The document discusses cognition and cognitive skills in the context of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). It defines cognition as thinking skills that drive the teaching and learning process. It categorizes cognitive skills as lower-order thinking skills like remembering and dividing, or higher-order thinking skills like reasoning and evaluating, and notes the importance of scaffolding tasks to appropriately challenge learners' cognitive abilities.

1. COGNITION AND CLIL
G1469 – AICLE – Prof. Isadora Norman

2. 4 Cs of CLIL
Content Communicati
on
Cognition Culture
4 Cs of
CLIL
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

3. Cognition or “Thinking Skills”
Thinking drives the
teaching/learning process
Mehisto, et al. (2008) Uncovering
CLIL

4. Cognition or “Thinking Skills”
The more powerful the
thinking, the greater the
learning
Mehisto, et al. (2008) Uncovering
CLIL

5. Cognition or “Thinking Skills”
 Students need to be involved in the
creation of meaning
 In other words, new knowledge and
skills need to be applied in a
meaningful context.
Mehisto, et al. (2008) Uncovering
CLIL

6. Cognitive or “Thinking Skills”
 Concrete thinking skills:
Identifying
Organizing
What, when, where, which, who, how
many?
 Abstract thinking skills:
Reasoning
Hypothesising
Why and what if?
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

7. Examples of Cognitive Skills
 Classifying
 Comparing and
contrasting
 Creative
thinking/synthesis
 Defining
 Dividing
 Evaluating
 Hypothesising
 Identifying
 Ordering
 Predicting
 Rank ordering
 Reasoning
 Remembering
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

8. LOTS and HOTS
 Lower order thinking skills (LOTS)
 Remembering
 Dividing
 Higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
 Reasoning
 Evaluating
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

9. LOTS and HOTS
LOTS HOTS
To remember information To develop reasoning skills
To order information To develop enquiry and
discussion
To define objects To develop creative thinking
To check understanding To evaluate the work of
oneself and others
To review learning To hypothsesis about what
could happen
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

10. Cognition skills
 Tasks need to be progressively more
challenging -> SCAFFOLDING
 Learners need a language-rich classroom with
key vocabulary available just-in-time
 Learners need wait time
 We need to scale the cognitive demands of
our tasks to our learners’ level
 The more difficult the task, the more warm-up
and support needed.

11. Questions in the Classroom
Types of thinking Types of Questions
Concrete thinking (defining)
(recalling facts)
What is a race?
When did the race start?
Reasoning (examining parts
and how they relate)
Why is this an abstract
painting?
Creative (imagining) How would you paint these
shapes to show actions?
Abstract (finding patterns
and connections)
What links can we make
between the artists’ ideas?
Evaluate (judging) How has your work
improved this term?
Bentley (2010) The TKT Course: CLIL
Module

12. Activity: Coming up with
questions
 Language Learning
 Experiences in Primary School
 Experiences in Secondary School
 Experiences during Practicum last year
 Transition from Secondary School to university