https://wordwall.

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odd-one-out
The infusion
Approach
Infusion was first developed
as an approach to teaching
thinking skills with
content instruction by
Swartz and Parks in 1994.
 thinking skills can be matched directly with topics in the
curriculum

content instruction is invigorated, thus leading to deeper

understanding;

Benefits of the
Infusion Approach classroom time is used optimally

teaching for thoughtfulness is directly supported across

the curriculum

the transfer of learning can be more easily promoted and

reinforced at other stages.
Theoretical Basis of the Infusion
Approach—SCT (Sociocultural
Theory) Perspective
Effective learning takes place in meaningful interaction, and the process of learning
is the process of internalization.

Mediation is a fundamental function of the human mind (Lantolf and Thorne

2007).

It enables humans to interact with themselves, each other and the world, and
effective learning arises from this interaction.

It occurs first when learners interact with the world outside of their minds to
acquire new knowledge and obtain assistance;

the second time it occurs as part of the inner mental process of

internalisation by means of which learners achieve independent development
In the field of education, this implies that instruction should be
explicit; in other words, students should be given clear
explanations of what they are being asked to learn.

It is essential that teachers tell students about the knowledge

that they do not know.

This can be linked to research into the teaching of thinking

which proposes that explicit instruction on the part of the
teacher is more beneficial to the development of thinking than
attempting to promote thinking without giving
direct instructions.
Conceptual
Framework of the
Infusion Approach
When discussing the conceptual framework of infusion lessons, it
is essential to understand the meaning of ‘infusion"

According to Swartz and Parks (1994), there are two main types of
instruction in thinking: direct and curricular context-free teaching,
or using methods which provoke thinking in the curricular context.
Explicit instruction in how to use thinking strategies, and
this type of instruction is often used in contexts
separate from the rest of the school curriculum, with
specially designed material.

Curricular context-free teaching, refers to the

promotion of thinking by using methods such as, for
example, collaborative learning, higher-order
questioning, or inquiry learning, but without direct
instruction in thinking strategies themselves.
 Infusion
• Infusion means to combine these two types of
instruction by providing direct instruction on thinking
skills and processes together with specific methods to
promote thinking, and this has been proven to be
more effective than using either type of
instruction individually.

• In this framework, it is clear that infusion lessons

focus on the thinking process of learning, and are
closely connected to SCT (sociocultural theory).
 • The teacher provides instruction on thinking skills and content objectives.
Introduction

• The teacher models how to use thinking skills to solve learnign problems.
• Students complete thinking task in groups by using thinking skills and subject knowledge.
Thinking
actively • Students share group ideas with the whole class and the teacher provides feedback.

• The teacher asks questions to guide students to reflect on their thinking process.
Thinking
about thinking

• The teacher facilitates additional opportunities for students to apply their thinking skills to
Applying similar and different content to promote transfer.
thinking
 Introduction

An infusion lesson begins with a clear introduction to thinking skills and content objectives.

This should remind students of their prior knowledge and establish connections. The teacher
should also demonstrate the significance of learning these thinking skills and explain the possible
benefits.

This can be linked to SCT in that learners first learn new knowledge through interacting with the
world outside of their minds.

The teacher’s introduction enables students to understand what they are to learn about and why
they should learn it, and further, enables them to be clear about what should be internalised later
on.
 Thinking actively

The teacher first models how to

This interweaves the explicit
use these thinking skills to solve
The teacher helps the students to thinking skills to be learned with
problems in learning. Then he or
activate their thinking in the the content of the subject (in this
she asks the students to complete a
learning process. case, the English language), and
thinking task through group
makes a lesson an infusion lesson.
discussion.

