Research on the Activity Frame work of Using Visual Thinking Tools

Rongfei Sun
South China Normal University, China
rongfeisun@qq.com
Yufei Xie
Yunshan Primary School, China
523509415@qq.com
Abstract: The development of high order thinking has been considered as a national
priority of learning. We found that visual thinking tools can improve students’ high order
thinking ability and it change the traditional teaching method. By using this activity framework, the teachers can better understand what are the students are thinking about and thestudents can use the thinking tools to help themselves solve complex problem and discusswith other people.
.

Keywords: Activity Frame work, Thinking Tool, PETAINTRODUCTION
When we talked about activity frame work, we must consider of two questions :one is what
are the educational goals, another one is how are these goals to be achieved. Twenty first century canbe called as a century of tremendous changes in social, economic and cultural fields. Accordingly, themost important goal of education in this century should be nurture learners that are ready to face thechanging society and complexity of information explosion period. Consequently, the development ofhigh-order thinking has been considered as a national priority of learning (Maryam Sedaghata1& Soudeh
Rahmaniba 2011). When we think about how to achieved this goals, we face several problems. The firstone is thinking is abstract, how to know the thinking process of our students? The second one is how tolead the students to think deeply? And the last one is how to improve it during the teaching process?
And that’s why we use thinking tools during the teaching process.

ACTIVITY FRAMEWORK
After we use it in the primary school in Guangzhou, China for one year, we summarize apreliminary activity frame work which is useful to promote students’ high-order thinking ability andwe will improve this activity framework in the later research.
Depend on the analysis of some excellent cases of PETA (Project for Enhancing thinkingability), we summarize a preliminary activity frame to improve students’ high order thinking ability byusing visual thinking tools.

Assessment stage
Implementation stage
raise a question/task
discuss and solve the problem
collaborative learning
share opinion and ask questions
modification &report
evaluation(PMI)Preparatory Stage
Establish theteaching content

Define theinstructional
objectives

Prepare someresources

Preparatory StageIn the preparatory stage, the elementary teachers establish the teaching content and define

the instructional objectives. Then according to the content and objectives, the teacher design a questionor task andprepare some resources. I n this session , the most important thing is to design a properquestion or task depend on the goals you want to achieved. In PETA, the students are about 11 to 12years old, sometimes they couldn’t choose a proper thinking tools. So another thing is they think about
is which thinking tool need to offer to the students.

Implementation Stage
The implementation stage is the most important stage of this activity frame. It include thefollowing six parts: (1) Put forward a learning problems or tasks, establish the thinking space to thestudents and ensure them understand the objectives of this course. (2) Discuss and solve the problem.
The teacher provide some learning resources ,and the student also can find some resource including therelevant network resources, multimedia resources, such as books and materials and photos bythemselves. Then the students may found the problem or ask questions, and form their point of view.
(3) Using thinking tools to begin groupcollaborative learning. Teacher will
introduce several related thinking tools

High order thinking ability
problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking and decision-making ability and so on

and the students can choose some of themto use. And answer questions or solve theproblem by finish the thinking tools.
(4) The students will share their opinionGroup
cooperative
learning

Evaluation

Image Map

DiscussionModification and report

Chart Diagram

and ask questions cross group. In thispart,student can communicate with otherRole playgroup and find the disadvantage andadvantage.(5) Modification andGUIDESERVE

Share opinion and askquestion

SUPPORT

Venn Diagram

MEDIUM

Task-driven

Collaborative learning

Fishbone

Competition

Discuss and solve theproblem

PMI……

Raise a question\task……

report.After that,student will modification
their thinking tools and them give a
presentation about it.(6)At last, thestudents may use the PMI Diagram orPyramid Sheet to evaluate themselves andother group.
prerequisite knowledge &resources

Assessment StageIn the assessment stage ,we will assess the teaching effectiveness with the teacher and try to

improve our instructional method by the following ways:
1. Analyze the content of the student work.
2. Analyze the content of PMI or other evaluate tools.
3. Analyze the teaching video.
4. Design a questionnaire survey.
5. Interview on teachers and students.

CONCLUSION

After practiced in the primary school in Guangzhou for one year, we found that visual

thinking tools can improve students’ high order thinking ability and it change the traditional teaching
method. The teachers can better understand what are the students are thinking about and the students
can use the thinking tool to help themselves solve complex problem and discuss with other people. Of
course, we know that the instructional method we said about is not perfect enough. We will try our best
to improve it in the later research.
Literature Reference
Maryam Sedaghata1& Soudeh Rahmaniba(2011). A review of approaches to teaching thinking: appropriate
approachfor Iran education system. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 30 (2011) 1037 – 1042.