ABSTRACT
This chapter defines what we mean by ‘thinking’, and presents a rationale for the teaching of thinking. Thinking processes or thinking skills are now usually defined by a broad description of what people do when they behave intelligently. Robert Sternberg, an eminent professor of cognitive psychology and foremost writer on intelligence, has provided a list of the abilities underlying intelligent behaviour which could be considered a broad list of thinking processes, independent of any one approach to the teaching of thinking. According to Sternberg, the teaching of thinking requires the teacher to ‘intervene at the level of the mental process and teach individuals what processes to use when, how to use them, and how to combine them into workable strategies for task solution’. The teaching of thinking is a complex task, as is clear from the list of abilities underpinning thinking, and the rationale for such a task.
