在关于国内外教育方式比较的文章中，经常会提到国外教育重视对孩子思维能力的培养，而国内教育偏重基础知识的灌输。我就以洋洋近期的作业作为一个切入点，简单介绍一些学校教孩子思考的方法。

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其中一项作业是问孩子What would happen if…  chickens started laying solid gold eggs?(如果鸡开始下金蛋，将会怎样) 。这种题没有标准答案，就是鼓励孩子去思考，想法越多角度、越深入，越好，表现方式越多元越好（可用图表mind map、文字、图画等呈现）。

我把洋洋的回答放上，仅是作个参考。写这篇文章的主要目的是和大家分享这边学校培养孩子思考能力的方法，而不仅是语言。

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If chickens started laying only solid gold eggs, there would be no more chickens hatching and soon the chickens would be extinct. Also we can’t make delicious food that needs eggs ，like cakes.

If chickens started to lay both gold eggs and chicken eggs, at first lots of people will want to buy chickens to get gold and turn rich. But gradually gold will be no more special than rocks because chickens can keep on laying gold eggs.

还有一项作业是The X Factor, 让孩子自己选择一个名人，对这个人展开调查（research on this person），看看他的早期生活如何，有什么成就，写一篇这个人的传记（a biography report）。这需要教孩子学习如何搜集相关资料，分析整理出需要的信息，再归纳总结成报告。当然这是需要不断学习提高的能力，小学生还只是在学习、运用这种技能的初级阶段。这学期学校也有教如何写传记，（这是我到洋洋的教室翻看他的写作本才知道的，他在学校的本子平时都不拿回家，只有期末才拿回来），本上洋洋写了三篇传记类文章，一篇是新西兰一名体育明星传 (洋洋告诉我，老师发给每个小组一些关于某名人的材料，让孩子们阅读写作)，一篇是自己学校一名老师的传记（是让孩子们事先准备好几个问题，然后真的去采访这个老师，根据老师的回答写作），还有一篇是洋洋的自传（autobiography，老师有给出提纲-介绍家庭背景、兴趣爱好、取得的成绩、未来理想等）。

做这个作业时，洋洋自己选择写音乐家巴赫（可能因为最近刚听了介绍古典音乐家系列CD classical kids中的Mr Bach comes to call）。

Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in a town of Germany in 28 March 1685 and lived for 65 years.

Johann Sebastian Bach was the eighth child of Johann Ambrosius . Johann Ambrosius was a director of the town musicians and he taught Bach how to play the violin. When Bach was 7， he went to school where he received religious instructions. When Bach turned 9, Bach’s mother died and 8 months later, his dad died. Bach turned into an orphan after his parents’ death. His oldest brother Johann Christopher, a church organist took him in. Johann Christopher provided him some further musical instructions. Bach stayed with his brother’s family until he turned 15. Bach had a beautiful soprano voice which helped him land a place at a school in Luneburg. When his voice changed, Bach switched to playing the violin and the harpsichord. In 1703 he got a job as a musician at the court of - Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. There he was jack-of all-trades serving as a violinist at times and filling in for official organist in other moments.

Johann Sebastian Bach married twice and had 20 children, but 11 children died before him.

In his time Bach was a great organist but now we know him as one of the world’s most famous composers.

这次作业中还有写新闻报告这项，跟上次介绍过的作业要求一样，本来不想贴了。但正巧这次洋洋选择的新闻内容是关于狗的，所以还是贴上来，跟喜欢狗的那些朋友分享一下。

I am writing this report to share a piece of news from local newspaper. This news is about a puppy which is in training to be a guide dog.

Keaton, a seven-week old golden retriever puppy, is in training to help blind people. He was bred at NZ’s only guide dog centre in Manurewa.  He was taught social obedience right from the day he was born. After weaning, Keaton and his brothers and sisters will be sent to live with volunteer puppy walkers who teach them obedience, basic commands and how to stay calm in crowds. The pups will return to the centre when they’re one year old and will undergo an intense 5- month training course before they’re assessed to work with a blind human partner.  It’s a big responsibility to have a guide dog. It costs about 25000 dollars to breed and fully train each dog.

I am surprised about how much money needed to train puppies into guide dogs.

I feel proud of the puppies because they can help blind people and make blind people have a friend.

除了作业，再说说学校曾教过孩子使用的一些思维方法。

三、四年级时，教过Edward de Bono 博士的Six Thinking Hats，就是用六种颜色的帽子代表思考时的六个方面。

白帽子- 客观事实（facts,information），红帽子- 本能直觉、情绪（feelings, hunchers，intuition），黄帽子-积极方面 （optimism, value, benefit）, 黑帽子-不利因素（difficulties, danger, discernment）绿帽子-创造性 （possibilities, alternatives, new idea）, 蓝帽子- 是确保运行该思考体系的机制（control mechanism）。

今年五年级开学时，老师要求学生每周一提出本周目标，周五评估自己目标完成情况，还教了一个PPDAC体系（Problem, Plan, Data, Analyze, Conclusion）。

总之无论是从作业各项要求，还是在学校的写作，都是启发孩子去思考，表达自己的见解和想法。以前孩子低年级时，就知道这边学校重视阅读，而孩子上了5年级，写作方面的要求骤然增强，才知道原来从小学高年级开始，学校就如此注重写作能力的培养了，而没有前期的大量阅读做基础和思考方式的引导，写作水平也是不容易提高的。