One of the best sources for teaching inference as a thinking skill are advertisements. It does not matter if the advertisements are in pictorial form, just plain text, audio or even video. What is important is students be able to re-examine them. Therefore, video and audio advertisements would need to be recorded for this purpose.

Advertisements are produced to promote certain products or even values. They are designed to persuade the observer to a certain point of view. Students should be taught to be aware of why certain words are used. They should be made more conscious of the images that is being used in advertisements. In video and audio advertisements even the music and tone of the voiceovers can show attempts to persuade the observer. Advertisers also use colors to denote certain messages.

Teachers need to direct their students attention to these by asking them mainly the “why” questions. For example, why were certain words used? Why was the music upbeat? Why did they use a picture of a child? They must not tell the latter their thoughts about the advertisements. Let the students do the thinking. Let the students learn to do the interpretation. Allow for any plausible interpretation of the advertisements. Teachers can also engage the class in a  discussion of the varying interpretations of the same advertisements. The teacher can get the class to compare the interpretations and decide which of them is the better interpretation.

Using advertisements to teach eventually can be used a s precursor to the teaching of another more sinister form of advertisements. The teacher can then introduce the students to propaganda materials for discussion.

One of the easiest ways to teach the thinking skill of inference is come into a class and stand in front of the students with an angry, scowling face. Don’t say a word. Just glare at your students for a while until you see some reaction from them. Someone will probably ask you if something is bothering you or if you are angry at someone. That is making inferences.

One dictionary defines “inference” as “the process of arriving at some conclusion that, though it is not logically derivable from the assumed premises, possesses some degree of probability relative to the premises.” In plain English, we can say that inference is simply making a good guess about something based on some evidence or assumptions or premises about things that we already know or think we know. It can be said to be an “educated guess” that we make.

This skill, can also be taught to younger students. The example above is a good introduction for younger students too. We can use simple comic strips to get our students to start making good inferences or guesses. One box of a comic strip sequence can be blanked out. Get the students to study the strip and guess what is supposed to have happened in the blanked out box. Write down on the board all their guesses. Get the students to share their thoughts on why they made such conclusions. Accept any reasonable conclusion or inference made. The teacher can show them the original complete comic strip too and get the students to make comparisons between their conclusions and that of the comic strip.

Teachers can also use photograph or documents like letters or even advertisements from magazines new to give students more practice. A quick glance at the classified ads section will also give students an idea what jobs are in demand. Movies too can be used. For example, the movie, “The Sixth Sense” leaves us making guessing what the strange happenings was all about. Teaching moments pertaining to the teaching of inference skills can be found almost anywhere.

I enjoy using the cards from the game called “Mind Trap” to give more examples of us making wrong conclusions or inferences based on the assumptions in our heads. Get this game set. Even if you don’t play the game, the set of cards from Mind Trap is a fun teaching aid for teaching thinking skills.

However, remind your students that sometimes our assumptions may be wrong and this can lead to wrong conclusions. For example, at one time all the swans that the Europeans had seen were all white in color. It was therefore assumed that all swans, therefore were all white. But of course when they arrived in Australia they found black swans. This alone tells us that while we make good inferences about something, it may not always hold true. We still need to cross-check.

I thought we will have some fun here and hear what you think these two pictures together would infer about schooling today. Errr… for those who don’t know how, to infer you will need to do a comparison between the two pictures first. What are the similarities and the differences between the two. Then use your own prior knowledge about the subject of the two pictures to draw some of your own conclusions. That’s it! By the way, you won’t get any grade for this