Developing Thinking Routines Instructional Design Principles

Abstract

The concept of making thinking visible and thinking routines (TRs) have been widely adopted in teaching practice and shown to yield positive learning impact in previous research. However, a gap exists between the high-level theoretical principles and practical application. Thus, our aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by developing and testing the thinking routines instructional design principles of (TRIDPs) through three design-based research (DBR) iterations in a course on social issues from English movies at a Taiwanese university. We aligned the 3-phase DBR model and conjecture mapping for a systematic evaluation, depicting a detailed design history and trajectory of TRIDPs evolution. Our research has produced six TRIDPs. The iteration process also furthered our understanding of both learning process and outcome in a TRs-embedded classroom. We believe our TRIDPs and revised conjecture map offer useful model for those interested in TRs-embedded instruction.