Reasoning Skills

One of the topics to choose from for this blog assignment was whether or not reasoning skills should be taught in primary school. I myself think that teaching reasoning skills at the primary school level is a good idea. Reasoning skills give us the ability to recall information, form basic concepts, use critical thinking, and use creative idea formation. These skills also give us the tools we need to make choices and to figure out the outcomes and/or consequences of our actions. We already know that these skills are used in mathematics, so why not spread that out to other areas of education. Kids that are taught reasoning skills can continue to build on those skills throughout their lives as they are faced with more complex and changing situations.

Schools in the UK have started implementing programs for teaching reasoning skills in their class rooms, and have even put together a web-site* that their teachers can access to get information on the different programs. I also found a web-site* that is put together with 4-H and the University of Arizona about the pros of teaching kids reasoning skills, so the information is out there, now it just needs to be used.

The only other thing that I can say to help support the teaching of reasoning skill in primary school is the importance it will have in the future for the kids these skills are taught to. The job market as we know it now is competitive. Can you imagine how it will be when these kids get out of school and start looking for a job? Most companies today not only look at your resume, they do skills testing to see how good your higher order thinking skills are. Teaching those skills now gives kids a head start for later.

 

http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/thinkingskills/resources/?view=get

http://cals-cf.calsnet.arizona.edu/fcs/bpy/content.cfm?content=decision_making