Restructuring Schools Through the Teaching of Thinking Skills

T he current perceived need for instruction in thinking skills is partly the result of the growing national awareness that society has changed skills that were appropriate 15 years ago no longer prepare stu dents for the world outside the school. Such popular works as Megatrends (Naisbitt 1982), The Third Wave (Toffler 1980), and In Search of Excel lence (Peters and Waterman 1982) have argued that the very fabric of the business world has shifted from an emphasis on goods to an emphasis on information. Forbes (1984) states that technology is both creating and de stroying jobs. Many clerical and mid dle management positions are being phased out with nigh tech replace ments. However, the total number of jobs is increasing as technology opens up new work vistas. In short, societal changes are accelerating so rapidly that it is difficult to predict precisely what content to teach students if we define "content" as factual knowledge. The educational implication is that we must change our focus to teaching the skills essential to accessing, organiz ing, and using information. Many educational theorists believe that without this instructional shift education will maintain its strong soning function. For example, sociologist C. H. Persell (1977) documents exten sive evidence that public schools are in the business of sorting and classify ing students. In her report, Persell states that ".. .the institution of educa tion is called upon to maintain, repro duce, and legitimate the inequalities of society" (p. 30). Additionally, Hutchins (1983) and Block (1985) have used data summarized by Persell to build powerful arguments supporting the assertion that schools decide which students qualify for a quality education early in the school experience, and then reinforce that decision through out the K-12 system by use of teaching and testing practices that are opera tionally discriminatory. The present high school dropout statistics are alarming. Approximately 25 percent of the nation's population between the ages of 14-18 years are no longer enrolled in school. Esti mates of the size of this out-of-school population run as high as 40 percent in some larger ciu'es where the major ity of these youths are also members of minority groups. For example, in New York City, 50 percent of all high school age blacks and Hispanics have left school. Of these 40,000 teen-agers, only 9,000 will find jobs that match their skill levels. And of even greater concern are the vast numbers of high school graduates leaving school who are functionally illiterate, unprepared for existing jobs, and lacking in the knowledge to learn the skills needed to be productive members of society.