Post on 02-Jan-2016
School Improvement Service
Sue Atkinson – Science Consultant sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk
Developing Thinking Skills
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Starter Activity 1:Maths puzzle
• Your task is:• Using numbers 1-8, to put a number in each
circle so that….• No two consecutive numbers must be in
adjacent or connected circles.• To be able to explain how you did it!
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Learning outcomes
By the end of this session you will……
• have tried out a variety of strategies• have had time to reflect on how you could
adapt these to use in schools.• know where to go to find out more.
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Can thinking be taught?
Regardless of our age, perceived ability or background, we can all improve our thinking with encouragement, guidance and practice.
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Can thinking be taught?
Six key principles for teaching thinking:• Active – explore ideas• Meaningful – relevant to everyday life• Challenging – cognitive challenge• Collaborative – differences of opinion• Mediated – act as guide/adviser• Reflective – what/how they have learnt
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The five ‘Thinking skills’ which pupils need to develop, as defined in Curriculum 2000 are:
• Information-processing skills eg. Sort, classify, sequence, analyse relationships
• Reasoning skills eg. Give reasons for opinions and actions, draw inferences, make deductions, making judgements informed by evidence
• Enquiry skills eg. Ask relevant questions, pose and define problems, predict outcomes, anticipate consequences
• Creative thinking skills eg. Generate and extend ideas, suggest hypotheses, look for alternative outcomes
• Evaluation skills eg. Evaluate information, develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others’ work
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Activity 2: Collective memory
• Your task is to work as a team to make a copy of the poster onto A3 paper.
• Try to ensure you include the key messages and information.
• Each member of the team, in turn, will only get 30 secs to look at the poster.
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What is the most powerful learning that has taken place here?• The strategies devised by the group• The conversations taking place• The collaboration
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Activity 3: Carousel
• You will have 3 minutes at each ‘station’ to try out the activity.
• Complete the task by ticking the relevant boxes on the grid, to record which thinking skills are used in each activity.
• Then think about if/ how you might use/adapt each one for your students.
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For effective group work:• Children need to be taught how to work well in
groups• Structure the task: ‘Chunk’ it up into smaller steps• Give clear time limits - and stick to them! (use a
countdown timer on screen?)• Give clear success criteria – what are they trying
to achieve?• Learning objectives and outcomes should
emphasise skills, not just knowledge.
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TEEP Visual Tools
• The booklets provide a range of further ideas and strategies to promote thinking skills, with templates to use.
• The bookmarks provide a useful reminder of some of these ideas to keep handy.
• You have 3 mins to look at these resources and consider how you might use them
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Where to get more ideas from?
• Thinkers Keys for Kids• By Tony Ryan, Special Needs (G&T)
consultant, Queensland, Australia• 20 Thinkers Keys to stimulate thinking
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Where to get more ideas from?
• Visit the TeachFind website at www.teachfind.com and ‘search’ for either ‘Thinking skills’ or ‘Leading in learning’, in either Primary or Secondary phase.
• Subject-specific exemplars
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Where to get more ideas from?• Teaching Thinking Pocketbook• A troubleshooting approach takes five types of
thinking that students typically struggle with - processing information; reasoning; inquiry; creative thinking; evaluation - and matches then with 'thinking tools'.
• Available from Amazon for £7.55 + free delivery
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Where to get more ideas from?
• Go to www.yorkla.org (then to Teaching & Learning/ Science/Thinking skills) for all the resources from this session
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Summary: To stimulate thinking …..It is NOT about giving pupils the right answer. Rather, it is about developing the skills needed through learning which is:
• Active– exploring ideas• Meaningful – relevant to everyday life• Challenging – cognitive challenge• Collaborative – differences of opinion• Mediated – act as guide/adviser• Reflective – on what/how they have learnt