Languages of Thinking — NOBLE OCEANS

Paul Cézanne (1876), Village at the Water's Edge, oil on canvas, 17 3/8 x 32 in., Barnes Foundation. — Paul Cézanne (1876), *Village at the Water's Edge,* oil on canvas, 17 3/8 x 32 in., Barnes Foundation.

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." —Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Consider the range of color detailing this fine, sunny landscape by Cézanne. The sky and water, far from both being large swaths of a single blue, are depicted by a variety of colors that capture additional information for the imagination to interpret. The same is true of Cézanne's choice of greens for the trees and the reds of the earth.

Now imagine the same painting colored with a more limited palette. The sky and water in the same flat shade of blue. No distinction among the trees. A stretch of red hill. So much would be left undefined. The choice to leave it at that is one thing, but to be limited in one's options is to be limited in expressing the full scope of possibility.

A Language of Thinking

A diverse and nuanced language is much like having a diverse and nuanced color palette. In the way that many hues allow an artist to interpret and depict an image with greater freedom, a vibrant language allows one to articulate one's thoughts with greater facility and choice. More specifically, a "language of thinking" allows one to more precisely capture the range of how one is thinking. To expand beyond the general language of think, feel, and guess is to open up one's palette to the rich and varied colors of a language of thinking.

In the book The Thinking Classroom, Harvard University researchers Shari Tishman, David N. Perkins, and Eileen Jay draw attention to the elements of good thinking. For these researchers, good thinking in the classroom is less about imparting a set of strategies and more about fostering a culture where the process of thinking is made visible for students. To ensure success, explaining and modeling techniques allow students to become familiar with how a technique is used in action. Providing students with opportunities to practice helps them to gain familiarity with the techniques, while feedback from teachers offers students cues about their progress.

For the authors of The Thinking Classroom, a fundamental aspect of a culture of thinking is a language that supports the complex and nuanced activity of communicating one's thoughts. They make us aware that "words are precision instruments." By incorporating a larger set of thinking words into the classroom, we can equip students with the turquoises, ceruleans, and azures that add depth to the landscape of thought.

Fostering a Culture of Thinking: Modeling

Modeling a language of thinking provides students with the opportunity to become familiar with the meaning of thinking words within context. By seeing the use of thinking words in action (particularly when coupled with opportunities to "try out" the words themselves), students work their way towards familiarity with the proper usage of specific words. Compare, for example, two snippets of dialogue presented by the authors in their chapter on building a language of thinking.

Dialogue One:

Teacher: Amelia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in 1937; no remains from a plane crash have ever been found. People have said many different things about what happened to Amelia and her plane. What do you think happened? Does anyone have any ideas about why she disappeared?

Student #1: Maybe her engine blew up.

Teacher: That's one idea. Any other ideas?

Student #2: I don't think her engine blew up; I think she just didn't want to come home. Maybe she ran away.

Teacher: What makes you think she might have got lost "on purpose"?

Dialogue Two:

Teacher: Amelia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in 1937; no remains from a plane crash have ever been found. People have held many different theories about what happened to Amelia and her plane. What is your theory? Why do you think Amelia disappeared?

Student #1: Maybe her engine blew up.

Teacher: That's one theory. Is there any evidence to support that theory?

Student #1: Well....They never found any remains, so when it blew up, the plane probably fell into the ocean.

Teacher: The fact that no remnants were ever found doesn't contradict the theory that her engine blew up. But I'm not sure it proves it. Does anyone else have a theory?

In both scenarios, the teacher follows up with a request for the student to further express their thinking. Dialogue Two, however, labels the sort of speculation and hypothesizing that the students are actually doing in both scenarios. It is only with the language present in Dialogue Two that students are made privy to the different types of thinking being expressed.

When students are aware of the nuances of different thinking words they can begin to accumulate new methods for doing the rather vague work of "thinking." When asked to justify a response, students will understand that providing a statement without reasons to support their claim is insufficient. By having a sense of what it means to justify a response, they can move ahead by articulating a statement with supporting reasons. This understanding provides a framework for how to organize one's thinking. The substance of their claims (though very important!) should be noted as a separate aspect to the structure of their thinking.

Some Thinking Words

Tishman, Perkins and Jay offer a list of thinking words that serves as a useful tool for teachers to reference and incorporate into everyday language. Below is an abbreviated list from the one provided in The Thinking Classroom.

A: affirm, allege, analyze, appraise, apprehend, assert, assess, assume

B/C: believe, calculate, concede, contemplate, convince, corroborate

D/E/F: decide, determine, disclaim, dispute, doubt, establish, evidence, examine, fathom

G/H/I: grasp, hypothesize, imply, interpret, investigate

J/K/M: justify, know, maintain, muse

P/Q/R: ponder, postulate, question, propose, prove, reason, rebut, research

S/T: scrutinize, suggest, survey, theorize

U/V/W: understand, verify, weigh

Additional Resources

It is important to note that the authentic use of new practices (and in this case, of vocabulary use) takes time and attention in order to develop meaningfully. For more information and "pictures of practice" of how to create a classroom culture of thinking, read The Thinking Classroom by Shari Tishman, David N. Perkins, and Eileen Jay. The pictures of practice related to a language of thinking offer examples of activities, and tips on the sorts of explanations and feedback that can be useful in discussions. Some common concerns are also addressed, such as those regarding whether some words might seem too advanced or clinical for students, or how to maintain a language of thinking beyond one or two activities.

Both Shari Tishman and David Perkins are affiliated with Project Zero, a research organization at Harvard Graduate School of Education. For further information regarding Shari Tishman's research at Project Zero explore her work in multiple projects , including Agency by Design, Artful Thinking, and others. David Perkins served as co-director of Project Zero for nearly thirty years. Check out his work on many projects , including Teaching for Understanding and Visible Thinking.