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How does thinking look different in each discipline?

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To help answer this question, we first look at the process of inquiry and forming questions. A tool for forming questions is QFT (Question formulation technique). QFT is used in classrooms to promote student inquiry and thinking. In the video by Edutopia (2015), a teacher gives a prompt to help students create ideas and promote thinking. The students then follow the three steps of QFT, produce questions, improve questions, and prioritize. This video was a great example of students using QFT as a process to inquire and form questions. A real-world example in a kindergarten classroom is as follows. A teacher shows the students a picture of a police officer. She states the Qfocuse as people who help other people in the community. Then the floor is open for any questions the students can come up with. The teacher writes down every question. Then the class will prioritize and choose a few questions to explore. This was a good example for social studies but it will look a little different in each discipline.

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Another tool to help us understand thinking in different disciplines is the types of reasoning. Types of reasoning are used to solve complex problems and tasks. Deductive reasoning is logical reasoning, drawing conclusions from given facts. (Józsa et al., 2024). This type of reasoning helps develop children’s intellectual development. Inductive reasoning draws conclusions from specific observations. This helps students create hypotheses. Students who engage in creative reasoning have better learning outcomes. Creative reasoning allows students to be creative in finding solutions. Students can use their original ideas to solve problems. As you can see in each discipline students will need to change their type of reasoning. Here is a real world example on how deductive reasoning can be used in the classroom. A teacher tells the students, “Things that are living need water.” Then the teacher will show students multiple objects and the students will need to conclude which items are living. An example of inductive reasoning in the classroom would look like the following.  A teacher can introduce a word family like ran, van, can. Students will then be asked what they notice about the words. They should notice they all end in an. The last example is what creative reasoning would look like in the classroom. Students will be asked to create something that will stop an egg from breaking when it is dropped. Students will then have creative freedom to complete the project.

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How can teachers intentionally support a discipline-specific thinking curriculum?

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Clear teaching of discipline-specific thinking skills requires decoding the disciplines. Teachers will help students think like experts in a specific subject think. Giving real-life expert examples for students to learn how experts think and how they can think like experts. When teachers use tasks that use discipline-specific reasoning, students develop a deeper understanding. An example of a teacher using this in their classroom is the following. A teacher in a kindergarten classroom can model the use of observation. The teacher can use a rock and model language like “I wonder..” and “I notice..”

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Real-world tasks that use disciplinary practices allow students to have a deeper connection with the specific subject. The project-based learning approach is a great example of this. It allows students to use disciplinary thinking skills and tools. Project-based learning is a hands-on tool to help students make a deeper understanding of skills. “Project-based learning (PBL) has been identified as an effective pedagogy for instructors to help students to learn interdisciplinary knowledge, problem-solving skills, modes of thinking, and collaborative practices through solving problems in a real-world context.” (Meng et al., 2023) Here is an example of how to use this in a classroom. For mathematical thinking the teacher can set up a fake grocery store and have the kids “go shopping”. The students will need to count items and money.

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The use of metacognition to teach thinking differences can help support discipline-specific thinking curriculum. Metacognition is the ability to think about your own thinking. This helps students understand how to think differently in different subjects. Students can understand how they learn and use it to help them succeed. Being self-aware will help students to understand when to change their thinking. Here is a real-world example. When students are finished with a math problem, the teacher will ask, “How did you figure that out?”

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In conclusion, thinking looks different in each subject. As I was able to see in the kindergarten classroom, students easily made connections in reading but struggled during science. This helped to show that each discipline requires specific thinking. When we intentionally teach discipline-specific skills, we can help students be stronger and more flexible thinkers in all subjects.