VOLUME 4 : NUMBER 02 : JANUARY 17, 1986

EXTENDED BOOKSTORE HOURS
1,^,1, 9

The Bookstore will be extending its hours of operation from January 18th until
January 31st. The hours will be:

Monday - Thursday : 08:30 - 20:00
Friday : 08:30 - 16:00

Saturday : 09:00 - 15:00 <0 VANCOUVTR VOCATIOfJAL INSTl

library
HAIRDRESSING SPECIALS
LADIES
Have your permanent wave or coloring done by our experienced students and
receive free of charge a shampoo set or shampoo blow dry within two weeks.

Also
Monday through Thursday, purchase a hair cut and receive free of charge a

shampoo set or a shampoo blow dry. (This does not apply to Fridays!!)
Not only that but
Come in for a perm at 08:00 and you'll pay only $8.00 instead of the regular

$12.25!
*** These specials will be offered until March 27, 1986. ***

LK
"JOURNEY" by Robert Massie and Suzanne Massie ... To the children

"I always had wanted for them the widest possible contacts with the most
varied people. I wanted them to understand the qualities of all ages, to
profit and respect the wisdom of the old, to learn from the man who works with
his hands. I have the deepest suspicion and distrust of the truths of
"intellectuals". I do not like the snobbism of the intellect, the elitism,
the narrow sense of superiority that sometimes accompanies the purely academic
mind.

There is poetry in the language of a gardener who understands the secrets of
the earth. For me, a farmer is a wizard, quite as much as a physicist and

each nation I have known has seen some of the special facets of the jewel that
is life. More than anything else, I had dreamed of expansive horizons for my
children. I did not want them to grow up thinking that they, or their nation
alone, had found all the answers".

EHS

mNcouyER
COMMUNITY
Vancouver

Vocational Institute

LIBRARY FILMS
January 21 - WHISTLING SMITH
Sergeant Bernie "Whistling" Smith pounds the beat on Vancouver's east side
hang-out of petty criminals, down-and-outs, and a variety of unsavory
characters. His policing is unorthodox. To many a young drug user, petty
thief, or young woman drawn into prostitution, he is more than the iron hand
of the law. He is also counsellor and friend. Here is a revealing insight

into one side of big city life and a tough cop with a big heart.
January 28 - WELCOME TO PARADISE
Filmed on location in Barbados, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, this film
reflects the deep concern that the island inhabitants have about the impact of
tourism on their economy, their culture, their politics and social values.
Whereas tourism has the potential to enrich people by exposure to each other's
ways and culture, leaders here charge that it is reinforcing the prejudices of
race, class and culture.

FUN FOR THE CHILDREN and PARENTS

If you need to know....

If you have little ones you might want to try Recipes
for Fun - Creallng a Playspace In Your Home. In one
session, Thursday evening, January 23, 8 to 10 p.m.,
you'll find out how you can create an adventure play
area at home for your child without creating a mess for
you. The cost Is $10. Call 875-8200 for more
information.

LEARN HOW TO SAVE A LIFE
Once again, Continuing Education at VCC Is offering a
series of CPR programs. In one session you can learn
the skills that could save someone's life. There are a
number of different times and locations. For more
information call 875-8200 and ask about the Heartsaver programs.

ROMANTIC NOVELS MAKE YOU RICH?
Could you be the next Barbara Cartland? Find out how
to write the formula romances that have taken the
grocery store checkout counters by storm. Enrollment
Is limited. This session runs Saturday, January 25,
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Langara Campus. The cost Is
$35. To register call 324-5322.

PUT YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE IN ORDER
Howard Carter (left) buys a ticket on the Mustang from King Edward
Campus Division Chairman Sam Lewmdon (centre), while KEC
Principal Harry Pankratz looks on. , >

WIN A MUSTANG ... CAR THAT IS!
Like to play the ponies? Then get ready with your $2.
The Vancouver Community College Educational

Foundation has officially launched its raffle for a 1975
gray and maroon Ford Mustang, restored to show
room condition by students In King Edward Campus's
auto mechanics and auto body repair programs. The
car was donated by Howard Carter, president of
Carter Pontiao Bulck Ltd. and a foundation board
member. Students in Langara Campus marketing and
sales program are handling the display and ticket sales
and they will have the car at locations all across the
city before the draw at the end of March. So have your

$2 ready! All the money from the raffle goes to
provide student aid at King Edward Campus.

