Thinking Classrooms – Need of the Hour

G. Balasubramanian 

Educator, Former Director of Academics, CBSE 

G. Balasubramanian is a doyen of school education in India. He has held several positions of leadership at CBSE, including Director of Academics.  

He was the brain behind the introduction of several innovations at CBSE, which included the frontline curriculum, communicative approach to language teaching, information technology, alternatives to homework, etc. He is also an author, poet and a sought-after speaker at educational conferences world over. 

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The basic objective of a classroom is to enable, empower and educate the learner to think meaningfully and constructively on the subject matter one is dealing with. Unfortunately, the last few decades have ushered in an educational system where the faculty of thinking is marginalised to deal with the quantum of data and information, more for their repetitive use. In pursuit of this objective, the content of the curriculum and its related pedagogy are articulated to serve the secondary or tertiary purposes and objectives of an educational process. This is further scaffolded by an assessment system which evaluates recapitulation and reproduction of facts. It gives little scope for assessment of the higher faculties of a functional brain.

The need for a thinking classroom has often been reiterated in educational policies, with no meaningful follow-up actions. The overload of content in the curricula further inhibits the opportunities for a thinking classroom, with teachers often complaining about the inadequacy of time and resources for their own preparation or administering the relevant pedagogical strategies in the classroom. 

A Research study using neuroimaging by Southern California’s Laboratory estimated that the average person has around seventy thousand discreet thoughts per day. With abundant thoughts pouring in from various sources as inputs, the human mind has a continuous flow of traffic requiring us to deal with each of them to the extent they deserve attention. However, how many of these thoughts result in action, become productive and engaging, and how many of them manifest and emerge as a desirable quality is indeed a matter of further research. It is in this context that the deliberations of a classroom gain relevance and importance to develop a culture of thinking which enhances purpose, focus, quality and productivity. 

A classroom should therefore have features that not only promote thinking, but also the quality of thinking. The argument by a few that the design of the curriculum, its end objectives, the assessment patterns inhibit such exercises is not adequately convincing. A well-prepared teacher designs and incorporates elements and strategies that would help learners to think effectively and constructively. 

Here are some of the features of a thinking classroom - 

1.   Fear-free environment 

A classroom that encourages thinking should be founded in a fear-free environment. Oftentimes, the learners who have developed fear for the teacher, fear for the learning environment, fear of peer impressions, fear of authority and the like, flee from opportunities for thinking. They tend to hide in their own conceptual shells and hibernate for extended periods with questions of ‘dos and don'ts.’ They tend to stick to the routine practices and want to live in ‘comfort zones’, which are protective and avoid issues relating to risks of being mistaken or misinterpreted. Even when opportunities knock at their door for healthy and vibrant thinking, they keep away to avoid futuristic risks. Teachers would do well to identify such students and engage with them with a positive intent to facilitate them to be participants in active learning and help them diffuse their misconceptions. 

2.  Stress-free pedagogy 

Apart from fear, there are several other concerns that cause stress to the learners in the classroom. They may be due to socio-cultural factors, poor financial infrastructures from which they come, language-related issues, health concerns and other types of learning stress.  

Often, these types of stress result in poor communication, withdrawal from frontline performances, thus inhibiting them from being actively engaged in free thinking or in questioning for further learning. Students belonging to this category tend to exhibit neurosis, low self-esteem and self-pity. All that the teachers could do is help them break these barriers with a mature attitude that helps them move ahead with their thinking hats. Many of these students have latent talents to question, evaluate and re-engineer their knowledge. Adequate steps need to be taken by teachers to design their classroom pedagogy to empower thinking. 

3.   Freedom to question 

The ability to question is both directly and indirectly suggestive of the fact that the person who asks the question is indeed thinking. Even if the question is not really focused, even if it could solicit multiple answers or relate to different perceptions, it does serve the objective of expressing a concern, a doubt, a misgiving, an underlying issue or the inadequacy or incompleteness of a concept under consideration. In some of the routine classrooms, teachers feel challenged when a learner raises a question. The teacher’s inability either to give a perfect, meaningful reply or their lack of awareness about the issue raised in the question forces them to silence the learner. In a few cases, teachers tend to silence the questioning child through psychologically demotivating statements. However, a good classroom is a place where questions are encouraged, entertained and attempts are made to seek answers either directly or through collective deliberations. 

4.   Opening opportunities for thinking pathways 

It is said that the human brain has a fascination for pattern-making. It tends to fall into a pattern, often as a preferred choice. However, the brain is also blessed with the capacity of creating, using and working with multiple pathways about the same subject of study. The power of ‘synaesthesia’ of the human brain provides a far-reaching opportunity to play with knowledge. Following different pathways of thinking leads to multiple styles of thinking – lateral, analytical, parallel and others. In a classroom where children breathe adequate freedom, the mind opens to multiple considerations about the ideas, themes or concepts and develops a contextual, unique strategy within a few seconds. This requires a strategic decision-making methodology. Pursuits of multiple pathways of thinking help the learner to choose the best option unique to the self. The classroom should provide formal and informal opportunities for the same and help the learner to express one’s own thoughts and ideas without any reservation or suppression. 

5. Encouraging Disruptive Thinking 

Disruptive thinking is an expression of an active, engaging and conscious mind. Disruptive thinking often questions the credibility and validity of existing thoughts and ideas. It challenges linearity or selectivity in thinking. It paves the way for creative thinking through critical appreciation of the existing structures and processes. Often, disruptive thinking is considered a violation of established norms or disciplines; hence, learners who think disruptively are treated with contempt until the reality pops out. A thinking classroom should indeed welcome disruptive thoughts so that the foundations of existing thought architectures could be re-examined with a third eye. 

6. Encouraging critical appreciation 

Critical review and critical appreciation of ideas, thoughts, concepts, perceptions, practices and procedures is vital to a thinking classroom. Giving space and opportunity for them will help learners to celebrate their self-esteem without any inhibition. Further, it could catalyse them to come forth with dynamic and powerful suggestions for critical analysis, which could lead to creative enterprises. In normal classrooms, teachers tend to see some of these actions as counter-productive, non-linear and a derailment of the purpose and focus of their journey towards completion of the curriculum. One of the reasons for such attitudes is the consideration of learning as a scheduled journey from one destination to another, rejecting the joy of learning. The zone of proximal development in cognitive exercises is marginalised in achieving some set goals for learning. This needs redressal. 

Thinking classrooms are vibrant platforms for participative learning through collaborative and constructivist approaches and to celebrate ‘self-learning’ and ‘self-directed learning’. Thinking classrooms facilitate extended learning and promote inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary learning.