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The conclusions presented in this article were done as a result of analysing the following data:

  Expert (experienced) teachers Non-expert (non-experienced) teachers
Nr of teachers Three language teachers Three language teachers
Nr of lessons analysed 15 lessons (40 min each) 8 lessons (40 min each)

 

The more detailed information on the expert teachers and the reasons for labelling them as ‘experts’ (experienced) is presented below:

  • Teacher 1 – EFL teacher. Expert in the development of learners’ inventive thinking skills (results supported by the research ) with more than 10 years of teaching for thinking experience.

Refer to the following article for more details on the results: Sokol A., Oget D., Sonntag M., Khomenko N. (2008). The development of inventive thinking skills in the upper secondary language classroom. Thinking Skills and Creativity 3 (2008). ELSEVIER. 34-46.

  • Teacher 2 – EFL teacher. Expert in the development of learners’ inventive thinking skills (results supported by the research ) with more than 8 years of teaching for thinking experience. 

Refer to the following article for more details on the results: Sokol A., Oget D., Sonntag M., Khomenko N. (2008). The development of inventive thinking skills in the upper secondary language classroom. Thinking Skills and Creativity 3 (2008). ELSEVIER. 34-46.

  • Teacher 3 – Teacher of Russian as a mother tongue. Expert in the Developmental Education (for references, see Leont’ev, Davidov, Elkonin, Repkin) . In 1997 has got the title of the best teacher of Russian as a mother tongue; has more than 3 years of experience in teaching for inventive thinking.

For references on Developmental Education (from Russian, Развивающее обучение), check the following authors Leont’ev A., Davidov V., Elkonin D., Repkin V. (from Russian, Леонтьев А., Давыдов В., Эльконин Д., Репкин В.).

 

The non-expert (non-experienced) teachers are those who have no strong background in any thinking-related education and no data is available to support their expertise. One of these teachers has only one year of teaching for thinking experience, while two others have been working with the Thinking Approach for around three years. All of the teachers are EFL teachers apart from one who is a teacher of Russian as a mother tongue.


The limitations of the given study is clear cut. The data available for the analysis was only that coming from language classrooms. In addition, all the lessons were organised in a school context ranging from basic to secondary school students so no data is available for making any conclusions about application of the TTF for organising learning in a non formal context. In addition, more data coming from both expert and non expert teachers is needed to make any firm conclusions on the findings presented in this article.


Despite the given limitations, the study allowed me to make the first conclusions on what expert (experienced) teachers do differently in the classroom when they apply the Thinking Task Framework for constructing and conducting their lessons. I am presenting below the three main differences that I discovered.

 

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