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Part One
Learning, planning and evaluation
Curricular planning must take into account the need to foster the
attitude to the metacognitive thinking in the construction, organisa-
tion and evaluation of activities. Speciically, the following objectives
should be taken into account by a curriculum oriented towards the
formation of a metacognitive attitude (Costa 2008).
A)
Learning to think
Human beings have a natural ability to think. To make the most bene-
it from this innate inclination however, someone must teach us “how
to think”. Just like an athlete with a natural predisposition still needs
to train to improve his skills, students need practice, concentration,
relection and a steady guide to learn how to think competently. If
thinking is innate in humans, competent thinking must be cultivated
over time. Cognitive processes and content (inter/transdisciplinary)
are inseparable. To achieve deep understanding a continuous use of
the abilities to compare, analyse, apply, transfer and assess are need-
ed: every classroom’s activity should be designed to achieve “compe-
tent thinking”.
B)
Think to learn
Knowledge is a process facilitated by the exchange of experience.
Classroom activities should therefore seize the opportunity arising
from the interaction within the class group proposing activities that
allow the continuous exchange/production of ideas. The content to
be learned is not the goal of the educational process, but the “ve-
hicle” to implement a learning process raising questions and prob-
lems capable to develop imagination and stimulates reasoning in a
non-judgmental atmosphere.
C)
Thinking together
The individual inluences the thinking of the group, and he is, in
turn, inluenced. The search of means to encourage group thinking
helps students build their own knowledge and the shared knowledge.
The teamwork allows more connections between different points of view in
order to solve problems, overcoming the limitations of individual perspectives
(Vygotskij, 1978). The development of the ability to work in a group
requires skills to relect seriously on problems and allow to set aside