries which did not
perform well. That is to say, thinking skills are key skills in order that people keep and obtain
their job and increase individual earnings in the new global economy as well as countries
increase its own GDP growth.

Dede (2010) points out that although many education reforms or organizations have
developed the frameworks for 21st century skills that teachers should convey as part of schooling,
the definitions of 21st century skills are different from each other because many people use the
same terminology in a different meaning. However, there are some standard and common
definitions of 21st century skills which are usually mentioned when discussing the 21st century
and new educational era.

2.1 21st century skills

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2008) discusses

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“Advanced economies, innovative industries and firms, and high-growth jobs require
more educated workers with the ability to respond flexibly to complex problems,
communicate effectively, manage information, work in teams and produce new
knowledge.” (p. 6)

21st century skills have recently been more important in education and educational reforms have
been striving to teach children 21st century skills in order that they acquire the abilities
mentioned above. Partnership for 21 Century Skills (2008) published the framework for 21st
century skills in its guide.

Figure 1 21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems. Reprinted from Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved
from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/P21_framework_0116.pdf. Copyright 2007.
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Figure 2 21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems. Reprinted from Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved
from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/P21_framework_0116.pdf. Copyright 2007.

The new learning formula was also formed in accordance with transition of the age, from
Industrial Age to Knowledge Age, where “brain-power replaces brawn-power and hertz-power
replaces horse-power (Trilling, 2005, p. 1). As more countries enter Knowledge Age, learning
and knowledge-creating become more crucial in a knowledge society because information and
knowledge have already exceeded industrial and manufacturing goods (Trilling, 2005). The new
learning formula is the basic 3Rs multiplied 7Cs, for success in the 21st century; the basic 3Rs
are “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic (Trilling, 2005). Trilling (2005) argues that the new goal of
educational accountability is testing the skills of attaining and applying product of the basic 3Rs
and the higher-level 7C skills, that are new learning achievement in the 21st century.

3Rs ✖ 7Cs = 21st century learning

The simple chart of 7Cs as 21st century learning skills (Table 1) is provided.
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Seven Cs Component Skills

Critical Thinking-and-Doing Problem-solving, Research, Analysis,
Project management, etc.
Creativity New Knowledge Creation, “Best Fit”,
Design Solution, Artful Storytelling, etc.
Collaboration Cooperation, Compromise, Consensus,
Community-building, etc.
Cross-cultural Understanding Across Diverse Ethnic,
Knowledge and Organizational Culture
Communication Crafting Messages and Using Media
Effectively
Computing Effective Use of Electronic Information and
Knowledge Tools
Career & Learning Self-reliance Managing Change,
Lifelong Learning and Career Redefinition
Table 1 Seven Cs as 21st century learning skills

As shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 and Table 1, thinking skills such as critical thinking and problem
solving skills, communication and collaboration skills and creativity and innovation skills are
included in 21st century skills, which are assumed to be crucial skills in the new global economy
and workplace by 2020.

2.2 Thinking skills in Czech curricular documents for elementary education

Framework Educational Program for Elementary Education (FEP EE) was published on
September 1 in 2007 and revised version was implemented on September 1 in 2013. FEP EE
(2007) encourages educators to take pupils needs and potential in education, to apply more
variable organization of education in accordance with the pupils’ needs and to differentiate
instruction. In addition, teachers are required to “create positive social, emotional and working
atmosphere founded on effective motivation, cooperation and engaging instructional methods”
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(Framework Educational Program for Elementary Education, 2007, p. 7). FEP EE (2007) also
focuses on the importance to get the pupils realize the way of solving problems and to promote
the pupils’ decision making skills as well as make pupils engaged in cooperative and
collaborative activities. Teachers need to “stimulate creative thinking, logical reasoning and
problem solving in pupils” (Framework Educational Program for Elementary Education, 2007, p.
10). To support the gifted and talented pupils as well as weaker and weakest learners,
challenging and creative classroom environment is essential to give an appropriate help in
accordance with each pupil’s needs and potential. In other words, teachers are strongly required
to understand pupils’ needs and potential, to apply their teaching methods to support individual
pupils and to differentiate the way of teaching in accordance with each pupil’s needs. It is
essential for teachers to be able to know what pupils at certain age can do and cannot do, how
teachers offer appropriate supports to make the pupils engaged in learning, and how teachers
assess and evaluate pupils in order to create more effective learning environment for all
individuals.

FEP EE (2007) also gives ‘key competencies’; learning competency, problem-solving

competency, communication competency, social and personal competency, civic competency
and professional competency, which are considered important and essential for personal
development and individual’s participation in society. Those competencies should be acquired
by the time elementary pupils graduate. Here, problem-solving competency, communication
competency and social and personal competency are specifically explained since those
competencies are strongly related to thinking skills and 21st century skills. According to
problem-solving competency in FEP EE, an elementary-school graduate recognizes and
understands problems, thinks critically and logically, is able to find information for solving
problems, applies his or her knowledge and realizes his or her responsible for the decisions.
Framework Educational Program for Elementary Education (2007) describes problem-solving
competences as below;

“An elementary-school graduate also “is able to find information useful for solving the
problem; identifies its identical, similar and different features; applies the knowledge
acquired to discover various solutions; is not discouraged by a failure should there be one
and persistently seeks the conclusive solution to the problem.” (p. 12)
 23

Problem-solving and decision-making skills are also focus on the section of Moral Development
as “problem-solving and decision-making skills in terms of various types of problems and social
roles, problems in interpersonal relations, coping with learning difficulties related to the subject
matter of a subject, problems with self-regulation” (Framework Educational Program for
Elementary Education, 2007, p.94).

Communication competency allows an elementary-school graduate to listen to other’s

opinion, to understand them and to respond adequately as well as to participate in a discussion
while defensing his or her opinion and argues. An elementary graduate will understand various
types of texts, commonly used gestures, communication means for his or her active engagement
in social events. Lastly, social and personal competency allows an elementary-school graduate
to participate “in creating a friendly atmosphere in the team; contributes to reinforcing good
interpersonal relations by considering and respecting others when dealing with them; offers help
or requests it should the need arise;” (Framework Educational Program for Elementary
Education, 2007, p. 13). He or she also contributes a discussion, understands the importance of
cooperative work with others and respect other different viewpoints or values.

It can be claimed that an English teacher needs to teach subject’s knowledge by having
opportunities for pupils to cooperate with his or her classmates, to make decisions, to meet
problems and to come up with the way of solving problems in order to achieve the key
competencies mentioned above. These competencies are indeed essential and have many
commons with 21st century skills, and also these competencies are related to the needed skills in
the new global economy. Acquiring those competencies allows the pupils to succeed in the 21st
century and new global world. In addition, Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives is used
to form school curriculum in the Czech Republic (Hofmann, Svobodova and Knecht, 2017).
Bloom’s taxonomy is discussed in the next chapter.

2.3 Bloom’s taxonomy for 21st century skills

Bloom’s taxonomy proposed by Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999) describes the scale of

thinking behavior having six categories; knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis and evaluation (Education 2020, n.d.). Bloom offers higher order thinking skill and
 24

lower order thinking skill, as knowledge is regarded as the lowest order thinking skill and
evaluation is the highest order thinking skill over synthesis. However, the revised Bloom’s
taxonomy shows the synthesis named creating replaces the highest order thinking skill over
evaluation. The change of Bloom’s taxonomy and the 2001 revised Bloom’s taxonomy is as
follows (Gonzalez-Major & Albright, 2008);

Bloom’s Taxonomy The 2001 Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Higher Order Thinking Skills Higher Order Thinking Skills
Evaluation Creating
Synthesis Evaluating
Analysis Analyzing
Application Applying
Comprehension Understanding
Knowledge Remembering
Lower Order Thinking Skills Lower Order Thinking Skills
Table 2 Bloom’s Taxonomy versus Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

The revised version was established by Bloom’s former students, Anderson and Krathwohl, in
2001 to make the terminology and taxonomy more relevant to 21st century learning (Forehand,
2010). In the revised version, some of terminology were changed; knowledge to remembering,
comprehension to understanding and synthesis to creating and the six categories were formed
into verb forms from noun forms.

Anderson and Krathwohl also identify 19 cognitive processes that defines the bounds
between six categories (Iowa State University, n.d.). 19 cognitive processes and action words
can be used for strategies for teachers when measuring and assessing students’ thinking skills.
Teachers can also scaffold students by asking questions using those action verbs. Likewise,
definitions of each terminology help teachers create learning materials and activities to develop
and assess the thinking skills. Definitions and cognitive verbs to each category is shown in the
Table 3.
 25

Terminologies Definitions Cognitive Processes

Creating Putting elements together to form a coherent Generating, planning,
or functional whole; reorganizing elements producing
into a new pattern or structure
Evaluating Making judgments Checking, critiquing,
Analyzing Breaking material into constituent parts, Differentiating,
determining how the parts relate to one organizing, attributing,
another and to an overall structure or purpose.
Applying Carrying out or using a procedure through Executing, implementing
executing, or implementing.
Understanding Constructing meaning from oral, written, and Interpreting,
graphic messages. exemplifying, explaining,
classifying, summarizing,
inferring, comparing,
Remembering Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling Recognizing, recalling
relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
Table 3 Definitions and Cognitive Processes in the 2001 Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Action verbs to each terminology are as follows;

Remembering – list, describe, recall, match, name, identify, locate, find choose, etc.

Understanding – summarize, classify, compare, explain, exemplify, illustrate, show, etc.

Applying – implement, carry out, use, develop, select, plan, make use of, solve, etc.

Analyzing – analyze, assume, categorize, compare, contrast, discover, examine, etc.

Evaluating – agree, assess, compare, decide, deduct, evaluate, explain, justify, judge, value, etc.

Creating – adapt, build, change, choose, create, design, imagine, improve, plan, solve, etc.
 26

When people think critically and apply cognitive skills, they take more complex
processes compared to when just memorizing. The reason why remembering is placed as the
lowest order thinking skill is that it can be accomplished without understanding. However,
higher order thinking skills take processes of remembering, understanding and applying. In
other words, without understanding a concept, people usually cannot apply the concept when
solving problems or evaluating. The Bloom’s taxonomy can be useful to formulate lessons to
measure thinking skills as well as to give scaffolding to learners using the taxonomy. Cullinane
(2009) discusses that the original Bloom’s taxonomy was designed to be applied for creating
examinations, but today, there are many applications of Bloom’s taxonomy. According to the
research, Bloom’s taxonomy has been used by teachers in four areas; specifying lesson
objectives, preparing tests, asking questions at different taxonomic level and increasing the
cognitive levels (Cullinane, 2009). Bloom’s taxonomy is useful to formulate questions to
challenge students in class tests, class times, and homework assignments as well as to design
lessons (Cullinane, 2009). Bloom’s taxonomy is also used to form educational objectives and
curriculum in the Czech Republic (Hofmann, Svobodova and Knecht, 2017).

