13.08.2021

Educators participate in training about “Visible Thinking”

By Lais Carvalho

Keeping the education cycle of the pedagogical team, we were glad to welcome Ron Ritchhart, renowned educator and researcher, who for the past 25 years has dedicated himself to studies on visible thinking with the Project Zero team at Harvard. His books are used worldwide and support the work of teachers in schools around the world, including Beacon.

There are a wide variety of thinking routines that can be used inside of the classroom in a variety of ways and age groups. They are not only strategies but also important tools that build patterns of behavior. When these tools are used, the students are encouraged to make their thoughts visible, putting in words and in graphic schemes what they think about a certain subject.

The first step for the educator is to encourage the student to note and discover, so that they can then infer about the topic, preparing questions and establishing connections. Then, the teacher takes into account the views and responses of colleagues, exercising empathy and understanding so that they can elaborate explanations and arguments based on evidence. Lastly, students are encouraged to go further into the subject and draw conclusions.

As a school that encourages investigation and discovery, Beacon makes constant use of these thought routines, which become more complex and accomplish all reported steps as students grow.

During the workshop, Ritchhart described every aspect that embraces thinking routines and showed videos of how teachers perform the same routine with different age groups. We learned new routines and exchanged many ideas with peers from other grades, consolidating the Beacon teaching team, once again as a community that learns in partnership and that collaborates and enriches the group work in the classroom.