In my last article, I wrote about the important area of Executive
Functioning which has 8 key areas: Impulse control, Emotional control, Flexible
thinking, Working memory, Self-monitoring, Planning and prioritising, Task
initiation and Organisational skills. These are important skills for everyday
life and academic success.
In this article, I want to focus on flexible thinking. For many of us,
we like routine and the predictable pattern of each day. We feel comfortable when
we succeed in tasks using the same approach each time. However, life and
learning are not predictable and we do need to be able to adapt to new tasks
and situations. We need to be able to accept that not everything is
straightforward with one fixed answer.
Many situations and activities can be dealt with in a range of ways with
varying degrees of success. Some students struggle when their familiar routine
is disrupted or when task is more complicated than they initially thought. So
flexible thinking and resilience needs to be modelled and taught.
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As the curriculum becomes more complex, students need to be able
interpret information in different ways and see other people’s point of
view. Tasks like reading comprehension,
writing to explain ideas or opinions, understanding events in history or
interpreting observations in science all require flexible thinking. Students
need to balance concepts and ideas, look for evidence and shift between
different ways of thinking before settling on the best solution for that
situation.
Many believe that success is largely down to hard work and
determination. However, if we keep approaching a situation in the same way time
and time again without success, it can lead to frustration. Sometimes to
succeed, we need accept there is a different way forward. This is where flexible
thinking is vital to overcome difficulties by selecting a different approach.
This may be a method we are less familiar with or confident in, but without
practising this new method we can not make progress. The ability to try
something new and move out of our ‘comfort zone’ can lead to can lead to both
personal and academic growth.
Teachers can promote flexible thinking particularly in Primary and lower Secondary by regularly including open-ended tasks in their lessons. Initially students may need some scaffolding to help them to know how to get started with an open-ended task. They may also needed to be guided through the thinking process step by step, with a view to providing less support each time an open-ended task is presented. In maths for example, they may need to be taught different problem solving approaches like trial and improvement, working systematically, making a pictorial representation through simple problems. Then over time they can be encouraged to look at a problem and select which method they think is best. Nrich is a good source of maths problems for different ages and levels https://nrich.maths.org/
Another important element in developing flexible thinking is create an environment where there is an acceptance of different points of view and different approaches. Students need to be encouraged to question and move away from the idea that teacher has all the answers. Encouraging students to work collaboratively with different students each time can also broaden their thinking. Students can learn a lot from discussing the range of solutions that can be found and evaluating the positives and negatives of any given solution as a class. This allows students begin to see that in many situations there is not one ‘correct’ answer. Activities like 'Thunks' are a low risk why of developing flexible thinking. They can encourage discussion and help develop an acceptance that there can be many solutions.
https://www.independentthinking.co.uk/resources/posts/2020/april/thunks/
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