Productive thinking		157
Broad categories covered:		Theory base:		Pedagogical stance:
•	self-regulation	•	rationalist	•	critical thinking needs
•	reflective thinking				to be taught but also
•	productive thinking				needs to be applied
•	building				to specific content
	understanding				domains.
Classification by:		Values:		Practical illustrations
•	types of	•	belief in reason and	for teachers:
	disposition		logical thinking	•	only a few, but
•	mental competencies	•	humanistic values		sufficient to
	required when deciding				communicate key
	what to believe or do				ideas

Lipman’s three modes of thinking and four main varieties of cognitive skill

Description and intended use

While a philosophy lecturer, Matthew Lipman was struck by the fact that even highly qualified undergraduates were not good thinkers; so he designed Philosophy for Children to facilitate the creation of ‘communities of enquiry’ in classrooms. Although more concerned to create an appropriate pedagogy through this programme, he does offer a theoretical framework and, in several places, ways of classifying thinking (albeit illustrative rather than comprehensive). The significant features of this framework are (a) a tripartite model of thinking in which critical, creative and caring thinking are equally important and interdependent (Lipman, 2004) and (b) his account of four varieties of cognitive skill: enquiry, reasoning, concept formation and translation.

Lipman defines cognitive skills as ‘the ability to make cognitive moves and performances well’ (Lipman, 1991, p. 76). Building on Bloom (1956), he distinguishes between lower-order and higherorder cognitive skills in terms of complexity, scope, the intelligible organisation of a complex field, the ‘recognition of causal or logical compulsions and ‘qualitative intensity’ (Lipman, 1991, p. 94). He sees value in a curricular sequence whereby an initial emphasis on comparing, distinguishing and connecting leads to classification, seriation, analogical reasoning and immediate inference; and finally to

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higher-order thinking, involving syllogistic reasoning and the use of criteria.

Lipman portrays higher-order thinking as involving both critical and creative thinking, which are guided by the ideas of truth and meaning respectively. Critical and creative thinking are interdependent, as are criteria and values, reason and emotion. They both aim at judgment, but critical thinking is ‘sensitive to context’ and selfcorrecting, while creative thinking is ‘governed by context’ and ‘selftranscending’ (Lipman, 1991, p. 25). Critical thinking resembles Bloom’s analysis; creative thinking Bloom’s synthesis; and judgment Bloom’s evaluation.

A significant shift in Lipman’s thinking is evident in his 1995 paper ‘Caring as Thinking’ (Lipman, 1995). Here he presents a tripartite account of higher-order thinking, tracing its lineage to the ancient Greek regulative ideals of the True (critical thinking), the Beautiful (creative thinking) and the Good (caring thinking). In this account, feelings and emotions play a much more important role than previously, since, in matters of importance, caring thinking enacts values and is equated with judgment. The three dimensions or modes of thinking, with their corresponding emphases on technique, invention and commitment, are said to be present in varying degrees in all higher-order thinking. Drawing on Dewey and Peirce, Lipman elaborates this model arguing that an enquiry-driven society requires critical, creative and caring thinking. These help build the individual’s character structure of reasonableness and the social structure of democracy. For each type of thinking he identifies value–principles (criteria), which are set out in figure 4.2.

Lipman claims that the most relevant skill areas for educational purposes are: enquiry, reasoning, information-organising and translation

(Lipman, 1991, p. 45):

Inquiry is a self-corrective practice in which a subject matter is investigated with the aim of discovering or inventing ways of dealing with what is problematic. The products of inquiry are judgments.

Reasoning is the process of ordering and coordinating what has been found out through the inquiry. It involves finding valid ways of extending and organising what has been discovered or invented while retaining its truth.

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Fig. 4.2. Major modes of thinking (with criteria).

Concept formation involves organising information into relational clusters and then analysing and clarifying them so as to expedite their employment in understanding and judging. Conceptual thinking involves the relating of concepts to one another so as to form principles, criteria, arguments, explanations, and so on.

Translation involves carrying meanings over from one language or symbolic scheme or sense modality to another and yet retaining them intact. Interpretation becomes necessary when the translated meanings fail to make adequate sense in the new context in which they have been placed.

Lipman identifies a list of 13 dispositions which are fostered by the meaningfully orchestrated use of cognitive skills in a community of enquiry setting. These are:

•to wonder

•to be critical

•to respect others

•to be inventive

•to seek alternatives

•to be inquisitive

160Frameworks for Thinking

•to care for the tools of enquiry

•to cooperate intellectually

•to be committed to self-corrective method

•to feel a need for principles, ideals, reasons, and explanations

•to be imaginative

•to be appreciative

•to be consistent.

Three kinds of relationship that a curriculum must incorporate are: ‘symbolic relationships (e.g. linguistic, logical, and mathematical relationships); referential relationships (i.e. those between symbolic terms or systems and the world they refer to); and existential relationships (i.e. connections between things in the world’: see Lipman, 2003, p. 61).

Arguing that a taxonomy of judgment ‘would be invaluable for curriculum development in the cognitive aspects of education’ (2003, p. 61), Lipman offers us instead the following list of procedures which he claims students need to practise:

•prejudice reduction

•classification

•evaluation

•criterion identification

•sensitisation to context

•analogical reasoning

•self-correction

•sensitisation to consequences

•adjusting means and ends

•adjusting parts and wholes.

Lipman blames ‘the Piagetian empire in education’ for promoting the widespread belief that young children are ‘not capable of monitoring their own thought, of giving reasons for their opinions, or of putting logical operations into practice’ (Lipman, 2003, p. 40). He claims that teachers have misinterpreted Bloom’s taxonomy as a theory of developmental stages, so that it might not be until late secondary school or even college before they ‘arrive at the adult level, the pinnacle of the entire process, the evaluational stage’. He argues strongly for a non-hierarchical approach to excellence in