Teaching and Learning to Think: Impact on At-Risk Students

Teaching and Learning to Think: Impact on At-Risk Students

This paper reports an explicit and systematic teaching intervention on higher order thinking, infused in a curriculum program, focused on textual comprehension, composition, metacognition and positive thinking dispositions. 46 students at-risk of failure from the 6th grade followed the program in extra classes in Portuguese Language. Pre-tests and post-tests measuring reading comprehension and written composition were applied to them and to "regular" students. Term marks of both groups and of two control groups were compared. Students changed their thinking dispositions, had a significant gain in textual comprehension and composition compared with the regular group and had a significant gain in Portuguese Language, History and Science compared with the regular and control groups. Long-term effects one year later were detected.