The think-aloud strategy is a learning process that requires students to say out loud what they are thinking about when they are reading, solving a math problem or responding to questions posed by the teachers or other students. Effective teachers should learn and use this strategy on a regular basis to teach and model this process to his or her students (Molly, 2014). The teaching strategy has been used for a long time to help students learn and understand how to monitor their own thoughts. More specifically, this paper discusses the detention of the think-aloud strategy, why the strategy is used, implementation of the think-aloud strategy, where the strategy is applied, advantages and disadvantages of the think-aloud strategy, and lastly, the best activity to use that is related to the strategy.
Think aloud strategy is used to help all students monitor their thinking and also their understanding while reading a text. Further, the technique helps students improve their comprehension, for it allows them to internalize and think deeply about what they are saying (Molly, 2016). In some cases, the method is used in single-user performance evaluations. The method was originally used by cognitive psychologists to collect and obtain data about how humans cognitively process information. Conversely, using the think-aloud strategy may be uncomfortable and unnatural to some people. When using this strategy, it is important for a teacher or an evaluator to let the students know that they are interested in what they are thinking about a text or a task at hand. The think-aloud strategy is used by teachers at the primary grade level to help students learn and understand a test more clearly.
This strategy is implemented by following certain procedures. First, the teacher models the strategy by orally communicating what he or she thinks about the text at certain points that may be confusing or challenging for the students. To support the strategy, the teacher discusses questions that are brought up by the students while reading the text. Some of these questions include ‘What do I know about this topic?’, ‘ Do I understand what I have just read?’, and ‘ What new information did I just learn?’. Other thoughts may arise, such as ‘So far I have learned …’, ‘This made me think of..’, and ‘ I think the most important part was..’. Teachers should allow the students to practice asking these questions aloud to themselves as they read a text or when solving a math problem. Further, the think-aloud strategy can be implemented in groups, individually or between two people. As the students read a text aloud, occasionally stop to think aloud and then ask and answer some of the questions that may arise. Jennifer and Theodore (2014) assert that students who apply think-aloud strategies gain larger background knowledge and understanding of a text than others.
Using the think-aloud strategy has its benefits and advantages. Some of the advantages include helping students to build comprehension, slowing down the reading process, which in return allows students to understand the text on a deeper level, and lastly, helping the user to focus and concentrate while looking for answers. However, the use of the think-aloud strategy has its disadvantages. Using the think-aloud strategy is sometimes unnatural, uncomfortable, and distracting to some people. Also, it slows thinking processes, which increases mindfulness, preventing errors that normally occur in an actual working background. Lastly, it is exhausting to verbalize a thought process for a long time.
The think-aloud strategy is also used in identifying students strengths and their weaknesses, therefore, it is used to assess student’s problem-solving skills in math. Teachers use this opportunity to listen to a student as he or she goes through every step to find a solution, which helps assess all the strategies that the student is using. Additionally, this activity allows the teacher to pinpoint if the students are using the strategy effectively. Using a think-aloud strategy when solving a math problem helps the student to build comprehension, become exceptional in their understanding, and motivate him or her to work on more problems since there are solutions for every problem (Jackson, 2016).
References
Ness, M. (2014). Helping elementary teachers to think aloud. Reading Horizons, 53(2), 2.
Ness, M. (2016). Learning from K-5 teachers who think aloud. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30(3), 282-292.
Cromley, J. G., & Wills, T. W. (2016). Flexible strategy use by students who learn much versus little from text: transitions within think‐aloud protocols. Journal of Research in Reading, 39(1), 50-71.
Jackson, V. (2016). Applying the Think-Aloud Strategy to Improve Reading Comprehension of Science Content. Current Issues in Education, 19(2).