3. Teaching thinking skills

3.1 Importance of Teaching Thinking Skills

“it is essential that children are taught to evaluate data, to solve problems, to make
decisions based on evidence, to be able to determine cause and effect, to predict and
forecast based on evidence, to support or deny a hypothesis, to infer, to interpret, to
question and analyze, and to sue a host of other thinking skills.” (Polette, 2007, ix)

Polette (2007) discusses the importance of teaching thinking skills in primary education because
even children need to acquire those skills which are used when dealing with the multitude of
information in everyday life. Ewing and Saunders (2016) warn that children will not succeed in
the 21st century if creativity is excluded from classrooms. Today, many classrooms push
creativity, imagination or collaboration out of classrooms although it is possible to nurture the
ability to imagine, think critically, collaborate, solve problems and communicate, and even
nurturing those skills could foster fun, play and creativity in classrooms (Ewing & Saunders,
 27

2016). Children would be bored and stressed when they are taught only knowledge from
teachers because it is teacher-centered learning not student-centered learning. However, when it
comes to teach thinking skills, the class will be student-centered learning that is considered to
motivate more pupils compared to teacher-centered learning. Pupils are supposed to think and
imagine by themselves, and even communicate and collaborate with other classmates as well as
teachers. Fleetham (n.d.) argues that lessons will be more interesting and pupils are more
engaged when teaching a class through thinking skills. The class will be more challenging as
well, but pupils are likely to work harder and show achievement. Fleetham (n.d.) also says that
delightful teachers tend to make their lessons more interesting through thinking skills even when
they teach new knowledge or facts. That is to say, it is possible to teach a new grammar, a
historic event or mathematics through thinking skills. Ewing and Saunders (2016) mentions “if
we truly want to develop children’s creative, communicative, collaborative and problem-solving
skills to help them become resilient and productive adults, we must put creativity at the heart of
the classroom (para. 13). If creativity is ignored when teaching young learners, needed skills in
the 21st century such as problem-solving skills, critical thinking, creativity and decision-making
skills will not be developed, thus, children will not able to acquire those needed skills to survive
in the 21st century. Teachers and educational institutions have to focus on teaching how to think
in order to develop children’s creativity, otherwise, the children will not be able to get a job
because artificial intelligence could take place in and nations will not have enough human
resources with 21st century skills so that it will influence even on nation’s economic growth in
the future.

3.2 Teaching thinking skills to young learners

Reads (2015) says that ongoing attempts to create curriculums which develops thinking
skills have been seen since 1970s, however, children living today are asked to require thinking
skills more seriously compared to those who had lived about 40 years ago due to development of
technology and global economy. The world is changing every day, thus, demands on children
are also changing in each period. Thinking skills are cognitive skills. There are several tips to
create lessons that develop children’s skills to think critically and solve problems. First, Reads
(2015) points out problem-based and inquiry-based programs interdisciplinary teach children and
 28

provide time to teach thinking skills. These programs allow teachers to cover the content as well
as to step out in order to ask cognitive questions to pupils and make them think more critically
about the content. Secondly, daily routines to make children think over and over again have
important roles to develop children’s cognitive skills. Reads (2015) advices that brainstorming,
pushing children to provide reasoning, and classroom arguments would help children to gain a
habit to think critically, thus, teachers should seek various thinking routines in classrooms. In
addition, it is essential for teachers to make children see themselves as thinkers and problem
solvers by asking open-ended questions (Bright Horizon, n.d.). Giving answers to children
would not help to develop cognitive skills, rather providing opportunities to think helps them to
gain thinking skills. Teachers should be patient and should not solve problems instead children,
and scaffold children by giving more information, assisting, and asking questions to explicit
ideas or thoughts from the children (Bright Horizon n.d.). Using open-end questions, drama
activities, asking reasons are crucial techniques in developing and training pupils’ thinking skills.
Psychologist Robert Starnberg suggested to include those three thinking skills in a lesson
(Thomas & Thorne, 2009).

1. Analytical Thinking: analyze, compare and contrast, evaluate

2. Practical Thinking: show how to use, utilize, implement

3. Creative Thinking: invent, imagine, design, show how.

According to data, students’ understanding increased when including those three thinking
(Thomas & Thorne, 2009). Young learners who start thinking critically and logically need to be
given opportunities to think, solve problems, imagine, collaborate and cooperate with other
pupils and be creative. Teachers’ role is to provide those opportunities and support pupils when
necessary.

For teachers, knowing cognitive stages of each age, different learning styles and some
theories about children’s development is also necessary to create classroom atmosphere that
makes children gain confidence, feel more comfortable and secure, and work on tasks with
classmates. If teachers would not provide this atmosphere, children feel insecure and even could
lose confidence. When it comes so, children cannot express themselves, say their opinions and
collaborate with their classmates. Children aged between seven to eleven start thinking logically
 29

and systematically like adults do, however, this process is ongoing. Difference on developing
cognitive skills can be seen from each pupil. Some pupils can think logically and systematically
by applying information and their knowledge into a task easily compared to some pupils who
may have difficulties to think logically and apply cognitive skills. When teaching thinking skills,
a teacher must monitor each pupil carefully and figure out what difficulties a pupil might have or
is struggling when working on a task. As Vygotsky and Bruner suggest, the teacher should offer
supports to help the pupil understand, think more deeply and make him or her gain confidence so
that the pupil can understand, figure out what is a problem and work on the task as well as
develop their cognitive skills. In addition, it is crucial to create appropriate lessons and activities
to make pupils use and develop their cognitive, creative and collaborative skills. Applying the
theory of multiple intelligences offered by Gardner in teaching makes activities more effective
and meaningful to all pupils since those lessons would meet the pupils’ needs. Teachers should
consider when and how to develop their thinking skills with what kinds of activities all the time.

3.3 Reasons to teach thinking skills with short stories

Reading is an essential skill for English as a foreign language learners and the learners
will gain greater development in all academic areas as they make greater progress in reading in
English as a foreign language (Anderson, 1999). According to National Center for Education
Statistics (2001), the U.S. fourth graders who read for fun every day scored higher average on
study than the other pupils who do not read for fun (cited in Moss & Young, 2010). That is to
say, high reading skills allow pupils achieve greater performance in school as well as lifetime.
One of the reason why reading is essential to develop pupils’ achievement in another academic
area is that reading requires many kinds of strategies, skills and knowledge. Readers of English
need the following reading skills, which are “understanding main ideas, making inferences,
predicting outcomes, and guessing vocabularies from context” (Anderson, 1999, p. 1). Hudson
(2007) also discusses few more needed skills such as recognizing sequence, decoding detail,
recognizing cause and effect and comparing and contrasting. Moreover, reading takes readers to
different places, even imaginary world, and transform readers as well (Moss & Young, 2010). In
other words, reading has many roles in developing skills, strategies and imagination and even
develops readers’ creativity. Since readers can go to completely another world from the real life,
 30

they must imagine and picture how characters and scenery are located, that indeed helps readers
to cultivate imagination and creativity. In addition, needed skills in reading are also needed
skills in the new global economy such as making inference and predicting that are parts of
thinking skills as well, and creativity. Lawrence (n.d.) also points out that visualization is one of
the needed job skills in the 21st century.

On the other hand, number of children who read for fun has been decreasing year by year
in many countries, that is, worldwide phenomenon. One of the reasons is ab increase of the
diffusion of technology, especially a smartphone or a tablet. The National Literacy Trust found
that the most commonly read material outside classrooms is text messages although the research
in the previous years had already found that high rates of reading outside class are connected to
high achievement at school (Vasagar, 2012).

3.4 Strategies to teach thinking skills

Especially young learners are yet developing their cognitive skills after aged around
seven. The children would face difficulties when solving problems and thinking deeply. When
people think critically and apply cognitive skills, they take more complex processes compared to
when just memorizing. The reason why remembering is placed as the lowest order thinking skill
is that it can be accomplished without understanding. However, higher order thinking skills take
processes of remembering, understanding and applying. Without understanding a concept,
people usually cannot apply the concept when solving problems or evaluating. In other words,
the all six major thinking skills are interdependent. In order to teach higher order thinking skills
and problem-solving skill to younger learners, it is important to construct activities to help pupils
understand and achieve each task and to prepare for sub-tasks to assist pupils to apply knowledge,
information or issues into solving. Strategies of designing activities, questioning and scaffolding
are discussed in the following sections.

3.4.1 Structured activities and tasks

 31

The range of activities and tasks influence on teaching thinking skills to young learners.
As many scholars mentioned, children aged 10 to 11 are developing their cognitive skills.
Although they have already started thinking critically and logically like an adult, they would face
difficulties when using higher order thinking skills. Carefully planned lessons, clarity of
explanation to reduce ambiguity, models of applying thinking skills and feedback on students’
work on thinking are essential factors (King, Goodson & Rohani, n.d.). It is necessary to break
an activity into few sub-tasks in order to help the participants to complete activities. Young
learners yet cannot make steps when using higher order thinking skills in activities such as
solving problems, evaluating something or making decisions. King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.)
point out that teachers need to show model steps to use each skill and each activity should have
several steps for the students go through one by one.

3.4.2 Questioning Strategies

Questions to confirm whether students understand or not are important, but teachers
should give questions to ask further. North Ireland Curriculum (2007) argues that teachers need
to use questions that invite reasoning and justification. Encouraging students ask questions is
also essential to deepen topics. King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.) point out that three item/task
formats - selection, generation and explanation - are useful to measure students’ higher order
thinking skills. The details of each format are as follow;

(a) Selection: multiple-choice, matching, and rank-order items

(b) Generation: short answer and performance items or tasks

(c) Explanation: giving reasons for the selection or generation responses.

For example, it could be too demanding for young learners to explain logically how they
evaluate or compare in order to justify their answer at the beginning. However, they are indeed
capable of recognizing differences when comparing and valuing. Thus, rank-order items are
useful to assess their evaluating and analyzing skills.

Generation and explanation formats are essential to develop students’ cognitive skills.
According to Azzopardi (2011) and Cornwell (2011), more than half of questions teachers ask
 32

are facts in order to check if pupils can find answers from the text or understand what they
learned in a lesson. These questions are indeed useful for teachers to know if the pupils
understand the contents. When it comes to reading class, it is important process to judge how
pupils understand story’s flow and characters’ relationship. However, majority of teachers ask
only these questions to measure comprehension. Teachers do not ask cognitive questions to
expand students’ thinking, like questions making students apply, compare and construct based on
the facts, whereas teachers ask 300 to 400 questions daily (Azzopardi, 2011; Cornwell ,2011).
However, Cornwell (2011) argues that cognitive questions can assess students’ knowledge and
understanding by looking at how the students make justification. Not only do questions related
to the facts on a text assess their understanding, but also open-ended questions or questions
bringing out students’ opinions are key techniques for assessing students’ understanding. There
is no doubt that those questions can definitely measure students’ thinking skills. When
formulating questions, action verbs of Bloom’s taxonomy can be used. The action verbs are
cognitive process, thus, teachers can use the action verbs to measure students’ thinking skills of
each stage. For example, using verbs of analyze, assume, categorize, compare or contrast,
teacher can assess the skill of evaluating.

3.4.3 Scaffolding strategies

Sometimes young learners get irrelevant answers due to misunderstanding. Scaffolding

is an important part to succeed to help young learners think critically, see a thing in a different
way and find a solution for a problem. Giving answers to children would not help to develop
cognitive skills. Rather providing opportunities to think helps them to develop thinking skills
(Bright Horizon, n.d.). Teachers should be patient and should not solve problems instead
children. It is important for teachers to scaffold children by giving more information, assisting,
and asking questions to explicit ideas or thoughts from the children (Bright Horizon n.d.). King,
Goodson and Rohani (n.d.) point out that too much or too little scaffolding can interfere the
development of thinking skills, thus, teachers should know the appropriate amount of scaffolding.
According to Graham’s study, students felt that their teacher thought that they could not work on
their own when the teacher helped them although they had not asked for a help (King, Goodson
& Rohani, n.d.). Breaking a task into sub-tasks is one way of scaffolding to present the task
 33

more clear and simple for students. Teachers should use instructional scaffolding strategies
when formulating lessons and creating tasks and use scaffolding when necessary.

