Scott W. F. Lee - PhD Candidate
Thesis Title: Visual mapping: Making evident young children’s thinking in the classroom for the purposes of observation, teaching, and assessment
Email: leesc650@student.otago.ac.nz
The importance of and the need for teaching thinking skills have been well-articulated and there are many existing approaches to teaching thinking skills ranging from broad-based integrated learning experiences to more targeted explicit teaching methods. Assessment of students’ thinking constitute an integral and important part of supporting their development of thinking skills but remains an area that has been neglected both in practice and in research. While multiple-choice tests, essay tests, documentation of students’ work and reflective dialogue have been proposed as viable forms of assessment methods, little research has been done on how data gathered through classroom observations and reflective dialogues can be analysed in order to assess children’s thinking abilities.
Using data gathered through classroom observations and reflective dialogue, my research explores: 1) how visual mapping could make evident young children’s thinking processes; 2) what insights could be obtained into children’s thinking skills using visual mapping; and 3) how visual mapping could support assessment and teaching practice. In the process, it is one of my goals to highlight the need for a greater respect for and better understanding of children’s thinking approaches, and argue for a more flexible, differentiated approach to teaching thinking skills.