Shari Tishman, Eileen Jay, and D. N. Perkins

This paper was written as part of a project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The authors thank the foundation for its help, acknowledging that the ideas expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of supporting agencies.

Correspondence may be sent to: Shari Tishman, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 219 Longfellow Hall, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138

Teaching Thinking Dispositions: From Transmission to Enculturation

Can you play the piano? Do you play the piano? These are different questions, and your answer may well be "yes" to the first and "no" to the second. The first question asks about ability: If you sat down in front of a piano, could you play a tune? The second tacitly asks much more „Ÿ it goes beyond ability and asks about inclination: Are you disposed to play the piano? Do you like to play? Do you play regularly?

Playing the piano is like higher order thinking in at least this respect: in both cases, ability

We have argued that good thinking is a dispositional matter, comprised of a trio of abilities, sensitivities and inclinations. This challenges a skills-centered conception of good thinking that typically underlies the teaching of thinking, and calls for enlarged conception of what good thinking is made of. Equally importantly, it calls for an enlarged conception of what good teaching is made of.

It helps here to recall that the purpose of a dispositional conception of thinking is to go beyond abilities and explain how good thinkers are actually disposed to think and act. People's actions, including their intellectual actions, are typically linked to the contexts they find themselves in, and learning situations are no exception. In schools as in other settings, learners tend to act in ways cued and supported by the surrounding environment (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Costa, 1991; Perkins, 1992). With this in mind, we suggest that a conception of teaching appropriate to a dispositional model of thinking is an enculturation model of teaching „Ÿ a model that emphasizes the full educational surround. Whereas the transmission model only asks teachers to prepare and transmit messages about what students are required to learn, the enculturation model asks teachers to create a culture of thinking in the classroom.

Ennis, R. H. (1987). A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. In J. B. Baron and R. S. Sternberg (Eds.), Teaching thinking skills: Theory and practice. NY: W. H. Freeman.

Perkins, D., Jay, E., & Tishman, S. (in press). Beyond abilities: A dispositional theory of thinking. The Merrill-Plamer Quarterly.

1. The disposition to be broad and adventurous

Perkins, D. N. (1992). Smart schools: From training memories to educating minds. New York: Free Press.

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