4. Implementation of problem-solving activities

On note, higher order thinking skills proposed by Bloom, critical thinking skills and
problem-solving skills are sometimes interchangeably used. Here, higher order thinking skills
and critical thinking skills are regarded as same skills and both are required in problem-solving.
King, Goodson and Rohani (n.d.) describe critical thinking as follows;

- goal-directed, reflective, and reasonable thinking, as in evaluating the evidence for an argument
for which all the relevant information may not be available (Cotton, 1997; Crowl et al., 1997;
Facione, 1998; Lewis & Smith, 1993; Patrick, 1986)

- an essential component in metacognitive processes (Crowl et al., 1997)

- analysis, inference, interpretation, explanation, and self-regulation; requires inquisitive,

systematic, analytical, judicious, truth-seeking, open-minded, and confident dispositions toward
critical-thinking processes (Facione, 1998)

- the disposition to provide evidence or reasoning in support of conclusions, request evidence or

reasoning from others, and perceive the total situation and change one’s views based on the
evidence (Cotton, 1997)

4.1 Steps in problem solving

Problem-solving skill is one of the most important cognitive skills need in the future
workplace. An activity of problem solving is useful and helpful because students should apply
many of thinking skills including critical thinking into tasks. Thomas and Thorne (2009)
mention steps problem-solving activity consists that were first proposed by psychologist Robert
Sternberg. According to Sternberg, identification of problem is the first step and problem
identification consists;

1. knowing a problem when seeing a problem,

 34

2. stating a problem in its entirety (Thomas & Thorne, 2009).

Thomas and Thorne (2009) also discuss that it is important for teachers to have students practice
identifying problems as well as reasoning to their identification.

King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.) also point out that teachers need to show model steps to
use each skill and each activity should have several steps for the participants go through one by
one. It is necessary to break one activity into few tasks so that students can complete activities
step by step.

4.2 Group work for problem solving

Pair works and group works have a great role to develop students’ thinking skills as well
as collaborative skills that are also parts of 21st century skills and needed skills for the new
global economy (King, Goodson & Rohani, n.d.). King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.) also argue
that team learning is one of teaching ways to stimulate their thinking skills. This learning style
allows students share their ideas, notice new perspectives, discuss and reach better answers or
solutions. According to Northern Ireland Curriculum (2007), collaborating learning not only
allowed pupils to develop their social skills but also improved the pupils’ understanding and their
ability for reasoning by talking about what and how they learn to work.

4.3 Problem-solving assessment

Problem-solving assessment cannot be accomplished by only assessing the students’

answers. Assessing problem-solving performance requires observation of students’ performance
and teacher’s judgements of students’ reasoning in arriving at the answers they have made
(Herman & others, 1992; King, Goodson & Rohani, n.d.). Considering the arguments given by
King, Goodson and Rohani (n.d.) which selection, generation and explanation formats are crucial
to develop and assess higher order thinking skills, monitoring and observation cannot be
excluded from the problem-solving assessment. Herman and others (1992) mention that
alternative assessments have been more important to assess and score students. Common
assessment alternatives are given by Herman and others (1992) as follows;
 35

- performing, creating, producing and/or doing something

- tapping higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills

- using human judgement not by machine scoring system

Human judgement including observing and monitoring is considered as a reliable assessment and
assessments of performing, creating, solving problems and thinking skills require not only
students’ answers but also observing and monitoring their processes. As mentioned at the
beginning of this chapter, critical thinking is required in problem-solving. Critical thinking
assessment should not simply assess according to the correct answers, rather should target the
quality of students’ thinking skills and reasoning to their correct answers (Facione, 1990). For
good problem-solving assessment, monitoring and judging the students’ process to achieving
their answers are crucial. As with the case of strategies of teaching thinking skills, questions
and structured activities are essential to convey problem-solving activities. The problem-solving
activity should be broken into sub-tasks. Bloom’s taxonomy is strongly related to develop
critical thinking and commonly and widely used in teaching (Cullinane, 2009). Action verbs of
Bloom’s taxonomy are useful when measuring and assessing students’ thinking skills. Thus,
questioning techniques using Bloom’s action words and three formats can be used to observe
students’ process for problem-solving and critical thinking.

III Practical part

The practical part of this thesis aims at illustrating practical use of the revised Bloom’s
taxonomy of thinking skills and strategies of questioning and scaffolding in English lessons of
the fourth and the fifth grades. This research was conducted in two schools, at Montessori
school and the private English primary school. The practical part also aims to find out whether
 36

and how problem-solving tasks promote pupils’ thinking skills. In this part, I will start
describing the aim of research and research questions to achieve the aim, and then will mention
the used research method and research sample. After describing methodology of the research, I
will illustrate activities using action words from the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and problem-
solving activities done in collaborative learning, and will provide observations of the lessons.
Finally, I will discuss the findings from the observations and analysis, and further suggestions.

5. Methodology of the research

5.1 Aims of research and research questions

The aims of this research are to find out how problem-solving tasks promote pupils’
thinking skills and problem-solving skill and help pupils to reach the applied level. This research
also aims to find out the role of scaffolding and questioning strategies to assist young learners
when using higher order thinking skills. I applied strategies proposed by major scholars, such as
instrumental strategies, questioning strategies and scaffolding strategies to assist pupils, to assess
my participants’ thinking skills and analyze their use of thinking skills. In order to achieve the
mentioned aims, I decided to formulate research questions as follows:

1. Will scaffolding help the pupils use thinking skills and problem-solving skill?

2. Will questioning strategies help children to understand and think more critically?

3. Will collaborative learning help to develop thinking skills and problem-solving skill?

4. Will the pupils develop their thinking skills as they have more lessons providing opportunities
to think?

5.2 Research method

5.2.1 Qualitative research

According to Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2016), qualitative research methods have
been used in a wide range of fields such as social studies, education, business or special
education. Hennink, Hutter and Bailey (2011) mention that qualitative research methods allow
 37

researchers to examine people’s behavior by in-depth interview, observation, life histories and
other methods. I chose the method of observation in order to monitor and observe my research
participants’ approaches to activities and behavior in setting. Observations are useful to check
for non-verbal expressions, monitor how participants communicate with each other and see how
much time participants spent on activities (Schmuck, 1997 cited in Kawulich, 2005). Kawulich
also argues that observations are a “written photograph” of the situation in settings and enable
researchers learn about the activities of the participants (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper and Allen,
1993, cited in Kawulich). I opted participant observation for collecting data in the qualitative
research where a researcher can get close and be interactive with a research sample. In order to
find out how scaffolding and questioning strategies help my participants and monitor how
participants communicate and collaborate in group works, I decided to take detailed field notes
to observe and record participants’ reactions, behaviors and approaches to activities. The
descriptions of designing activities and observation are detailed to enable readers to grasp the
situations in the research settings and understand progress of the participants and interaction
between the researcher and the participants. Designing activities and observations of the lessons
will be discussed in Chapter 6. Lastly, I asked pupils to fill in self-assessment sheets (see
Appendix 5) to get the participants to reflect their attitude in lessons and be aware of their
strengths and weaknesses.

5.2.2 Research context and research sample

This research was conducted at two schools; Montessori school and English private
school. Montessori school offers an alternative education. Montessori education was based on
ideas offered by Maria Montessori, that is student-centered education based on self-directed
activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play (“Montessori Northwest”, n.d.). Its unique
points are as followed;

- there is no classroom for each subject, open-space

- multiage class fostering peer learning

- independence, freedom within limits and sense of order are encouraged

 38

(American Montessori Society, n.d.)

Thanks to Montessori educational goals, my all participants have been used to think critically
and achieve problem-solving activities in Czech but they have not had experienced in English.
The school always gives them opportunities to decide by themselves and be responsible for their
choices. Collaborative learning as well as individual learning have been introduced, thus, the
pupils can approach tasks or projects in any learning style. In other words, they have already had
habits to think critically, make decisions and solve problems by themselves with teachers’ helps.

I taught a mixed-grade class with four pupils, two fifth graders and two fourth graders at
Montessori school. I will use B for a boy (male pupil) and G for girls (female pupils).

G1 5th grade Fluent, attended at an English kindergarten

B1 5th grade Dyslexia, weaker English learner
G2 4th grade Fluent English speaker, communicates with foreign relatives
in English
G3 4th grade Beginner level, can use simple English to communicate
Table 4 Description of pupils at Montessori School

G1 the fifth grader speaks English fluently since she attended English kindergarten. She
does not have difficulties when reading in English and she usually enjoys reading both in Czech
and in English. B1 is also the fifth grader and is a weaker English language learner with dyslexia.
He merely speaks in English and is not good at expressing himself. He could read if a text is
written in big letters. There are two girls in the fourth grade (G2 and G3). G2 also speaks
English fluently since she has family members from China and communicates with them in
English. G3 can be said to be an advanced than other average fourth graders. She is able to
communicate in easy English and read simple English texts but she always encounters some
unknown words and sometimes has difficulties to understand grammar structures. She has
difficulties to use complicated English such as expressing herself or reasoning in English. Due
to the school’s policy, the participants have been used to think critically, make decisions, know
what they want to know and solve problems. According to their English teacher, the participants
 39

are capable of expressing themselves, explaining and reasoning in Czech. For example, it is
common and usual for them to choose a topic for their project and decide with whom they work
together, how they go through, what resources and instruments they use. That is to say, they
have already had thinking habits. However, they did not have opportunities to express
themselves, reason and have class discussion in English.

To sum up, this class was mixed-grade as well as mixed-abilities. They have been used
to think critically, make decisions, and work alone as well as in group collaboratively thanks to
Montessori educational programs.

Another school I taught is private English school. There are 12 pupils in the class of the
fourth grade where I taught. According to their English teacher, 10 out of 12 pupils have some
background related to English, for example, having lived in a foreign country, having attended at
English kindergartens or having foreign parent(s). They can communicate and express
themselves in English fluently. The English teacher also mentioned that she often had activities
where the pupils should think critically, solve problems, make decisions and defense their
opinions at a class discussion. The pupils have habits of thinking and making decision in both
Czech and English. The class usually has 12 pupils, but there were 9 pupils on the first day
and 10 pupils on the second day. This class consists 6 boys and 6 girls, and had 4 boys and 5
girls on the first day and 6 girls and 4 boys on the second day. The pupils were divided into
three groups. From now on, I will identify those groups as Group 1, Group2 and Group 3, and M
for male pupils (M1, M2, M3…) and F for female pupils (F1, F2, F3…).

Pupils Participation Description

M1 Both days Lived in a foreign country, very fluent
Group 1 F1 Both days Attended in an English kindergarten
F2 Both days Attended in an English kindergarten
 40

M2 Both days Attended in an English kindergarten

Group 2 F3 Both days Attended in an English kindergarten
F4 Both days Attended in an English kindergarten
M3 Both days New student, beginner level, can use simple
English to communicate
Group 3 M4 First day Attended in an English kindergarten
M5 Second day Attended in an English kindergarten
F5 Both days Multinational family, very fluent, speak four
languages (English, German, Hungarian and
Czech)
F6 Second day Attended in an English kindergarten
Table 5 Description of Pupils at English School

Those 10 pupils have high English level and can communicate and express their opinions
fluently in English. Two other pupils are new comers and I got chances to teach one of them
(M3). M3 transferred to the school in September of the third grade. He had almost zero English
knowledge when he came to the school. When I taught lessons in this class, he understood what
the class was supposed to do, however, there were many times that he misunderstood or took
longer time to understand than his peers. He needed an extra explanation occasionally, but, there
was no significant difficulty he had when working on activities. The class teacher told me that
their parents were aware of importance of English in the future, when they go to higher
education or work in a company, therefore, they had chosen this private school to provide better
English education in order that the pupils will be able to acquire higher English language skills.

On the first day, Group 1 had M1, F1 and F2. M1 lived in a foreign country and he is an
advanced English speaker in the class. Group 2 also had two female pupils (F3 & F4) and one
M2. F3 was also good English speaker and was eager to answer the questions. She tended to
lead a group discussion. Group 3 had M3, M4 and F5. M3 was the new comer and F5 was also
an advanced English speaker than other peers like M1. Her parents are foreigners (not Czech
nationality), her father is from Germany and mother from Hungary. She speaks four languages,
English, German, Hungarian and Czech. She was likely to help others and especially took care
 41

of M3. On the second day, only Group 3’s members changed. M4 was absent and one female
(F6) and male pupil (M5) joined. M3 and F5 stayed in the same group. Both M1 and F5 often
thought out loud, logically explained and gave reasoning. These two pupils were usually first
ones to say their opinion.

