Ace the RICA Readiness Challenge 2025 – Amp Up Your Teaching Skills!

Modeling thinking in explicit instruction is a critical teaching strategy that involves demonstrating the cognitive processes involved in problem-solving or understanding content. Sharing thoughts aloud while solving problems effectively models this process for students. This approach provides transparency in the teacher's thought processes, allowing students to see how to approach tasks, make connections, and arrive at conclusions.

When teachers verbalize their thinking, they are not only showing how to tackle a problem step by step but also illustrating the rationale behind their decisions. It helps students understand the "why" and "how" of the learning process, fostering deeper comprehension and encouraging them to adopt similar strategies in their own work.

In contrast, avoiding detailed explanations does not provide students with the guidance they need; solely using visual aids fails to engage students in the cognitive processes involved in learning. Limiting student interaction can restrict collaborative learning opportunities and may hinder students from developing their thinking skills, which are essential to effective learning and problem-solving.