Teaching Children to Think: How We Are Building Curious, Careful and Creative Minds

Every day, children meet more claims than any generation before them: a rumour passed along on a phone, a forwarded message, an advertisement, a story that sounds too good or too frightening to be true. Whether a child believes it, shares it or checks it depends less on how much they have memorised than on how they have learned to think.

This term, Ameen Islamic Institute is beginning a programme called Thinking Minds, designed to build exactly that skill.

Why this is necessary

A child who can only repeat what they are told is poorly prepared for a world in which false information spreads quickly. A child who has learned to ask ‘How do I know this is true?’, to give reasons, and to consider another point of view is far better protected, and far better equipped to learn.

Our faith asks the same of us. The Qur’an calls believers again and again to reflect and ponder, and it instructs them to verify news before acting on it. Thinking carefully is part of good character, and not a departure from it.

How we adopted it

We studied university material on critical and creative thinking and a briefing on intellectual skills for children, and we asked how much of it suits young learners. We kept the ideas that do: clear and fair thinking, giving reasons, checking evidence, imagining other possibilities, and thinking about our own thinking. We adapted the language for children, and we left out some popular ideas that do not hold up, such as the belief that people are either ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’. In fact, both sides of the brain work together on almost everything we do, and we will never label a child in that way.

We also looked at the research. It suggests that teaching children to plan, monitor and reflect on their own learning is among the most effective approaches available, especially when it is built into everyday subjects and not taught as a separate lesson. That is why our programme lives inside our daily teaching.

What it looks like in the classroom

We have organised the programme around seven thinking habits that children can remember: wonder, sort, reason, check, imagine, solve and reflect.

• Every day, teachers ask short questions such as ‘Why do you think so?’ and ‘How do you know?’
• In every subject, teachers add one thinking task each week: predicting and testing in science, explaining a method in maths, writing a different ending in language, giving reasons for a story’s lesson in Islamiyat.
• Once a week, children take part in a short thinking session built on games. They sort objects by secret rules, find many uses for an old sock, solve riddles, and practise thinking in a circle where everyone gives a reason and everyone listens.
• Through a game lab, our Truth Detectives sessions teach children how false stories are made and how to spot them, and then to stop, check and verify before they share.

Thinking with good manners

We want children who question with respect. They will learn to ask in order to understand and to check, to listen to parents, teachers and scholars, and to bring sincere questions, including questions about faith, to adults who will welcome them. Curiosity is never punished here, and our scholar guides us on religious questions.

What we will not do

We do not rank children by intelligence or give them labels. We do not give IQ-style tests. We look at each child’s own growth in their thinking habits, and we assess in the language they think in best, so that limited English never hides good thinking.

What you can do at home

You do not need books, money or special knowledge. A few simple habits make a real difference:

• Ask, don’t just tell. When you read or tell a story, pause and ask ‘What do you think will happen next?’ or ‘What if he had chosen differently?’
• Offer choices, and let your child make small mistakes. They are how children learn to decide.
• Link outings to lessons. A walk to look at plants, or a trip to the market to compare prices, is a lesson.
• Play with words: riddles, rhymes and made-up stories.
• Praise the thinking, and not just the answer: ‘I like your reason.’

What we expect, and how we will know

This term is a pilot, and we will be honest about what it shows. We will look at whether children give reasons, check what they hear and try more than one idea, and whether teachers find the approach manageable. Real change in how children think takes time, so the first meaningful comparison will come at the end of the term. We will share anonymised findings, including what did not work.

An invitation to parents

You are your child’s first teacher, and you know how they think better than anyone. If you would like to see the programme, try the games at home, or tell us what you notice, please speak to your child’s teacher or visit the Institute office.