When groups were asked to demonstrate, or present their opinions, Group 2 always came
first to present. Group 1, on the other hand, was fast to finish the tasks but did not try to be the
first one to present. Pupils in group 1 had strong opinions each other and sometimes took time to
conclude. Group 3 took more time to work on tasks. One reason could be that pupils waited and
assisted M3. The pupils were helpful and explained M3 tasks in detail using English and often
asked his opinions. It was surprising that they did not use Czech immediately to help him, rather
they talked with him in English, and M3 also tried to answer in English all the time. This
attitude was not seen at the Montessori school.

6. Activities with problem-solving tasks and lesson observations

In total, I taught four lessons, two lessons at the Montessori school and two lessons at the
private English school, and each lesson used one story. Each lesson has activities focusing on
some of six major thinking skills of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Activities were designed
based on one or two action verbs of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The action verbs correspond
to the six major thinking skills of Bloom’s taxonomy. The list of action verbs I used to design
activities are as follows:

- List, recall, match, name, identify, find, choose for Remembering

- Explain, illustrate, show, demonstrate for Understanding

- Use, compare, select, plan, predict, solve, identify for Applying

- Analyze, categorize, compare, contrast, predict for Analyzing

- Compare, decide, deduct, evaluate, explain, justify, predict for Evaluating

- Build, change, choose, create, design, improve, plan, solve for Creating
 42

As my participants are young and some of them are beginner English learners, I did not use those
action verbs to instruct the pupils all the time, rather I used simple alternative words and
explained what they were supposed to do. I used the three item/task formats of qiestioning and
scaffolding strategies to design activities as well. According to King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.),
the three item/task formats– selection, generation and explanation – are useful to measure pupils’
higher order thinking skills. The three formats are shown below:

(a) Selection: multiple-choice, matching, and rank-order items

(b) Generation: short answer and performance items or tasks

(c) Explanation: giving reasons for the selection or generation responses.

These formats can scaffold pupils as designing cognitive questions more simply in a selection
format and making questions harder by formulating questions in generation and explanation
formats. First, I prepare questions in selection format for applying, analyzing and evaluating.
Pupils can choose from the multiple-choice format and give ranking at this stage. Then, I asked
the pupils to give reasoning why they had got the answers by both writing and speaking.
Moreover, I broke a problem-solving activity into few sub-tasks using the three item/task formats
to scaffold the participants to complete activities and show model steps to use each thinking skill.
In order to identify a problem, the first step of problem-solving, I used selection and generation
(short answer). Then, I asked them to show their solution in a generation format such as
performing or designing with an explanation format. Collaborative learning was always used for
problem-solving activities.

Lesson 1 – at Montessori school

Brief lesson description

The story’s title is “Where is Bear?”, that is about animals’ hide and seek play (see Appendix 1.1
and 1.2). The first activity is to find out where the story takes place. The aim of this activity is
that pupils can examine the all given clues and deduct the place. Next, a teacher first introduces
vocabularies, makes pairs and pupils start reading the story. After reading the story, the second
activity of guessing in which place the bear hid. This activity aims to get the pupils analyze the
 43

size of the bear using a picture of a forest and a bear (see Appendix 1.5.1) and find out where the
bear could be by giving ranking. I prepared the pictures to help pupils analyze spatial sense and
made questions of rank-order items. At the third activity, the participants received the profile of
animals informing what each animal can do/cannot do (see Appendix 1.6). The aim of this
activity is that the pupils analyze each animal’s skills, apply their skills to decided which place
each animal should go to seek the missing bear with their partner. At the end, the pupils did role
play of the story to show their understanding of the story. Moreover, they had to decide how to
find a bear with the whole class (problem-solving) and demonstrate by performing. The last
activity aims that the pupils discuss what to do, help each other to find a solution and present
their solution. The used action verbs and the targeted thinking skills are:

- deduct in the warm-up 1 (Evaluating)

- list up the animals in the story (Remembering)
- show where the animals hide in the story (Understanding)
- demonstrate the story (Understanding)
- analyze the size of the bear and guess where the bear could be (Analyzing)
- compare and analyze the animals’ profile, and decide where to go to find the bear (Analyzing,
Applying, Evaluating)

- solve problems by performing (Creating)

- reason (justify) to their answers (Evaluating)

Reflection:

G1 and G2 were fast-thinkers. They looked through information and answered questions
quickly. It can be said that their English ability also helps them understand and apply the
information from the text or activities. Sometimes both girls were too quick to answer, therefore,
sometimes they misunderstood the tasks. I reminded them to read questions or text carefully
again. G1 performed well when analyzing information and deducting. She showed high
performance in all targeted thinking skills. G2 did not compare the information carefully. When
guessing where the bear would hind using drawings, she did not use drawings at all and
 44

answered “in the cave. Because bears sleep in the cave in winter”. Hibernation is not mentioned
in the story, so I suggested her to use the pictures and asked her to give ranks to other places as
well. After that, she gave reasoning her ranking to other three places except the cave according
to the size of the bear shown in the pictures. She always could give reasoning for her answers in
English, and it was mostly logical. Compared to G1 and G2, G3 took more time to read
instruction of each activity and carefully answered. She tended to rely on G1 since she had been
used to work and ask for help to her. She carefully compared presented information and detected
although she sometimes needed help from both me and other classmates. She sometimes had
difficulties to give reasoning in English. Therefore, I asked her to tell why she thought so by
speaking not by writing. She could reason one by one with help. The last pupil, B1 scored low
in the lower order thinking skills (remembering and understanding). He is a dyslexic student,
thus, it took him more time to understand the story and find information from the text. However,
after I explained the content of the story, he could understand the story. Although he needed a
longer time to read and understand, he could analyze the given information well. He carefully
compared the information and answered. He could not give reasoning in English but he
answered questions in a selection format well.

Regarding questions in a selection format, all pupils succeeded to answer and G1 and G2
could give reasoning as well. G3 and B1 had difficulties to tell the reason why they chose, but
they could show in non-verbal communication using simple words instead. For example, the
activity of Analyzing where the bear could hide (see Appendix 1.5), B1 did not write the column
of “Why?” but he used the picture of the forest and the bear (see Appendix 1.5.1) when I asked
him to use them. He moved the bear to the bird’s nest and said “small”. The pupils collaborated
well in the role play activity. They decided who acts which animal quickly and even found some
useful objects to hide such as a long sofa for the log and a plate for the bird’s nest. When
deciding how to find a bear, they first had no idea which animal could find the bear. I showed
the profile of the animals to the participants and reminded them to think about what animals were
in the story and what they could do. They again reflected the story and activities they had done,
and demonstrated which animal finds the bear.

Lesson 2 – at Montessori school

 45

Brief lesson description

The story’s title is “The three little pigs”, a well-known children’s story (see Appendix 2.1 and
2.2). All participants had read this story in Czech. Pupils first read the story and answer reading
comprehension questions. The teacher checks if they understand the story before moving to
activities of thinking skills. The first activity is to find what material each little pig uses to build
a house and then to evaluate who is hardworking and lazy (see Appendix 2.3). The aim of this
activity is to analyze and evaluate characters’ personality. The question is given in multiple-
choice item. The next activity is to identify problems in the story (see Appendix 2.4.1). This
activity aims to get pupils identify problems for next problem-solving activities. First, the pupils
are asked which character is happy and unhappy, and then think about why they are unhappy.
After figuring out character’s situation, pupils find out what happened to the unhappy characters.
The questions are “what problems did the three little pigs have?” and “what did they do then?”.
After discussing the problems, pupils are then asked to think about if the third pig’s house is big
enough for the three pigs or not (see Appendix 2.4.2). Next, they prepare to build a new house
for the three pigs. First, pupils list up what they would like to add in the new house and what
material they would use (straw, twigs or bricks). At the end, they designed the new house.
Creation (designing and drawing a house) is used to demonstrate their solution. The aims of this
problem-solving activity are to identify problems, consider a comfortable house for all three pigs
and design a house which would not bring the same problems again (houses are destroyed). The
used action verbs and the targeted thinking skills are:

- name characters (Remembering)

- show why the characters build houses and what they use (Understanding)

- compare and evaluate characters in Stage 3 (Analyzing, Evaluating)

- identify a problem (Applying)

- analyze the problems for designing a new house (Analyzing)

- decide what material to use for a new house (Applying and Evaluating)

- design a house to solve the problem (Applying, Creating)

- reason (justify) to their answers (Evaluating)

 46

Reflection:

For reading comprehension, G1 and G2 had no problem to answer questions. They read
the story fast and found answers from the text without problems. G3 needed some help for
English and B1 needed to be assisted when reading. I supported them when they could not find
answers from the text. G1 showed better performance when analyzing compared to the last time.
She took more time to examine and tried to reflect information and problems into problem-
solving tasks. She gave more convincing reasoning to her opinions and showed sensitivity to her
classmates. She was able to give hints and assist her classmates, especially G3. G2, was still too
quick to answer and sometimes misunderstood instructions so I added information to help her
understand. Her reasoning was convincing enough and could explain logically. G3 carefully
identified problems but sometimes had difficulties to describe because of English. She tried to
summarize what happened to each character, so I asked her who did what in the story instead
summarizing. She could write answers in English when I gave more instruction and added
questions. B1 was not comfortable to write English, therefore I asked him to highlight the part
of the problems. He carefully read and marked with his pen.

At the stage 3 when comparing and evaluating the three pigs, all pupils succeeded to
match the answers and reasoned well using description in the story and comparing the pigs. I
asked what material each pig used to build a house before evaluating, and all pupils also
mentioned about the material the pigs used when giving reasoning. In the stage 4, I had expected
the participants would have said the problem was that the wolf destroyed the pigs’ houses,
however, all girls mentioned that the problems were the pigs’ personality. Their opinion was
that they built a house of straw and a house of twigs because they were lazy. My second
question was “what did they do then?”. I had aimed of seeing in this activity if the pupils could
see the cause and effect that the first and the second pigs escaped because they got their houses
destroyed. Although I pointed out that, they reasoned that “pigs indeed escaped because their
houses got broken, but why? Because they were lazy.” They insisted that they did not need to
escape if they were not lazy. As the story shows, the hardworking third pig built a strong house
and did not need to escape. Their reasoning was persuasive and I decided to respect their
opinion after all. B1 underlined where the wolf destroyed the houses, but he did not discuss with
 47

the girls. This class was not used to discussions in English and he had difficulties to express his
opinions in English.

In the stage 5, when they considered if the third pig’s house was big enough for the three
pigs, I aimed to see if the pupils might think about the space. My point was that a house built for
one pig can be fit to three pigs or not. In order to see their spatial sense, I did not prepare the
drawings this time like the previous lesson. The result is that all pupils answered “yes”, it means
the house is big enough for the three pigs. I asked them to give me reasons. G1 immediately
answered “maybe the house is tiny” with reasoning that three pigs may be too much in the house,
while others took more time to think about space. Pupils became more aware of and careful to
analyze when they were asked to give reasoning, because they had to find a reason to convince
me. I felt the importance of the role of explanation in this activity for eliciting pupils’ answers
and stimulating cognitive skills.

I used a group work when designing a house (see Appendix 2.4.2). Group 1 consisted G1
and B1 and Group 2 had G2 and G3. G1 and B1 cooperated well. G1 helped B1 for English,
and B1 assisted and contributed by giving more ideas and ranging furniture in the house. When
they listed up what they needed in the house, he came up with more ideas and rooms that are
usually included in houses, while other pupils did not come up with by themselves. They added
what B1 had mentioned to the class later. Group 2 cooperated well, however, they ignored one
task when designing a house. I asked them to include needed things for the new house which
they had listed up, Group 2 just drew a big house made of bricks. I reminded them to draw
furniture but we did not have enough time to draw a new house. Group 1 created well-designed
house following the instruction. All pupils got more ideas, learned others’ perspectives and
helped each other.

