Crawford Times 60 ONLINE

FEATURE ARTICLE
This is an ability that develops over time. “Students learn to think
about thinking, reflect on their actions, the processes they choose
and the transfer of their knowledge into new contexts, to create
alternatives or open up new possibilities for further application in
their learning and living.”
Did you get that bit about “learning and living”? It’s crucial.
Reflective thinking can unlock success for you in all areas
of your life, over the entire course of that life. So, for some
practical examples of when you may be thinking reflectively:
In History, you learn what sorts of conditions spark revolutions.
As you grow up you can now formulate what conditions suggest
that social change is impending. Then you can decide whether to
join in agitating for change or dissuade agents of change – and
whether to move your business, if you are an entrepreneur, or
decide to specialise in reconstructive surgery of you are a doctor
(America’s recent wars in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan and
against ISIS have brought about major advances in mobility aids
and reconstructive surgery), or move away if you know you value
social stability.
In Maths, you learnt about rational and irrational numbers.
Now your teacher asks you about the sum of a rational and an
irrational number. Will it always be an irrational number? Your
ability reflect on your knowledge, to interrogate that knowledge,
should allow you independently to arrive at the conclusion that
adding a rational and an irrational number will always be an
irrational number.
In English, you studied a novel set in the previous century, or in
a different country or political setting, or written by an author of
another race or gender. Your reflective thinking skills mean that
you can share an emotional response to the fiction because you
are able to extrapolate from one set of experiences to another.
In Art, you were taught how the invention of photography forced
visual artists to develop new ways of representation that
abandoned trying to look “real” and attempted to
convey impressions, or social commentary, or use
mixed media (that is unavailable to photography)
into artworks. As a budding artist, you may now
use that knowledge and reflect on how AI or
3D printing or cellphone cameras might affect
your artistic expressions.
What does a student need to do to be able to
develop reflective thinking skills?
The short answer is time and space. A good
teacher is a good observer, who will provide
the opportunities for reflective thinking skills
to be practised. Such a teacher knows
how to make space for wondering and
speculative discussions.
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