When students work together in small collaborative groups, enhanced learning and more sophisticated thinking takes place. Teachers must plan group activities that foster interdependence. This can easily be done by assigning specific roles to each student such as, observer, recorder, encourager and resource manager. Each student will need to fulfill his role as well as contribute to the goal of the group.
Mind mapping is a technique that helps students organize their thoughts and helps them conceptualize ideas. Brainstorming encourages an uncensored approach to getting every random thought written down with no evaluation about the quality of the thought, while mind-mapping emphasizes an evaluation of the ideas. The visuals used in mind-mapping concretely demonstrate the relationships between ideas, such as cause and effect and help deepen the students' understanding of the concepts.
In classrooms where teachers value thinking strategies, students are not "spoon-fed" the material. Teachers do not list important facts on the board for students to copy and memorize, but instead, students are expected to discover the facts by themselves. This might be accomplished by asking students thought-provoking questions and providing them with the necessary materials to explore. For example, in a science experiment, students would be required to provide an explanation for why a chemical changed color. They would need to do some research into the properties of the chemicals, or they would need to use deductive reasoning by combining two other facts previously learned, to discover the answer.
Predicting and reflecting are an essential part of thinking skills. Before returning marked tests to students, have them predict what they think their mark will be. Have them give an explanation for why they believe that is the mark they have earned. Once the test has been returned, have them reflect upon any major discrepancy between the actual mark and their predicted mark and have them postulate reasons why they were not accurate in their predication. Over time students will become more aware of how well they have mastered any new concept, and will be able to more accurately predict their marks.