Lesson 3 – at English private school

Brief lesson description

The first activity is a deductive game. Pupils see all picture cards of food and deduct what food
they can use using those ingredients (see Appendix 3.3). The aim of this activity is that pupils
can examine the given all clues and deduct. In the stage 1, pupils read a story and predict. The
 48

story’s title is “the sandwich thief”. This story is made to make the readers predict next scenes.
(See Appendix 3.1 and 3.2). As the readers read, there are questions to ask what would be likely
to happen next. The purpose of this style is to get the participants understand the flow of the
story as well as predict what would happen not simply to guess. They needed to analyze the
story flow and the given information. After reading the story, they were divided into three
groups. First, they put the sentence cards in correct order as the story flows (see Appendix 3.5).
This activity aims to check if the pupils remember and understand the story correctly. The next
activity is to rank problems (see Appendix 3.6). Each group received wooden sticks where a
problem is written. They place those wooden sticks according to seriousness. If they think a
problem is not serious or is not a problem, they put top and place the most serious problem at the
bottom. The aim of this activity to analyze each problem and identify what is the most serious
problem. Also, it will help pupils to think about solution after discussing what is the most
serious problem and why with their partners. After placing all sticks in order, they choose one
problem that they want to solve. They need to think about what a problem is again, and give
opinions how they can solve the chosen problem. After concluding, each group presents how to
solve in front of the class. The used action verbs and the targeted thinking skills are:

- deduct in the warm-up 1 (Evaluating)

- predict what would happen next based on the presented information (Applying, Analyzing)
- show the correct order of the story in stage 2 (Remembering, Understanding)
- analyze and evaluate problems, and identify a problem (Analyzing, Evaluating, Applying)
- decide a problem to solve (Evaluating)
- solve a problem (Applying, Creating)
- reason (justify) to their answers (Evaluating)

Reflection:

I saw pupils developing discussion at the very beginning. In the stage 1, when the pupils
worked on the task choosing the true statement about the sandwich (see Appendix 3.2), M1 and
F1 from Group 1 got a wrong answer. At the beginning of the lesson (warm-up 1), I showed
picture cards of ingredients which can be ingredient for a sandwich (see Appendix 3.3). Because
 49

these picture cards remained on the white board, F1 analyzed the question by seeing the pictures
not by rereading the text. F5 voluntarily explained why F1’s answer was wrong. F1 explained
why she had got this answer and other pupils told where she should have looked in the story.
The pupils of this class have been used to express their opinions and discuss with classmates.
When I asked them to tell me their answers for prediction, they could say their answer with
explanation. Especially M1 and F5 were outstanding. Usually those two often defensed their
opinions and showed agreement and disagreement with their classmates. In this lesson, I found
that four out of nine pupils failed or had difficulties to predict the next scenes while reading.
One of the reasons can be that they did not have visualization skill or did not activate it. All of
them understood the flow of the story and others’ prediction when they compared answers and
discussed with neighbors. The pupils who cannot picture scenes need more help and scaffolding
for prediction. Comparing answers and discussion with partners helped pupils to think about the
story and predict the next scene.

In Stage 3, pupils were given five statements that describe problems related to the story
(see Appendix 3.6). I prepared all possible problems from the story because I had expected that
the pupils would have answered that the problem was the dog stole the sandwich. Rather I aimed
to make the pupils evaluate the given problems by ranking according to seriousness. I thought
identifying a problem does not take only one way. Rank-items can be used to identify a problem
as well as to evaluate problems. In this activity, Group 1 showed an interesting way to solve a
problem. First, the pupils were supposed to rank five problems according to seriousness. Group
1 chose “Mike did not train Max (Mike’s dog) as the most serious problem and regarded the
problem of “Mike made a sandwich with turkey. It may be Max’s favorite food” as one of the
easiest, non-serious problems. However, when they were asked to pick up one problem from
five problems that they wanted to solve, this group chose “Mike made a sandwich with turkey”,
although they did not regard it serious. Group 2 and Group 3 chose the problem which they
regarded as the most serious. I decided to observe Group 1 carefully how they worked on the
problem. M1 and F2 insisted that they should have chosen the problem about Max’s training.
F1 argued that it would take more time to train the dog and it would be practical, thus, Mike
should make another sandwich without turkey. According to F1, it is the easiest and fastest
solution. After all, Group 1 decided to make solution simple rather than retraining the dog. M1
told me that it was not a fundamental solution. I asked why he then did not discuss with F1 more,
 50

he answered it was a group decision and F1’s idea was indeed practical. Group 2, on the other
hand, cooperated well, with F3’s leadership. F3 asked other members if they had more ideas and
often changed ranking when someone said a new idea. They took more time to discuss and
respected everyone’s opinion. Their answer was to remove turkey from the sandwich. I pointed
out that the dog already ate it, so they could not remove it. They meant that they will not make
turkey because the dog would not like it and not eat. Group 3 cooperated well like Group 2. F5
assisted M3 as she and M4 discussed. They focused on Mike’s action. They chose the problem
that “the door of the kitchen was open so Max could come in”. They explained that this problem
could have been avoided if Mike paid attention.

Moreover, in Stage 3, the rank-order items I gave before getting the pupils solve the
problem helped pupils consider how to solve the problems. As seen in Group 1, they saw it was
the most serious problem that Mike did not train the dog after discussing each other, but they
also found out it was difficult to retrain the dog again and to bring a fundamental solution.
Therefore, they avoided to choose this problem and selected another problem which they could
solve more easily. Group 2 and Group 3 also led the solution based on the problem they found
through the discussion. When ranking, they gave reasoning to each problem and they concluded
the solution based on their reasoning. G2’s opinion was Mike should not have made a sandwich
with turkey and should have realized about Max’s (dog) favorite food, and then they concluded
that Mike did not need to make turkey sandwich because Max would eat it again.

Lesson 4 – at English private school

Brief lesson description

The story’s title is “Small life” (see Appendix 4.1, 4.2.1 and 4.2.2). Pupils were also divided into
three groups as the previous lesson. The first activity is a deductive activity (see Appendix 4.3)
which aims that pupils analyze the given information and deduct where the story would take.
The story is divided into two parts, to make pupils read and understand the content more easily
and simply. In the first part, they find out who can be the narrator of the story (see Appendix
4.4). The aim of this activity to compare and analyze the size of given animals (including a
human) and judge who can be the narrator. After reading the second part, the pupils work on a
 51

problem-solving activity in the group. First pupils identify how the hamster feels when people
carry him, and decide how to advice to the people when carrying the hamster’s cage (see
Appendix 4.5). Second, they present how to carry the hamster by acting, pretending as if they
are consultants or advisers of pets. Last, they discuss what they want to add into the cage for the
hamster. The used action verbs and the targeted thinking skills are:

- deduct in the warm-up 2 (Evaluating)

- compare and analyze the size and judge who is the narrator (Analyzing)
- identify a problem, how the hamster feels (Applying)
- decide how to solve (Applying, Evaluating, Creating)
- reason (justify) to their answers (Evaluating)

Reflection:

In the stage of warm-up 2, deductive activity (see Appendix 4.3), three pupils struggled
to answer. Two of them could not judge if the story took place in a dog’s cage or a hamster’s
cage. The key statement to know the answer is a hamster’s cage is “there are amusement park
rides”. At the beginning of the lesson, we talked about a hamster’s cage and I showed pictures of
a hamster’s house and amusement park rides, but two of the students probably did not recall the
image of the hamster’s cage. The another one, M3, did not understand the instruction. I and F5
went through all statements each by each and I asked him to cross out the options. He crossed
out places given in multiple-choice items but struggle to identify the place as a hamster’s cage,
because of the sentence “there are amusement park rides”. After I showed the picture of a
hamster’s cage to the pupils again, those three pupils could connect an amusement park ride and
a hamster’s running wheel.

In the stage 2, pupils analyzed and judged who could be the narrator where the list of
possible narrators was given. I found that there were three types of the pupils’ approach. One
style of approach is that pupils found one absolutely possible answer and gave reasoning, and
then concluded other choices would not fit in the way of the correct answer. For example, F2
wrote that a hamster lives with bits of wood and other animals do not live with bits of wood.
Even she wrote “the same reason like dog” in her answer sheet. The second style is bringing
 52

own preference. I insisted to reflect the text to the pupils, but one pupil M5 mixed with a fact
and his own preference toward animals when reasoning. I gave an individual assist to him, by
telling he could not bring his own preference when judging who is a narrator. He started reading
the text again and changed his reasoning. The third style is providing detailed reasoning. There
is a dog, a hamster, a goldfish, a frog and a human in the list. Pupils answering by the third type
analyzed all animal’s habitant and sizes. F5 and F6 who did not take a lesson on the previous
day used their knowledge into their reasoning. For example, frog needs water, or dog would not
fit in the cage that was described in the story.

All groups showed similar approaches to solving problems as they had shown in the
previous lesson. Group 1 quickly made a decision, and group2 and 3 took more time to discuss.
All groups were supposed to demonstrate their solution by acting. In this activity, they
pretended as an advisor of pets and must explain to the audience. Before the activity, I explained
to all groups to be sure that they were advisors, and they had to talk as if they were talking to
clients. I also mentioned that they were supposed to mention the reason why people must carry
the hamster in the way groups had concluded. Group 2 and 3 explained how to carry the hamster
and why. They considered how to speak and really pretended as advisors. F5, a female pupil in
Group 3 encouraged M3 to speak as well. They had prepared who say what, and everyone spoke
equally. On the other hand, Group 1 shortly explained how people were supposed to carry the
hamster and did not give any reasons although they had seen Group 2’s presentation. I, therefore,
reminded them to add more information, why to do so, and what problems the hamster had.
After being pointed out, they reflected the problems mentioned in the story, added reasons and
explained more logically. Although all three groups got the same solution, the ways of
presentation were different from each other. This activity not only aimed to get the pupils find a
solution, but also aimed to make them think how to present. Group 2 and Group 3 reflected the
contents of the story, problems the hamster had and basic knowledge about advisors such as how
and what to tell to audience.

7. Research findings

1. Will scaffolding help the pupils use thinking skills and problem-solving skill?
 53

My research found out that scaffolding helped the pupils use thinking skills and problem-
solving skill. Throughout my four lessons, I have found that scaffolding had the most important
role to teach thinking skills. Firstly, instructional scaffolding is necessary to design lessons and
arrange activities. Cognitive development of young learners is still ongoing, thus, their skills of
critical thinking, solving problems and using higher order thinking skills are not as same as
adults’ skills. In order to solve a problem, young learners need to be presented what is a problem
or instruction to identify a problem, why it is a problem and what they should concern before
solving the problem. Teacher’s tasks are to get them identify problems that is the first step of
problem-solving activities, and to provide sub-tasks which will be needed to consider when
thinking about solutions. In order to formulate lessons with instructional scaffolding strategies, I
first identified what I aimed to assess and what would be the most effective way to achieve. I
also checked if there was no unnecessary information or scaffolding that would make pupils
confused. However, I put too less information and did not give enough instruction in the second
lesson held in Montessori. When asking pupils to identify problems each character had (see
Appendix 2.4.1), Three out of the four pupils answered in a different way as I had expected. The
pupils did not need to answer as the teacher had aimed, however, I should have made it clear in
order to assess the targeted thinking skill accurately. In the lesson 3, I used rank-order items to
assist pupils to look at each problem and figure out which problem they were able to come up
with solution (see Appendix 3.6). Pupils could think about how they would work on solving the
chosen problem after examining all problems that had been presented. By analyzing all
problem-solving activities and their sub-tasks implemented in each time, it can be claimed that
sub-tasks before the main problem-solving activity make young learners come up with and
discuss solutions more easily. Most of the participants reflected and applied the discussed
elements in the sub-tasks into solving the problem.

