Externalising thinking

Hey 👋

What’s the craic? This week, we’re opening a new series on thinking…

Big idea 🍉

At appropriate points in our teaching, if we prompt students to externalise their thinking, it can lead to stronger learning than if we just let them think in more internalised ways.

For example, instead of just explaining an idea, if we also ask students to discuss it—or instead of just reading something, we also ask students to create a written summary in their own words—they are more likely to understand and remember better.

This is a fairly basic idea that will be intuitive to most teachers. However, just because it’s basic doesn’t mean it’s easy to apply in sophisticated ways.

Externalisation is the product of things like talking, writing, or drawing… in contrast to more internal thinking processes generated by things such as reading, watching, or listening.

It’s not that internal modes aren’t useful—just that they can be enhanced when combined with external modes. Because when students externalise their thinking, it can:

• Increase the chances of attention being paid.

• Strengthen encoding, via neural activation.

• Force greater clarity of thought.

Note → Despite these benefits, externalising our thinking can sometimes feel less productive, in part because it tends to require more effort.

Externalised thinking works best when we provide as few clues as possible to the answer (eg. free recall tends to be more powerful than multi-choice questions), while still ensuring that students think the right thing (and if not: we provide immediate feedback on incorrect answers and prompt re-thinking). Getting this balance right is just one of many aspects of teaching which requires strong professional judgement.

In coming snacks, we’ll explore more concrete tactics for externalising thinking.

🎓 For now, check out this review of the generation effect and its underpinning mechanics.

Summary

• At appropriate points, prompting students to externalise their thinking can boost learning.

• Such as getting them to talk, write, or draw.

• This works via boosting attention, strengthening encoding, and forcing clarity.

Little updates 🥕

• Review of the effects of teacher feedback on oral reading → helpful overview of the literature including a range of critiques.

• Study on the predictive ability of end-of-year tests → finds that math(s) is better than English at predicting future English performance!

• Study on the effects of teacher commute times → suggests that longer journeys are linked with increased absence, lower performance ratings, and increased staff turnover.

• Practical guide to retrieval practice → Excellent overview of what it is and how to do it well (particularly in the context of homework).

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