Mind Trap is a game that requires the players to think. For teachers who want to teach thinking skills, the cards that comes in the Mind Trap box are wonderful teaching resources. You do not even have to play the actual game. Just use the cards.

However, the teacher must select the most appropriate cards for the class. For starters, it should not be too difficult. Look at the cards and the answers and decide accordingly if they fit your needs. When selecting the cards, also think of how you will want to guide your students to get the solution.

The teacher can use a collaborative learning approach. The teacher can divide the students into teams of fours or twos. The teacher can either read out the question or puzzle or even flash it on a screen with a projector. Tell the students to read the question and give them time to think through individually first. They should not discuss with anyone at this stage.

Only after some individual thinking will they share their thoughts with their team members. Only after they have agreed upon an answer with their team members will one member of the team raise their hand to answer the question. If the answer is incorrect, it is left to the other teams to answer. If all teams cannot provide the correct answer, then all will discuss again in their group to arrive at the answer. If the correct answer is given, the teacher may want to ask the other groups for their solutions first before confirming the answer. The teacher may want to the team that gave the correct answer to explain their thinking to the rest of  the class. Only assist in the explanation if the group has extreme difficulty in doing so.

If no one can provide the correct answer, the teacher can facilitate their thinking by asking them why they came up with the answers they had given earlier. This guiding process is essential and this is why the teacher must think through before hand how to guide the stduents before teh teacher shows them the question or puzzle. The teacher may ask them what assumptions had they made in trying to answer the puzzle. The teacher may want to ask them to re-look at the assumptions and raise other possible assumptions other than the ones that they have already thought of. Thsi process is essential if we want to teach the students to think. We are in effect modeling our thinking aloud for them to “see”. After the explanation is given, get the students to “replay” the thinking process in their minds aloud before moving on to the next puzzle.