Moreover, materials used with activities can scaffold young learners. In the lesson 1
when finding out where the bear could hide (see Appendix 1.5), I prepared the picture of the
forest and the bear (see Appendix 1.5.1) because I had expected that the pupils would answer by
simply guessing with no images and would not imagine the size of the bear and the size of the
things and the location of each place. I prepared the pictures and asked pupils to answer using
those pictures. I let them move the bear and visualize the size of each thing. When the pupils
considered if the log could be a place where the bear hid, they carefully examined the size of the
 54

bear putting the picture of the bear to the image of the log. It also helped me to figure out if they
really compared things and analyzed or not. In the lesson 4, I briefly drew the cage of the
hamster that is written in the text (see Appendix 4.2.1). The text just said how many centimeters
the cage had. It was not easy for readers, especially children, to imagine the actual size of the
cage with only this description. I briefly drew the cage as well as showed the image of an
ordinary hamster’s cage to the pupils. These materials helped many participants when they
analyzed and judged who was the narrator of the story (see Appendix 4.4)

Thirdly, assisting pupils when needed is crucial to lead pupils to accomplish tasks in an
appropriate way. Monitoring is important to know when and how teachers should scaffold. I
monitored pupils and their written answers and I gave additional instruction or explanation when
the pupils misunderstood or had difficulties. When the pupils misunderstood the activity or
instruction, I chose to give more detailed explanation and sometimes even worked together by
asking questions. Some pupils did not know how to work on, thus, I went through each question
step by step and showed how they could work on. When the pupils came up with answers
carelessly and got wrong or inappropriate answers, I did not tell them where to look to find an
answer and did not imply that they were wrong at all. Keeping a normal facial expression, and
simply asked them to give me a reason. This worked well. In the lesson 2 when pupils
considered the size of the house (see Appendix 2.4.2), they answered the third pig’s house was
big enough for the three pigs. There was no clear answer because there is no description about
the house’s size in the text, but I tried to ask them to explain me why they thought so. This
question, after all, revealed that they had not considered the size at all when answering. One
pupil concluded that the house might be small because the third pig built the house for only
himself. As King, Goodson & Rohani (n.d.) suggest that appropriate amount and timing of
scaffolding is a key. If teachers give too much scaffolding, the teachers would lead pupils to the
answer rather than leading to the correct way to think about the answer. Scaffolding is the most
important as well as the most sensitive keys to lead pupils to achieve tasks.

Lastly, through the four lessons, I found that it is important for teachers to consider how
to ask questions when scaffolding pupils or understanding their thoughts. In the lesson 4, I got
one situation that I could not understand if Group 1 chose things to add in the hamster’s cage
with certain reason or not. The activity asked the pupils to present how to carry the hamster and
 55

decide what to add in his cage (see Appendix 4.5). Group 1 answered to add hot tub in the cage
for the hamster. I did not know if the hot tub was good for a hamster and I decided to figure out
if they had known about hamsters’ habitant. However, I was afraid of making them
misunderstand that I implied their answer was not appropriate by saying simply “is it true?”.
When adults doubt, some children would consider that they have been pointed out their mistakes
and changed their minds. Thus, I carefully considered what to ask and finally said “at what
temperature do hamsters like?” to the pupils. This question would not imply anything, rather it
could be a simple question from my curiosity. Group 1 said that they had no idea and they had
come up with this idea because they had just imagined. This case proved that it is possible to
know if the pupils apply some knowledge or analyze things or simply guess and imagine when
teachers choose an appropriate question to elicit the pupils’ thoughts.

2. Will questioning strategies help children to understand and think more critically?

The answer to this question is also yes. Questioning strategies helped children to
understand and think more critically. Questioning is as crucial as scaffolding and also it can be
said that questioning strategies and scaffolding strategies are interdependent. Questioning
strategies cannot be ignored when giving scaffolding and instructional scaffolding can be
achieved through organizing questions. Firstly, I used questioning strategies when designing and
ranging activities. I first gave questions in a selection format and then asked pupils to perform or
explain. Having selection formats as the first step to analyze, evaluate or create, the pupils could
understand what this activity aimed at. In the lesson1, I first had my participants to give ranking
to each place where the bear could hide (see Appendix 1.5). As mentioned above, I gave them
the pictures to figure out the size. The pupils understood that the activity’s aim was to compare
the size and analyze which place the bear could fit and hide. Then, I asked pupils to write
reasons why they gave the numbers. At this stage, the pupils could already reason mentioning
about the size (using big or small). Another example is from the lesson 2, when designing a new
house (see Appendix 2.4.2). The first sub-question asked if the third pig’s house was big enough,
and the second sub-question made the pupils to list up furniture or rooms needed in a house.
Then, the third sub-question asked them which material they would use. Those questions
assisted the pupils and implied what they had to include when designing a house. If I simply
 56

asked to design a new house without those sub-questions, the participants might not consider
those aspects. They would design a new house with their own imagination. Selection of sub-
questions are essential to stimulate the pupils and help them to be a good problem solver who
can reflect and apply many possible aspects. The format of selection – rank-order items – was
implemented for the sub-question in the problem-solving activity in the lesson 3 (see Appendix
3.6). I gave statements of problems and had the pupils rank according to how serious those
problems were. They had to look at each problem and think about why they were problematic or
not through the discussion with peers. This activity helped the pupils when they had to think
about a solution. By discussing why each statement was a serious problem or not, they
understood the situations more deeply. After the discussion, they could focus on how they could
solve on a problem more logically and easily. As I observed how they discussed solutions, they
reflected what they had talked in the activity of the rank-order items.

Another important questioning strategy is to use the format of generation such as

performance items or short answers. As explained, short answers of reasoning were given after
the pupils finished answering questions in the format of selection. Performance items are
important ways to assess pupils’ problem-solving skills. I used performance items to make the
pupils present their solution in problem-solving activities in three lessons out of four lessons. I
used role-play in the lesson 1 and 4, and drawing in the lesson 2. Explaining logically is
challenging to young learners, especially in a foreign language. My focus in this activity was to
assess how they used problem-solving skills rather than language proficiency. I aimed to see
what the pupils concerned, reflected and applied into solving. These aspects were observed and
assessed through their performance. When pupils did not apply aspects which they had been
supposed to, I pointed it out and asked the pupils do again. I used short answer items in lesson 3
because I gave chances the pupils to choose a problem after discussions. I assumed that short
answer items would work in that case.

3. Will collaborative learning help to develop thinking skills and problem-solving skill?

My research found that collaborative learning helped to develop thinking skills and
problem-solving skill. Each pupil has their own strengths and weaknesses. Collaborative
learning makes them to help others with their strengths and get assist for their weaknesses from
 57

others. I saw all pupils helped each other, shared their ideas and developed discussions in all
four lessons. The more they talked, the more they got ideas and perspectives. They tried to
consider all ideas and brought one group’s decision. In the lesson 2 when designing a new house
(see Appendix 2.4.2), B1 often reminded G1 to consider the number of furniture like chairs,
tables or the size of the house. G1 was drawing and probably she could not much think about all
aspects they had discussed. B1 asked her to draw more than three chairs or bigger size of a table
because three pigs will live there. Another case is Group 2 at the lesson 3 held in the private
English school. Especially Group 2 gave opinions each other, and they were changing their
ranking as one peer said a new opinion (see Appendix 3.6). They were critically thinking all
statements together and concluded the best ranking after discussing a lot. In the same activity,
pupils in Group 1 had different ideas each other but they discussed until everyone got satisfied.
M1’s idea was not used after all, but he mentioned that he could not come up with the idea that
F1 gave and it was reasonable. As seen from the cases, pupils even got a new idea which they
first had not come up with by themselves. Collaborative learning can open their mind and
provide chances to learn new perspectives from others.

4. Will the pupils develop their thinking skills as they have more lessons providing opportunities
to think?

I could not find it. I had a limited chance to teach thinking skills to pupils, twice at the
Montessori school and twice at the English private school. I observed and evaluated if they
reached the applied level of cognitive skills in application, analysis, evaluation and problem-
solving activities, but teaching twice at each school was not enough to see development of the
participants’ thinking skills. Regarding pupils’ achievement of each activity as well as each
lesson is measurable. As I have already discussed, I carefully designed activities using
scaffolding and questioning strategies. These strategies not only assisted pupils to understand
and think more critically, but also helped teachers to assess if the pupils reflected and applied the
given information when analyzing, evaluating or solving problems. As in the lesson 1 when
finding a possible place for the bear to hide (see Appendix 1.5), the main thing the pupils were
supposed to consider was size. I prepared the visual aids as well and discussed the size of the
bear and each place. Then, I asked pupils to give ranking and write reasons. One girl, G2,
 58

mentioned about hibernation and did not write about the size at all at the beginning. I suggested
her to use the picture again and write reasons based on what she had examined. From this case,
it can be claimed that well-designed activities can assess if pupils reflect and apply information
or not when thinking, and also teachers can understand with what scaffolding the pupils could
understand and use thinking skills.

I also used students’ self-assessment sheet in order that pupils could look back what they
had done and would improve their attitudes for the next lesson (see Appendix 5). I had only two
times of teaching at each school so I could not see if the assessment sheet helped the pupils to
improve their attitudes for the next lesson, but it helped me to compare their performance at the
lessons and their thoughts. Most of the case, pupils reflected and assessed themselves in an
appropriate way. Pupils who did not think critically and answered carelessly marked low for the
questions about thinking. Self-assessment is also crucial when teaching thinking skills. Pupils
have to understand how they have worked on each task, such as if they have thought critically, if
they have compared information carefully or if they have reflected and applied discussed issues
into problem-solving. It gives them opportunities to see themselves objectively as well as
provides thinking habits by reflecting their attitudes.

To sum up, problem-solving tasks promote thinking skills to young learners. Problem
solving requires to understand situation, analyze and evaluate problems and apply what they
have found or discussed issues into solving. The six major thinking skills, especially higher
order thinking skills can be taught and trained by implementing problem-solving tasks. However,
cognitive stage of pupils aged between seven to eleven are ongoing, therefore, young learners
will have difficulties to analyze, evaluate and apply issues or problems when solving as well as
to think critically. In order to guide pupils in a correct route to solve a problem and use thinking
skills, teachers need to design well-organized activities and tasks using questioning and
scaffolding strategies. Providing scaffolding when pupils do not understand or do not work in an
appropriate way is also crucial. It is important for teachers to monitor pupils, find out with what
the pupils have difficulties and give an appropriate amount of scaffolding at an appropriate time.
Well-structured activities and scaffolding can help pupils to use and develop thinking skills.
 59

7.1 Case study – Montessori and private English school

There was one common feature and one difference between Montessori and the private
English school. Firstly, the common feature is that both schools encourage their pupils to think
critically, discuss with peers and work together on a routine basis. Montessori focuses on pupils’
autonomy. The pupils are usually asked to choose a project topic, instruments they use for the
project and collaborate with their peers. The school always encourages the pupils to give reasons
and express themselves. Defensing their opinions is a daily routine to the pupils and they also
cooperated well when solving problems in a group. This habit of thinking was seen in the
private English school as well. According to their English teacher, they often discuss in English
and work on a task in a group. They also do not hesitate to say their opinions and show
disagreement with others. Moreover, the pupils at both schools helped weaker peers anytime
even when I did not ask them to do so. At Montessori, G1 always assisted G3 when G3 could
not understand English sentences in the texts or instructions. After G1 finished her work, she
often saw G3’s work and pointed out G3’s mistakes when finding them. G1 also helped B1
when I made them a pair. G1 knew B1 especially had difficulties to read English texts and to
express himself in English, so G1 explained what they were supposed to do each by each and
rewrote his ideas in English. There was also one weak English learner, M3, at the private
English school. He was an exception. According to their English teacher, the class I taught had
only pupils who spoke English very fluently and had had some experience related to English
such as attending at an English kindergarten or living in a foreign country. He was enrolled
when transferring because other classes had been full. However, the class has been supportive to
him and always helped him when he had difficulties. Especially F5 always helped M3 through
the two lessons. She often asked if he needed to add his opinion more, or assisted when reading
or answering questions. This attitude was seen in different groups. They asked for helps each
other and assisted each other as well.