DO IT SOON, TIME IS SHORT.
Registration for part-time courses Is going ahead full"
steam. If you haven't received' the Vancouver
Community College flyer In the mail, call 875-8200 and
one wilt be sent to you. There are hundreds of
opportunities to try something new and exciting
Whether you want to polish your Job skills or take up a
new leisure pursuit, we've got the ticket.

Is financial anxiety getting' the better of you? In¬
troduction to Financial Planning can help you get
your financial life In order. Build a financial plan from
the ground up. Learn to analyze your net worth and
create an effective budget. This session runs Tuesday
evening, February 4, 7 - 9:30 p.m., at King Edward
Campus. The cost Is $15. To register call 875-8200.

PIONEER EDUCATOR DIES
It was with great sadness that Vancouver Community
College noted the passing of Dean H. Goard on
January 5. He was a pioneer In B.C. education. Goard
was the founding principal of the college's Vancouver
Vocational Institute in 1949, a position he held for 12
years. He became principal of the B.C. Institute of
Technology In 1967, retlrlno from that position In
1974.

GENEROUS GENSTAR
The electrical department at Vancouver Vocational
Institute was recently given a three generator
paralleling switchboard and distribution system by
North Vancouver's Genstar Shipyards. The equipment
will play an important role In student training. The
equipment students used previously was so antiquated
replacement parts were impossible to get. The
purchase of new equipment would have cost the
college more than $20,000, so this gift came at a
particularly good time.

Jt&L
INNOVATION
ABSTRACTS
^
-jSaKf'
i
—i
Published by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development
vwps- With
support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

TEACHING THINKING SKILLS
What can you do to teach thinking? I am going to condense what I take to be the trend of contemporary
research into seven principles, each one of which seems to enhance the teaching of thinking, whether in a
subject matter context or in a stand-alone course. For convenience, let us use the one word "wit" to stand for
problem-solving ability, inventiveness, and whatever other capacities for thinking one might want to develop.
All seven of the principles have to do with two questions: "What is wit made of?" and "How does it get into
your head?" The general answer is: Wit in considerable part is made of thinking tactics, and we can improve
students' thinking by imparting a greater and more effective repertoire of tactics Three principles follow from
that, principles substantiated to some degree by existing research.
First Principle: Foster a tactical attitude. This broadest principle is perhaps the most important, too. It
recommends teaching in such a way that students begin to attend to their own processes and consider the tactics
they use to deal with a particular kind of situation, such as solving a math problem or writing an essay. By and
large, we tend to focus on the product in progress, the essay, for instance, or the problem solution, with little
attention left over for the process by which we create that product. A good deal of research suggests that skilled
problem solvers are often rather aware of the processes they use and that less skilled problem solvers can learn
to attend to and enhance their own processes simply by focusing on them from time to time and proceeding
more mindfully.
Second Principle: Make tactics explicit. This can mean one of two things It can mean direct teaching of
• explicit tactics—for instance, for mathematical problem-solving or writing. In the case of mathematical problemsolving, students can be taught strategies for making a diagram, considering a special case, or breaking problems
down into parts. But making tactics explicit does not necessarily mean "spoon-feeding" tactics to the students.
Direct teaching aside, it can also mean establishing an instructional context in which the attention of students is
drawn to the tactical side of things, and they are provoked into designing their own tactics and explicitly
articulating their tactics to themselves. Such an approach has been used for remedial math education where
students are asked to problem-solve by sitting with one another in pairs and talking about how they go about

doing what they are doing.
In regard to making tactics explicit, many people feel that this is somehow unwise, that what you should do

is set up a situation which is rich with the kind of thinking involved and expect students to soak it up.
Regrettably, the evidence is that this does not work, except for the more able student who will detect the pattern
even when it is not made explicit. Beware of the myth of "soaking up!"
Third Principle: Students need managerial as well as particular tactics. Managerial tactics mean tactics for
controlling the overall process of problem-solving or writing or whatever. Particular tactics are matters of
handling particular sub-problems that arise, like writing a paragraph or constructing an example. But besides
that, there is evidence that students need overall task management tactics, such as asking themselves these
questions every few minutes: "What approach have I been taking7" "Has that approach been working out
well?" and "Should I try a different approach?" Unless these high-level questions are asked fairly often,
students tend to lose their way amid the forest of lower-level tactics they may have acquired.
These three principles relate to the general point that wit is made up partly of tactics. Four more principles
are related to another notion—that wit is somewhat context specific. Research over the past decade has
disclosed that in such areas as mathematical problem-solving, history, problem-solving in physics, and so on,
there are a number of tactical principles that are particular to the discipline. You cannot expect to teach a
general problem-solving course that applies to everything in sight and have that course empower students

