A deep dive that illuminates the foundational mindsets needed to create cultures of thinking.
Cultures of Thinking in Action, takes the next step in helping readers not only understand how a culture of thinking looks and feels, but also how to create it for themselves and their learners. Arguing that no set of practices or techniques alone is sufficient to create a culture of thinking in and of itself, Ritchhart explores the underlying beliefs that motivate the creation of cultures of thinking, presenting key mindsets every educator and leader needs to embrace if they are serious about creating powerful thinkers and learners.
Much more than just an instructional guide, Cultures of Thinking in Action offers readers a reflective journey into their own teaching, leading, and parenting while providing the foundation and concrete strategies needed to create and develop a culture of thinking for all learners. This book:
Includes the latest research of the Cultures of Thinking Project
Includes questions, exercises, and discussion prompts to inspire reflection by individuals and teams
Provides case studies and best practice scenarios
Provides useful data collection tools to inform one’s teaching practice
The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Using Routines to Engage and Empower Learners
by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church
In the much-anticipated companion title to Making Thinking Visible, Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church draw on their work with more than 100,000 students around the world over the past decade to present fresh research on the effectiveness and potential power of visible thinking practices to transform classrooms into compelling places of learning.
The Power of Making Thinking Visible presents 18 new thinking routines, developed by researchers at Harvard Project Zero as well as educators in the field, which are designed to enhance students’ engagement and deepen learning. Packed with helpful strategies, tips, advice, and assessment ideas, this book clearly shows how to use visible thinking practices to best scaffold, support, and enhance thinking and learning in K-12 classrooms, university settings, and professional learning spaces.
Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools
by Ron Ritchhart
It seems like we are in the throes of curriculum reforms designed to transform education. However, these efforts generally neglect the vital role classroom and school culture play in promoting learning. Any curriculum, good or bad, will sink or float on the culture of the classroom in which it is enacted. Culture matters not only to realize curricular goals, but also as a shaper of students’ development as powerful thinkers and learners.
Creating Cultures of Thinking builds the case for “enculturation” as the key to deep learning and the development of the habits of mind and dispositions needed in a changing world. He demystifies the process of creating dynamic learning communities by first identifying and then walking us through the eight forces we must marshal to build strong
group culture. Case studies, practical guidelines, self-assessments, and inquiry projects enable teachers and administrators—as well as anyone interested in fostering group learning—to understand and shape powerful learning communities.
Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners
by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison
One of the best-selling books in education, Making Thinking Visible introduced the world to the idea of thinking routines, simple structures that help to scaffold and support students’ thinking. These research based tools help to demystify the process of thinking and make it both visible and accessible.
This ground breaking book unravels the mysteries of thinking and its connection to understanding and engagement. The book takes the reader into diverse learning environments to show how teachers at any grade level or subject area can make thinking visible through effective questioning, listening, documentation, and the use of thinking routines.
Twenty-one research-tested thinking routines are showcased along with pictures of practice, tips for implementation, assessment strategies, and suggested uses and variations. A DVD of the routines being used in real classrooms is included. This book has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese.
Intellectual Character: What It is, Why It Matters, and How to Get It.
By Ron Ritchhart
What does it really mean to be intelligent? Ron Ritchhart presents a new and powerful view of intelligence that moves beyond ability to focus on cognitive dispositions such as curiosity, skepticism, and open mindedness. Arguing persuasively for this new conception of intelligence, the author uses vivid classroom vignettes to explore the foundations of intellectual character and describe how teachers can enculturate productive patterns of thinking in their students.
Intellectual Character presents illustrative, inspiring stories of exemplary teachers to help show how intellectual traits and thinking dispositions can be developed and cultivated in students to promote successful learning. This vital book provides a model of authentic and powerful teaching and offers practical strategies for creating classroom environments that support thinking.