Meta Principle: Make Thinking Visible

This meta-principle brings together several pedagogical principles that support the creation of visibility (or externalization) of the ways of thinking of learners and experts. The externalization of thinking constitutes a foundational process in human learning. The very act of searching for ways to express ideas through different modalities (e.g., visually or verbally) enables learners to better understand the structure of their own knowledge, that is, the ideas themselves and the relationships among those ideas. Externalizing knowledge structures allows learners to distinguish between ideas that are clearer to them and those that remain less clear and require further learning.

There is also value in exposing learners to the ways of thinking and knowledge structures of experts. Diagrams, tables, models, and other visual representations may assist learners in examining and developing their own networks of ideas in relation to scientific knowledge. To support this process, the means used for externalizing ways of thinking should be adapted to the learners and to the learning contexts.

The pedagogical principles associated with this meta-principle explain how to support both the externalization of learners’ ways of thinking and their exposure to and engagement with the ways of thinking of experts. This can be achieved through a variety of digital and/or physical means, whether dynamic or static, two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional, and so forth.