1. Ana Mercedes Garcia.
English Major
Year 2011
Management of Technological Resources for the Teaching and Administration of
the English Language (Part III)
VISIBLE THINKING
Visible thinking may be described as clarity and transparency in one’s cognitive
processes. Visible thinking requires overt, conscious, and deliberate acts by both
students and teachers. When thinking is visible, participants are aware of their own
thoughts and thought processes, as well as those of the individuals with whom they are
working. With visible thinking, there is a heightened level of awareness both individually
and collectively. There is also a heightened degree of productivity referred to as
synergy. Visible thinking occurs routinely in effective business communities during
dialogues and discussions, brainstorming sessions, collaborative group situations, and
crisis-management scenarios. Effective communication is the basis for effective visible
thinking. Ideas are formulated, expanded, and refined through sharing. Acquiring this
vital skill should not be left to chance.
Visible Thinking is a broad and flexible framework for enriching classroom learning and
includes:
Deeper understanding of content
Greater motivation for learning
Development of learners' thinking and learning abilities
Development of learners' attitudes toward thinking and learning and their
Alertness to opportunities for thinking and learning (the ‘dispositional’ side of
thinking)
A shift in classroom culture toward a community of enthusiastically engaged
thinkers and learners
We learn best what we can see and hear.
FEATURES AND PRACTICES
1. Visible Thinking in action
Every committed educator wants better learning and more thoughtful students.
Visible Thinking is a way of helping students to achieve this without a separate
‘thinking skills' course or fixed lessons. This section describes Visible Thinking and
examines the research into this area.
2. Getting started
This section identifies the following three ways to get started using Visible Thinking:
 Routines – using learning actions that are thinking-rich

2.  Ideals - thinking routines that emphasize the ideal and draw out students'
ideas and reflections about that ideal
 Documentation - a reflective and prospective examination that shapes the
design of future learning situations and focuses attention on how to capture,
record, and reflect on the thinking students are doing in your classroom.
3. Thinking routines
Easy to use mini-strategies that are repeatedly used in the classroom and are the
patterns by which we operate and go about the job of learning and working together
in a classroom environment.
Routines exist in all classrooms; they are the patterns by which we operate and go
about the job of learning and working together in a classroom environment. A routine
can be thought of as any procedure, process, or pattern of action that is used
repeatedly to manage and facilitate the accomplishment of specific goals or tasks.
4. Thinking ideals
Covers areas of what constitutes good thinking such as understanding truth, fairness,
and creativity.
5. School-wide culture of thinking
Develops thinking dispositions within a culture and students experience school as a
place where thinking is valued and students are given time and rich opportunities for
thinking