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.

Charlotte Danielson (1996) pointed out teaching is not a random activity. It must have clear purpose. In other words, a teacher must be goal directed.  There are times when the students are also involved in these goal setting. This happens when the class behaves as a community of learners.

In instructional goal setting, the teacher must, as Danielson pointed out, among others, set goals which are “worthwhile and represent learning central to a discipline as well as high-level learning for the students.” This is to prevent learning becoming nothing more than a trivial pursuit game. It must have importance to the students.

Instructional goals must be spelt out clearly and they must be stated in terms of what students will learn. This may be concerned with skills, thinking, in addition to knowledge and understanding.

Instructional goals should also be measurable. This does not imply only the use of traditional pen-and-paper examinations. Alternative modes of assessment become important to measure the differing skills, thinking and conceptual understanding that the student is supposed to learn. Teachers and students alike must be clear what is the learning that is supposed to take place and how this earning is going to be measured or assess. It is even necessary sometimes for teachers to show how the assessment is to be done through samples of student work.

Instructional goals should also reflect that diversity of skills and abilities of the students under the teacher’s charge. A one size fits all approach is an injustice to the learners. It will also mean that the teacher does not take into account the differing levels of the students. The instruction will therefore be skewed toward either the better or weaker students or  the teacher may choose to adopt what the teacher considers to be the median level to accomodate the different learners.  All three option will mean that no one student will be taught according to his level which is against all known pedagogical principles. It makes teaching a farce.

To encourage students to think, teachers should fill their class with the language of thinking. Teachers can do this by labeling cognitive behaviors in the classroom (Fogarty, 1994). The label provides important information about the behavior that has transpired or will transpire. It will help both the teachers and the students to monitor their thought processes. This awareness of their thinking encourages the student and teacher to identify and understand what thinking process they are using.

According to Fogarty, this awareness of the thinking, or metacognition, also tends to encourage the teachers to seek out new thinking processes which they have not used in the classroom. Just as by looking at the labels on the cans in our pantry that certain types of canned food is absent, that assists us in our decision to purchase fresh new stocks, labeling our thinking processes makes it easier for us to be aware of not only what we have used but also what has not been used in the classroom.

Fogarty says that teachers therefore must develop a cognitive vocabulary for the classroom so that they and their students recognise clearly what thinking skill is being used. When a student demonstrates a thinking skill without realizing it, the teacher must draw the attention of the class to the correct cognitive label for that thinking skill. If for example, a student is sorting out the different kinds of fruits according to some criteria, then the teacher should tell the class that the stduent is classifying the fruits.

A common cognitive vocabulary or label for thinking helps to avoid confusion about the different thinking skills. In addition, the creation of a common cognitive vocabulary will help students to recognise the cognitive skills being used and also allow them to eventually generalize and apply these labels in other situations. This is essential for transfer of learning to take place. The teacher who wants a class that thinks must create a class that uses cognitive vocabulary for in the words of Vygotsky:

“…thinking is embedded in the language of the classroom.”