It provides opportunities for

students to make their first attempt
The use of thinking skills promotes
to use the skills and knowledge
a deep understanding of subject
which have just been taught, and
knowledge.
helps them to initiate the process
of internalisation.
Students need to engage in a task which encourages them to reconstruct knowledge in order to
think of their own ideas.
At the same time, the target language is also
used as a communication tool for students
to express their own ideas, and to exchange and
discuss ideas with others.
Group discussion also creates opportunities
for them to offer help to or seek help from
others, and thus promotes interaction
and collaborative learning.
• This contributes to effective language learning, which
encourages learners to create meanings using the target
language.
• After group discussion, students are invited to share
their group ideas with the rest of the class, and the teacher
provides comments.
• This creates opportunities for students to gain more
inspiration from others, and to have their mistakes, if any,
pointed out to them.
• This also enables the teacher to guide students to progress to
the next stage of metacognition
Thinking about thinking (Metacognition)
In the metacognition stage,
the teacher asks students
some reflective
questions about what kind of
thinking they have applied,
how they did this, and how
effective it was.
This stage is crucial in bringing
about effective learning and
encouraging metacognition.
Such reflective questions
The students are then involved
might include: what kinds of
in metacognition, which can
thinking did you engage in?
promote more effective
How did you carry out this
thinking and learning, and
kind of thinking? Is this an
which also contributes to
effective way to engage in this
internalisation.
kind of thinking?
• and what is the difference
between this way of thinking
and the way you applied in
It helps students either to the past? Would you use this
seek a better way of thinking, method in the future? Why?
or to be consistent in their (Assaf 2009).
use of similar thinking skills
and processes.
 Applying thinking
Finally, the teacher needs to create more opportunities for students to apply similar thinking
skills and processes to similar content, in order to promote near transfer, and to apply them
to different content to promote far transfer.

In the present study, near transfer was promoted through the use of a subsequent
individual written task completed after class on a topic similar to that of the group
discussion.

Since the topic of writing is related to the topic of the thinking task in class, this

facilitates near transfer, in which thinking skills are applied to similar content, and

at the same time requires the students to use complete syntactic forms of the target language
to express their ideas, which is crucial in the process of SLA. Far transfer.
Thinking tasks
 Students became more active in
making contributions
Thinking tasks increased students’
while completing the tasks, and
motivation and helped to make
they also recognised the areas
students aware of their learning
where they lacked knowledge and
needs.
became aware of what they
needed to know more about.

This may contribute to Tasks based on problem solving

internalisation if students and decision making promoted
subsequently learn more to students’ tolerance of the ideas of
help them understand their others and improved their
existing knowledge. evaluation of information.
Odd one out

It is a cognitively demanding activity (Schwab and Dellwo 2016).

It focuses on the characteristics of things, which in EFL can

be individual words, phrases or sentences.

Students need to discover the differences and similarities between the items
provided and choose the odd one out.
 Odd one out
The students complete the task by themselves using the knowledge learned in the current
lesson or previous lessons.

This is an easy and enjoyable task, which contributes to the consolidation of existing
knowledge and understanding of the target language.

It is a suitable task for students who have only just begun to take infusion lessons.
 Fact or Opinion
The aim of the Fact or Opinion task, on the other hand, is to
develop critical thinking skills.

Lin and Mackay (2004) suggest that it can be introduced in the

early stages of a course to raise awareness of critical thinking.

Students need to distinguish facts from opinions and give

reasons for the judgements they make.
https://wordwall.net/es/resource/14030190/fact-or-opinion
This helps students to develop their own opinions (Leat 2001) and make effective decisions.

It is a versatile tool for developing critical thinking, while at the same time it is also a highly challenging task for t
eachers to use, since the concept ‘fact’ relates to the nature of knowledge (Leat 2001).

Therefore, this question should be defined and introduced to students at the beginning of the lesson.
Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats task

designed by De Bono enables
students to ‘think in different Each hat represents a The white hat symbolises
ways rather than engaging in different way of thinking: facts.
several different types of
thinking simultaneously’
The red hat deals only
The black hat concerns
with emotions and
potential difficulties.
feelings.

The yellow hat refers to

The green hat is worn
the positive
when providing
characteristics of things:
suggestions and Six Thinking
for example, their value
or benefits.
alternative proposals. Hats