Approaches to teaching thinking : the perceptions of inservice and preservice TESL teachers in institute of education, IIUM

Abstract

The research investigated the perceptions of pre-service and in-service teachers, who were undertaking Bachelor of Education Programme at Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, on teaching thinking. Specifically it attempted to obtain their perception towards the three major approaches to teaching thinking namely the Direct, Indirect and Infused Approaches. The research was conducted using a self-constructed questionnaire and interviews. The respondents were 96 primary school English Language in-service and pre-service teachers who had undergone a course on “Teaching of Thinking” in their undergraduate programme. The findings indicated that regardless of gender, age, teaching experience and their service status the majority preferred the Infused Approach to teaching thinking. Then the in-service group showed their next preference was for the Indirect Approach while the pre-service group preferred the Direct Approach. Their preference for the Infused Approach was because the approach focused both on content learning and thinking skills acquisition. The study recommended that appropriately designed training programmes for teaching thinking be conducted to ensure teachers improve and sustain their ability to enhance thinking in their students and that future research that use larger samples be carried out to examine perceptions of other subject teachers in both primary and secondary schools and also in institutes of higher learning.