Literature Review in Thinking Skills, Technology and Learning

Rupert Wegerif

01 January 2002

The purpose of this report is:

• to clarify what is meant by thinking skills and their relationship to technology
• to identify the role of ICT in promoting thinking skills
• to produce guidelines for the development of digital learning resources to support the teaching and learning of thinking skills
• to evaluate the general direction of research in this area and how this should inform educational practice.

The use of new technologies is often linked to the development of thinking skills or ‘higher order thinking’. This review will explore some of the claims that have been made in this area and summarise the useful findings that emerge from research. There is a range of different approaches to understanding thinking skills and learning, each one of which has an impact on how the relationship between thinking skills and technology is conceptualised. The first part of the review explores the literature about teaching thinking skills and their relationship to technology. The second part focuses more on technology, exploring claims that have been made about the relationship of information and communications technologies to the development of thinking skills.