Struggling with students who need more skills on being a flexible thinker? Here you’ll find the flexible thinking meaning as well as some examples. Plus you’ll find some activities to help others work on improving this important skill.
What Is Flexible Thinking
The flexible thinking definition is the ability to cognitively think about something in a different way. This is often thought of as one’s ability to have a problem and come up with a solution. But not just one solution, many. Then look at those different solutions and select the best response.
Oftentimes, when speaking about this subject you’ll hear flexible thinking vs stuck thinking.
Stuck (or rigid) thinking is when someone has a problem and can only come up with one (or sometimes none) solution. Many times this one way to solve the problem isn’t a good way and can lead to either a negative outcome or take a really long time. Also when rigid thinking occurs it can cause a person to get stuck in the problem. They have a hard time solving the issue, no matter the size of the problem, and moving on.
Many times when students struggle to be a flexible thinker, they struggle with behavior in general. Inappropriate behavior can be difficult to figure out and develop a plan for. Grab this free 5 step process to write an amazing behavior plan. You’ll get a step-by-step guide sent straight to your inbox to figure out tricky student behavior. Just tell me where to send it to:
For even more information on what is flexible thinking, check out this article for the scoop.
Flexible Thinking Examples
Here are a few examples of being flexible in your thinking.
Example 1: Leo wanted to swing but all the swings on the playground were being used by other kids.
Flexible thinking ideas:
- Wait until someone is done.
- Play something else such as going down the slide or with a ball.
- Ask someone on a swing if he can have a turn.
Rigid thinking: think he is never going to get to go on the swing and begin to cry or get mad.
Example 2: Hadley wanted graham crackers for a snack but they were all gone.
Ways of flexibly thinking:
- Pick something else for a snack.
- Find a snack that is similar to graham crackers to eat.
- Ask her parent to put graham crackers on the grocery list so she can have them next time.
Rigid thinking: refuse to eat leading to hunger and crabbiness.
Scenarios are a great way to help students better understand flexible thinking. An easy way to do this is to make some flexible thinking task cards like these. Simply write different situations down and have students tell what kind of thinking is happening.
To further the discussion, have students state how they know. For even more of an extension idea, any situation that shows rigid thinking, have students come up with ideas of how it could change into being a flexible thinker.
For even more flexible thinking scenarios, click to read this article.
Flexible Thinking Activities
Flexible thinking is something that takes practice.
Check out these flexible thinking exercises to get students practicing this critical skill.
Flexible Thinking Books
A great way to teach this social skills topic is with books. Kids love colorful graphics and reading stories about other children.
While reading, make sure to stop at various spots in the book where thinking happens. Have students state if the thinking was flexible or not. Then have them say how they knew. Lastly, have them predict what will happen next (good or bad) due to the thinking style.
Need a book to introduce the topic? Check out Flexible Thinking Ninja in the Ninja Life Hacks series by Mary Nhin. This is a wonderful book to use when learning about this topic (or as a way to reteach this social skill). It starts off by giving examples of the main character being a rigid thinker. (And as a positive all the characters are ninjas which so many children love and connect with.) The book goes into different strategies that a person could use to be a more flexible thinker in situations. The graphics are so colorful and somewhat simple so there isn’t too much on a page to get distracted with.
For some ideas for another flexible thinking book, check out this post.
Flexible Thinking Videos
Using videos is another great teaching tool. Videos can really help sustain student attention and help them to better see the concept in action.
Using short movie clips is the best way to incorporate them into your lesson. Think 30 seconds to no more than 2 minutes. Character’s actions, emotions, and thinking change so quickly that anything long can tend to be confusing when trying to pick out a specific example. Really zero in on one specific time for videos to be effective when looking at a flexible thinking moment.
It is also a great idea to give students a heads up that they will be looking at the style of thinking that is taking place. Also, tell them which specific character to watch. This again helps them to zero in on the situation/thinking style.
Flexible Thinking Worksheets
While worksheets don’t sound like the most engaging way to learn about this topic, they can be great when done correctly. To do this correctly, make sure to change the type of activity students are doing. This could be matching, cutting & pasting, making situations comic strips, drawing pictures, or even tracing important vocabulary words.
What students learn with worksheets should vary too. Defining important terms is a great place to start. Adding in some scenarios is a good second step. Differentiate by having some worksheets matching situations and thinking while having others come up with the thinking when given a scenario. A third great topic area is strategies to use when thinking. Giving students these types of topics in varying formats can make flexible thinking worksheets interactive and useful.
Don’t have time to create your own worksheets? Then check out these flexible thinking worksheets to save yourself time. You’ll find a 5 page flip book explaining the keywords of this important social/emotional skill. Following this is 15 additional worksheets using different types of activities defining, giving scenarios, and strategies. Students will love the engaging content and variety and you’ll love how it is print and go. Grab these flexible thinking worksheets pdf format for your next social skills group.
Hopefully, you gained some clarity on what flexible thinking skills are. Plus got some ideas for interactive activities to do with students to help learn this important social skill.
Happy Teaching!
