David Newman of Ridgefield, Wooster School head of upper school, gave a presentation at the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools conference, What Works is Worth Sharing: Teachers Helping Teachers on Jan. 28.
Mr. Newman discussed “How to Create a Culture of Thinking at Your School.”
Culture of Thinking focuses teachers’ attention on the eight cultural forces present in every school, classroom, and group learning situation, he said. These forces act as shapers of the group’s cultural dynamic and consist of language, time, environment, opportunities, routines, modeling, interactions, and expectations.
As teachers strive to create cultures of thinking in their classrooms, Mr. Newman said, they make time for thinking, develop and use a language of thinking, and make the classroom environment rich with the documents of thinking processes. They also look for opportunities for student thoughtfulness, use thinking routines as supports and scaffolds, model and make their own thinking visible, interact with students in a way that demonstrates an interest in and respect for students’ thinking, and send clear expectations about the importance and value of thinking in learning.
“Presenting one’s professional work to his or her colleagues, and the resulting discourse is always reaffirming that there are plenty of talented and passionate adults working to provide the best educational opportunities for our youth.” said Mr. Newman.