The difference from between two schools is their English level. All pupils except M3 are
advanced level English speakers. As mentioned, those pupils have been used to think critically
and give reasoning in English, therefore, I could focus on observing and assessing their thinking
skills by their reasoning. On the other hand, pupils at Montessori school have not been used to
think and give reasoning in English although they have known how to do in Czech. All pupils
 60

tended to discuss or ask questions in Czech language, on contrary, pupils at the English school
did not use Czech during the lessons. As the research showed, two girls who daily use English to
express themselves could give reasoning and discuss in English, but other two pupils could not.
They were able to express their thoughts with non-verbal communication like pointing out,
performing or acting. M3 at the English school also had the same tendency. He could give
numbers in the rank-order items or perform but had difficulties to explain. Reasoning is crucial
point when teaching and assessing thinking skills, but, English skills are first needed. As the
teacher at the English school does, teachers should provide pupils opportunities where they can
think, express themselves, defense and discuss in English.

8. Discussion and further suggestions

I had a limited chance to teach thinking skills to pupils and teaching twice at each school
was not enough to see development of the participants’ thinking skills. This research needs at
least half-year to one year with well-organized and planned syllabus to develop pupils’ cognitive
skills. Self-assessment and immediate feedback from a teacher help pupils to reflect their use of
thinking skills and attitude to collaborative learning. I would also recommend to get pupils keep
lesson logs as well as self-assessment. Pupils can reflect what strategies they used in the
previous problem-solving activities later and develop their ways to work on the solution. Both
pupils and teachers will be able to see pupils’ development of cognitive skills for a long term and
pupils will receive more beneficial results and feedback. Analyzing each lesson and pupils’
perspective and reflection, teachers can prepare lessons and activities with more effective
questioning strategies and improve their way of scaffolding. Moreover, teachers can group
pupils in various ways. For example, if teachers find that several students have same strength,
teacher can make the group of those students and give specified tasks to develop their strengths
or to strengthen their weaknesses. It is also possible to mix pupils who have different strengths
in thinking skills in a group so that the pupils can help each other. Evaluation of each lesson
helps for class management. Moreover, it is worth arguing that grouping pupils according to
their value is one of efficient ways although I randomly grouped the participants in my research.
Onthesamepageelt (2017) suggests to group pupils according to how they feel by using rank-
order system after presenting issues or problems. The pupils can gather with classmates having
 61

similar opinions and value, thus, it makes the pupils easy to share the ideas and lead the solution.
If teachers can get longer period to teach thinking skills, mixing same and/or different values
makes group works more interesting, stimulates pupils’ interests and opens their minds.

Assessing thinking skills and problem-solving skills is not simple task for teachers.
Many educators do not assess thinking skills. As many researches show that teachers tend to
assess pupils’ memorizing and understanding skills and tend not to ask cognitive questions.
However, lessons with higher order thinking skills make pupils engage in activities and promote
student-center learning. Teaching thinking skills indeed requires teachers a lot of tasks, such as
identify a goal of each activity as well as goals of each lesson, use strategies to formulate and
proceed lessons, monitor pupils carefully, to identify the pupils’ strengths and weaknesses of
thinking and scaffold the pupils in an appropriate way. There are, however, several aspects I
must note when teaching thinking skills. Firstly, pupils’ English skills and cognitive skills are
crucial to succeed teaching thinking skills. In my research, I got a special environment to teach
thinking skills at the private English school. Thanks to their high English level and thinking
habits, I could focus on their reasoning that was used to justify their answers. However, if pupils
do not have high English skills or younger graders, lessons should be more simple and use a lot
of scaffolding in instruction such as providing more pictures, realia, or graphs as I did in
Montessori. In addition, presenting their cognitive ideas by drawing, acting or making posters
would help the pupils if they cannot express themselves with words. Using non-verbal
communication, teaching thinking skills and problem-solving skill to beginner-level speakers is
possible. Secondly, classroom environment and habits of thinking are crucial. In both the first
language (here Czech language) or the second language (here English), teachers should provide
opportunities pupils to think deeply, such as classroom issues, environmental issues or any other
things surrounding them. Pupils in the Montessori school and in the private English school
performed well in thinking overall, and it is thanks to their daily routine of thinking. The pupils
in the Montessori are always asked to decide what projects to work and which research methods
to use. The pupils in the private English school often have a classroom discussion both in Czech
and in English. Their English teacher also mentioned that she used the textbook having a lot of
discussion or thinking activities. In other words, daily routine of thinking can improve their
cognitive skills and help pupils think more critically and find solutions. English teachers should
not only formulate lessons of teaching skills, but also ask more cognitive questions in any
 62

lessons, even when teaching grammars or new vocabularies. Last but not least, the long-term
syllabus or plan of teaching thinking skills is essential to develop pupils’ cognitive skills and to
assess more accurately. If teachers have chance to teach one class for a year, they can formulate
lessons of teaching skills as well as prepare questions and activities in any language activities;
reading, listening, speaking and writing. Well-designed lessons and long-term syllabus allow
teachers to help pupils develop their thinking skills.
 63

IV Conclusion

The aim of this thesis is to illustrate practical use of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy to
design activities for teaching thinking skills and to find out whether and how problem-solving
tasks promote pupils’ thinking skills. In order to find out the answers, I formulated four research
questions and carried out the qualitative research method. I decided to design activities and use
strategies based on theories of cognitive development of young learners aged seven to ten that is
discussed in the practical part.

In the practical part, I discussed young learners’ characteristics and cognitive

development because thinking skills are cognitive skills. It is crucial to know what stage of
cognitive development young learners are positioned so that appropriate lessons and strategies of
questioning and scaffolding can be provided to the young learners. Moreover, I introduced the
revised Bloom’s taxonomy and its action verbs because I found them useful and helpful to
design activities for teaching thinking skills. Regarding teaching thinking skills, I discussed
questioning and scaffolding strategies that are also importantly related to cognitive development
of young learners. Based on the theories, the Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills and strategies,
I designed and ranged activities. I also decided to implement problem-solving activities because
problem-solving does require higher order thinking skills to lead a solution and problem-solving
skill is needed skill in the workplace as well as one of 21st century skills.

As for the practical part, I decided to carry out qualitative research and chose participant
observation. I focused on how pupils work on activities and problem-solving tasks by
monitoring them and giving scaffolding when needed. The detailed descriptions of observations
were given so that readers can grasp the situations at classrooms. One of my research questions
is to find the role of scaffolding, thus, describing how, when and why I decided to provide help is
important in this research.
 64

In conclusion, this research found that problem-solving tasks could promote thinking
skills to young learners with scaffolding and questioning strategies. Problem-solving requires
many kinds of steps and thinking skills. People need to identify a problem, reflect all possible
aspects and causes, evaluate them and decide how to solve. This such complicated process is
still difficult for young learners due to their cognitive development, therefore, well-designed
lessons with questioning strategies and scaffolding strategies are crucial to assist pupils succeed
to achieve tasks. Asking questions gets pupils think more critically and activate cognitive skills.
Moreover, the research found that collaborative learning brought positive aspects that the pupils
helped each other and came up with more ideas together after all. This learning style allows
pupils to share ideas, know others’ perspectives and come up with better ideas to solve a problem.
However, well-designed activities and scaffolding strategies may not enough to succeed lessons
for thinking skills. As seen in both Montessori and private English schools, all pupils have
already had habits of thinking critically and making decisions. This thinking habits are also a
key to develop pupils’ thinking skills. In addition, as seen in the case of Montessori, English
skill is essential to get pupils give reasoning. Teachers need to introduce pupils how to say their
opinions, defense and develop discussion in English if teachers wish to include reasoning in
lessons.
 65

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Appendices

Appendix 1

1.1 Lesson Plan 1

No. of pupils 4
Date December 1, Thursday
Lesson aims In the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to:
...examine several clues and deduct
...give their reasoning by observing given clues or information
...analyze and evaluate and by observing given information
...discuss with classmates in English and help others if necessary.

Title of Story Where is Bear?

Time Stage Activities
5 Warm-Up 1 Deduct
min. Pupils deduct where the story takes place.

1. Pupils read all clues on the handout. Before finishing reading all
clues, they should not answer.

2.They write an answer on their handout first, and then a whole class
checks the answer together.

5 Warm-Up 2 Talk about “Hide and Seek”

min. Pupils who know this game can explain or demonstrate if it is
difficult to describe verbally.
If the pupils do not know, T explains.

Vocabularies
Show pictures of all animals from the story:
“bear”, “bunny”, “fox”, “frog”, “turtle”, “chipmunk”, “skunk”,
“snake”, “ant”, “beetle”, “ladybug”, “bear”, “rabbit”
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5-7 Stage 1 Buddy Reading:

min.
Make a pair and read the text.

10 Stage 2 Remember & Understanding:

min. List of Animals

1. First, pupils write all names of animals which are in the story
without seeing the text.

2. Write places where the animals hid. If they cannot find

information in the text, write “×”.

5-7 Stage 3 Analyze:

min. Where would the Bear hide?

1. Pupils look at the picture and the Bear. By analyzing the size of the
Bear carefully, pupils guess where would the Bear be.

2. Pupils talk with their group. Write the group’s opinion, and discuss
with them. After the discussion, the group decides the final opinion.

3. Tell the final opinion to T.

10 Stage 4 Analyze & Apply:

min. Go to find the Bear

Pupils read the profile of the animals (turtle, snake, ladybug and ant).
Analyzing the given information of the animals, pupils decide which
animal goes which place to find a bear.

10 Stage 5 Read the last paragraph of the text. Confirm if the pupils understand
min. where the bear hid.

Understanding:
Drama activity

Solving:
Teacher assigns pupils an animal.
They briefly demonstrate the story as well as they should include the
discussion part that which animals go which place to find the bear.

Piloted: Mezinárodní Montessori Mateřská škola Perlička

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1.2 Story “Where is Bear?”

Where is Bear?

The forest animals begin a game of hide and seek. While Bunny counts to ten, Fox and
Frog hide behind a log. Turtle hides in his shell. Chipmunk, Skunk, Snake, Ant, Beetle, and
Ladybug all find places to hide. So does Bear. When Rabbit finishes counting, he finds all of the
hidden animals except Bear. The animals join in the search. They look behind rocks and trees,
along the creek and in the woods, but no Bear.

...... Last they look in a deep, dark cave. Sure enough they find Bear sound asleep. They
wake Bear up with a kiss but Bear can’t stay awake long enough to play the game again.
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1.3 Activity at Warm-up 2, Deducting where the story takes place

Let’s Think like Sherlock Holmes!!!!!

Question: Where does this story take place? Read all clues and answer.
1. There is something tall.
2. There is no beach and no boat.
3. There is no people.
4. There are trees, rivers, flowers and many animals.
5. It does not take place in the jungle.
6. The animal in this story hide behind trees.

The story must take place in the _______________________________.

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1.4 Activity for Stage 2, List of animals

1) Which animals are in the story? Write names of the animals below. You cannot read a
story now.

Animals Place

2) Now, go back to the story. Where did the animals hide? Find places and write in the box
above. When the story does not say the place, write ✖.
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1.5 Activity at Stage 3, Analyzing where the bear could hide

Where is Bear?? Guess!!!!

1. Look at the picture. Look carefully the size of the bear. Where would Bear be?
Write a number in the box:

1. Yes, the Bear hides here! 2. Maybe the Bear can hide here.
3. No, the Bear cannot hide here.

Where? Number Why?