widely across all subject matters. What do we do about this?
Principle Four: Teach to the task. Think about what you want students to do and teach to that. For instance,
if you want students to reason well in writing essays, you do not teach symbolic logic. True, symbolic logic may
have something to do with reasoning well in essays, but characteristically, not enough; it is too different. Teach
reasoning in essayistic contexts if you want reasoning in essayistic contexts. Oddly enough, it is one of the

ixjfi Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

standard pitfalls of education that to get result A we teach B and hope it will somehow transfer to ^4! Why not
teach A in the first place?
Principle Five: Teach knowledge in action. There is a problem in psychology we call the problem of inert
knowledge. For instance, it is commonplace in medical training where students memorize a large body of facts;
they prove unable to martial these facts when it comes to diagnosis and treatment. The remedy for inert
knowledge is to teach knowledge in the context of active problem-solving, where the knowledge is put into use
as it is being acquired.

Principle Six: Teach for transfer.' In the past, it has been thought that if you learn some general principle in
context A, it would handily transfer to contexts B, C, D, and E. In the last decade, the problem of transfer has

emerged as one of the principle difficulties of teaching thinking skills. It turns out that people often do not
generalize; they do not carry principles over to other contexts. We have to fight against this by teaching for
transfer.

There are two broad ways to do this. One is by varied practice. Very often in instructional contexts the
practice is narrow. A few types of problems repeat over and over, and this tends to lead to learning that is
context-bound. If you calculatedly and drastically vary the kinds of problems to which principles are being
applied, you can help generalize the learning. The second method is explicit abstraction and application. That
is, students are directly provoked to generalize and apply in odd circumstances what has been taught.
Principle Seven. Bear in mind the generality-power trade-off. As mentioned previously, wit is somewhat context
specific; but it is not completely context specific. There are some general strategic principles that cut across
problem-solving of all sorts. For instance, spending time defining the problem is a time allocation principle that
applies in nearly any context and one that is widely neglected, too. In trying to capture both the generality and
the context specificity that are there, psychologists have come to speak of a generality-power trade-off This
means that the more general a tactical principle is, the less power it has in any one context. If you want math
scores and math scores alone to go up, then you teach to the task, focusing on general and specific tactics that
apply to mathematics. Some of them do not apply in general. If you want gains on a broad front, you' may
teach tactics of general problem-solving; and you will find gams on a broad front, but modest ones. This trade¬
off between generality and power has to be kept in mind when you make choices between such options as a
stand-alone course which is aimed at affecting change over a wide range of subject matters versus integrating

the teaching of thinking skills into a particular subject matter.
Let me review. "What is wit made of?" -and "How does it get into your head?" I have argued that,
according to recent experiments, it is quite possible to teach thinking skills. And I have urged that we, in fact,
know some general principles to guide the teaching of thinking skills both in stand-alone courses and in subject
matter contexts. The principles again were: foster a tactical attitude, make tactics explicit, teach managerial
strategies as well as particular strategies, teach to the task, teach knowledge in action, teach for transfer, and
bear in mind the generality-power trade-off in your instructional planning.
I find it very encouraging that at this point in time we have even those broad principles to guide such efforts.
Because, as broad as they are, those principles do argue against a number of approaches to the fostering of
thinking skills that have been taken in the past. I am encouraged by the notion that we may be able to engineer
such instruction

David Perkins
Harvard University
Edited from his oral presentation at the 1985 AAHE National Conference
For further information, contact the author at Harvard University, 315 Longfellow Hall, Appian Way,

Cambridge, MA 02138.

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
October 4, 1985, Vol. VII, No. 23
INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545 Subscriptions are available to nonconsoraum members for S35 per year Funding in part by the W K Kellogg
Foundation and Sid W Richardson Foundation Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1985
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel ISSN 0199-I06X