Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners

Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study.  Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines?small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps?as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon.

• Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion
• Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas
• Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies

The book also directs readers to online videos that demonstrate how Visible Thinking works in real classrooms.

Ron Ritchhart, Ed.D. is a senior researcher at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of Intellectual Character from Jossey-Bass.

Mark Church is the Learning, Assessment, and Instructional Resource Supervisor for the Traverse City Area Public Schools in Michigan.

Karin Morrison, educator and Children’s Rights advocate, is president of the Janusz Korczak Association Australia. Her experiences as in-school leader for the first Cultures of Thinking project, faculty member for Project Zero Summer Institutes, Project Zero Classroom and Future of Learning, contribute to her working with and for young people to have the right to quality education.