Near a small stream

Behind a log

Bird’s nest

In the cave

2. Where is Bear? Talk with your group. Write group’s opinion.

Where? Your New Number

Number
Near a small
stream
Behind a log

Bird’s nest

In the cave
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1.5.1 Picture
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1.6 Activity at Stage 4, Analyzing animals’ profile and apply.

Let’s Find the Bear!

Where can each animal go to find the Bear? Read profile of animals and decide the
place.

Small stream Bird’s nest Cave Small hole in the ground

I can swim.
I cannot climb a tree. _____________________

I can see in the dark.

______________________

I can fly like a bird.

I cannot see in the dark. ______________________

I am very small. ______________________

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Appendix 2

2.1 Lesson Plan 2

No. of pupils 4
Date December 7, Wednesday
Lesson aims In the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to:
…examine and evaluate characters in the story
…give their reasoning related to the story, given information or
problems seen in the story
…analyze the problems and the situation in the story
...apply their knowledge and/or what they learn from the text to solve
problems
...create a house reflected the problems mentioned in the story
...discuss with classmates in English and help others if necessary.
Title of Story The Three Little Pigs
Time Stage Activities
10 Warm-Up 1 1) T: asks if the pupils have already read the story of the Little Three
min. Pigs (in Czech/English)

2) T: introduces key vocabularies with pictures showing on the laptop

screen.

3) T: shows the pupils straw and twigs and make them touch those
materials.

10 Stage 1 Pair Reading

min.
5-7 Stage 2 Remembering and Understanding:
min. 1. After reading the text, pupils list up characters in the story.
T asks the pupils question No. 2
Who lived in the wood near the three little pigs?

2. T asks the pupils question No. 3

Why did the three little pigs build houses?
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Reading comprehension questions are

1. Who are the characters in this story? Name all characters
below. You cannot see the text now.

2. who lived in the woods near the three little pigs? You cannot
see the text now.

3. Why did the three little pigs build a house? Now, you can see
the text again.

5-7 Stage 3 Analyzing and Evaluating

min. Pupils first answer what material each pig used to build a house. And
the, they decide who is the laziest and the most hardworking.

20 Stage 4 Problem-Solving
min. 1) identify a problem
Pupils identify what problem each character had in the story.

2) Applying, Creating
1. Make pairs
The pupils discuss and decide what they need to build new houses.
Then, decide what material (straw, twigs or bricks) use, and why.

2. Then, they draw the new house by their own. They should reflect
all problems they have discussed in the class and apply what they
have learned during this lesson.

Piloted: Mezinárodní Montessori Mateřská škola Perlička

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2.2 Story “The Three Little Pigs”

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who lived with their mother in a meadow.

One day the mother pig said to the three little pigs, "You need to go out into the world and

make your own way." So they waved "goodbye" and they went out into the world. The pigs

decided to build houses near the woods. A big bad wolf lived in the woods. He was not happy

when he saw the three little pigs building houses nearby. The first little pig was lazy. He made a

house of straw. The big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew it down. The second little pig

worked a little harder than the first little pig. He made a house of twigs. The big bad wolf huffed

and puffed and blew the house down. The third little pig made a house of bricks. The big bad

wolf huffed and puffed and huffed and puffed. But the house did not fall down. This made the

big bad wolf very, very angry. He went up on the roof and tried to get into the house through the

chimney. He climbed into the chimney and slid down into a pot of boiling water. He ran out of

the house and never came back!

The third little pig invited the first little pig and the second little pig to stay with him in his

cozy brick house. The three little pigs

lived happily ever after.

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2.3 Activity at Stage 3, Analyzing and evaluating

What did the three little pigs use for their house?

The First Pig Used __________________________.

The Second Pig Used __________________________.

The Third Pig Used __________________________.

Which pig is a hard worker and who is lazy? Write a number.

1. Very hard worker 2. A bit hard worker 3. Lazy
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The First Pig The Second Pig The Third Pig

( ) ( ) ( )

2.4 Activity at Stage 4

2.4.1 Problem-solving, identify problems

What is the problems??

1. What problems did the three little pigs have? Are the three little pigs happy or not? Who is
unhappy?

Characters in the story

What problems did they have? What did they do then?
First Pig

Second Pig

Third Pig

Wolf
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2.4.2 Problem-solving, Analyzing, Applying and Creating

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Group 1
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Group 2

Appendix 3

3.1 Lesson Plan 3

No. of pupils 9
Date February 7, Tuesday
Lesson aims In the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to:
...predict what would happen next based on the presented information
...give their reasoning by observing given clues or information
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...analyze and evaluate by observing given information

...discuss with classmates in English and help others if necessary.

Title of Story The Sandwich Thief

Time Stage Activities
5 Warm-Up 1 Detecting
min. “turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, bread”

Showing all picture cards of the food, ask what pupils can make from
those ingredients.

5 Warm-Up 2 Guess:
min. Seeing the title, predict what the story would be like.
Ask the meaning of “thief”, by letting pupils act what thief does.

Later, show a picture card of characters.

Who could be a thief? What would happen?

5-7 Stage 1 Reading and Predicting

min.
Read the text together, but pupils answer the questions given between
sentences by him/herself.
*When answering, the pupils do not show/see others’ answers.

While we see the following vocabularies:

To lick one’s lip, to sniff, doorbell, to ring
T asks pupils the meaning and let them act.

5-7 Stage 2 Remembering and Understanding

min. Putting sentences in correct order.

Prepare small pieces of paper, and each paper has one sentence.
Pupils put the pieces of paper in correct order as the story.

After putting papers in order, read the text again while confirming the
flow of the story.

7 Stage 3 Problem-Solving
min. Identify Problems, Analyzing and Evaluating

There are six sentences regarding the story. Pupils read all sentences
first. And they talk with the partner and decide how serious problems
they are.

1.very serious, 2. Serious, 3. I’m not sure, 4. Not serious much, 5. Not
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serious at all

8-10 Stage 4 Problem-Solving

min.
Choose one problem from the previous activity. Discuss with the
partner how they will solve the problems.
They should say what they will do, and why? They should connect
their reasoning to the problems.

Piloted: The private English school

3.2 Story “The Sandwich Thief”

Mike was very hungry.

“I think I’ll make a sandwich,” he said. Mike went to his kitchen. He got two pieces of bread. He
put turkey in his sandwich. He put cheese in his sandwich. Then he added lettuce and tomato.
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1. There is a lot of food in Mike’s sandwich. Which is Not true about Mike's sandwich?
a. Mike’s sandwich has meat.
b. Mike’s sandwich has cheese.
c. Mike’s sandwich has vegetables.
d. Mike’s sandwich has mayonnaise.

……
“Yum,” said Mike. He licked his lips. Then the doorbell rang.

2. What will happen next? What do you think?

a. Mike will eat the sandwich.
b. Mike will answer the door.
c. Mike will do his homework.
d. Mike will answer the phone.

……Mike went to get it.

Mike’s dog, Max, walked into the kitchen. Max sniffed the sandwich. The sandwich smelled
good to Max. Max licked his lips.

3. What does Max want to do?

a. He wants to run away.
b. He wants to stay inside and sleep.
c. He wants to eat the sandwich.
d. He wants to go outside and play with Mike.
4. What will happen to the sandwich? What do you think?
a. Mike will eat it.
b. Max will eat it.
c. Mike will save the sandwich so that he can eat it later.
d. Mike’s neighbor will eat it.
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Who is the sandwich thief??

3.3 Picture cards used for deductive game at Warm-up 1

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3.4 The reading packet for the pupils

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3.5 Activity for Stage 2, Remembering

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Putting Sentences in correct order

Mike was hungry and went to the kitchen.

Mike put turkey and cheese in his sandwich.

Someone rang the doorbell.

Max went to the kitchen and sniffed the sandwich.

Max licked his lips.

Mike licked his lips.

3.6 Activity for Stage 3, Defining Problems, Analyzing and Evaluating

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Group 1 Group 3

Group 2
3.7 Activity for Stage 4, Problem-solving
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Group 1 Group 2

Group 3

Appendix 4
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4.1 Lesson Plan 4

No. of pupils 10
Date February 8, Wednesday
Lesson aims In the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to:
...detect by observing given clues
...give their reasoning by observing given clues or information
...analyze by observing given information
...solve a problem by reflecting the matters in the story.
...discuss with classmates in English and help others if necessary.

Title of Story A Small Life

Time Stage Activities
5 Warm-Up 1 Showing picture cards of places
min. Forest, beach, sea, city, house, school, amusement park, dog’s cage,
hamster’s cage

5 Warm-Up 2 Detecting
min. Where the story takes place.

T gives all hints to pupils. Pupils must listen until the end and then
detect which place the story takes place.

5-7 Stage 1 Read the first part of the reading and Analyzing
min.
Pupils analyze and detect who is the narrator.
Give ranking according to possibility and reason.

Also, pupils answer the question “What is amusement park ride?”.

Guess and predict from the given information in the text. The pupils
might not know what it is, since an amusement park is not common
place. Show the picture what an amusement park usually has.

5-7 Stage 2 Read the last part of the reading

min.
7 Stage 3 Problem-Solving
min.
Makes groups of three or four.
First pupils identify the problem and why/when the problem happens.

Deciding, Applying, Justify

Pupils discuss and decide how they should carry hamster if they were
its family members. They should focus on the problem the character
has in the story.
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After deciding, they present in front of the class pretending as an

advisor. They should include reasoning why people are supposed to
carry the hamster in a way of their suggestion.

Piloted: The private English school

4.2.1 “A Small Life” - the first part of story

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It is not a bad life. I am warm. But my world is small. It’s just 18 inches (45.7 centimeters) from

side to side and back again. The floors are covered with bits of wood. I like the smell. The walls,

well, they’re not really walls. I can see through them. They’re made of wires. I suppose most

everyone would call this a cage. But to me, it’s home. I have an amusement park ride in my little

room. But there is no bed – just the floor. My kitchen is made of little plates that are attached to

the wire walls.

4.2.2 “A Small Life” - the last part of story

Life is good. I wish, however, that I had more say about coming and going. Often,

people just lift my whole house without asking if it’s all right with me. They are

trying to be nice, I know. But when they pick up my house and carry it around--

well, it’s like an earthquake or something. Up and down! Side to side! Don’t they

realize that I have feelings! Especially dizziness. I hang on for dear life and just

hope that the journey is a short one.

4.3 Deductive activity at Warm-up 2

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Where is it??
Amusement park, house, dog’s cage, city, beach,

Hamster’s cage, classroom, ocean/sea, forest,

1. There is no trees or flowers.

2. There is no tall buildings.
3. There is an animal.
4. There is no children.
5. There are amusement park rides.
6. This is for a small animal.

This story takes place in ____________________________

4.4 Activity for Stage 1, analyzing

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Who and Where?

1. Who is the narrator of this story? Make an order.

1. Absolutely yes 2. Maybe yes 3. Maybe no 4. Absolutely no

Number Why?

Dog

Hamster

Golden fish

Flog

Human

4.5 Activity for Stage 3, problem-solving

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Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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4.6 Reading packet for pupils

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Appendix 5

5.1 Self-assessment sheet for lesson 1

Name _____________________ Date______________________

Title of Reading ______________________________

I enjoyed doing this activity.

I used English a lot.

Cooperation

I gave ideas and helped my partner / the group.

I asked for help when I did not understand or

when I wanted more ideas.

Thinking

I carefully read, looked and thought about

the clues when I answered.

I always used information and the clues when

I solved problems or gave ideas.

I compared information carefully.

I used my knowledge when I answered questions.

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5.2 Self-assessment sheet for lesson 2, 3 and 4

Name _____________________ Date______________________

Title of Reading ______________________________

I enjoyed doing this activity.

I used English a lot.

Cooperation

I gave ideas and helped my partner / the group.

I asked for help when I did not understand or

when I wanted more ideas.

Thinking

I predicted by looking at information

from the text.

I found the problems.

I gave ideas to solve the problems.

I think my solution is good enough. I think the same problems

will not happen again.
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