Showing Students How to Think

"Professor, how do you do that?"

That's today's question, and I think it's worth thinking about. The link below mentions that we're all experts in our disciplines, and as such we approach our subjects in ways that our students do not.

Our ability to conceptualize an algebra problem, a history question, or a composition topic is greater than our students'. The trick is: don't just give them the problem, question, or topic. Show them step by step how you would work through it yourself. That, my friends, is instruction.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~facultycenter/weekly_teaching_note_feb_18_2008.shtml

And I would add this: make sure they learn not only how your thinking process works; make sure that they understand how their thinking process works. Force them to consciously think about thinking.