1. Developing a Thinking Culture

2. Define Rank What does it mean ‘Thinking Skills’ ?

3. What are Thinking Skills ? focus on ‘knowing how’ rather than ‘knowing that’ learning how to learn embedded in all subjects present in all good teaching and learning Fisher, 2000

4. What are Thinking Skills ? The ability to reason To make informed judgements To critically evaluate information To think creatively To apply knowledge to solve problems The ability to think about thinking, metacognition Michael Pohl

5. Alphabet chart Record language associated with thinking What is the ‘Language of Thinking’?

6. Highlight higher order verbs Leave lower order verbs uncoloured What are higher order and lower order thinking skills?

7. new information and stored information interrelates and/or rearranges and extends this information to achieve a purpose to find possible answers in perplexing situations Lewis and Smith,1993 Higher Order Thinking Skills (H.O.T.S)

8. Lower Order Thinking Skills routine or mechanical application listing information inserting numbers Higher Order Thinking Skills to interpret to analyse to manipulate information L.O.T.S vs H.O.T.S

9. Thinking SkillsCognitive Goals Low LevelInformation and recall skills Knowledge Low LevelAbility to grasp the meaning Comprehension Mid LevelUse learned material in new and concrete situations Application High Level Ability to break down material into component parts to understand structure Analysis High LevelAbility to put parts together to form a new whole Synthesis High Level Ability to judge the value of material Evaluation

10. Essentially higher order skills are skills of the autonomous learner or the ‘executive control process’ of the able thinker and are those which many management courses seek to develop. Gagne 1975

11. Thinking Skills METACOMPONENTSPERFORMANCE COMPONENTS KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION COMPONENTS High Order Process controlling memory planning decision making evaluating What We Do remembering reflecting generating ideas problem solving Learning New Material seeing hearing physical/sensory experience Executive ControlOutputInput

12. Where is the evidence ? What specific strategies do you use in your teaching? MINDMAP RESPONSES Are thinking skills taught in our classrooms all of the time?

13. Evaluation Sequence Do we need to develop thinking skills in our classrooms? Yellow = Positive Black = Negative 1/2 of the room report the positive aspects and everyone else report back the negative aspects.

14. needs of people in the C 21 st increasing rate of change amount of information is doubling every 2.5 years problem solving skills are vital pupils need both higher order and lower order thinking skills Why do we need thinking skills ?

15. thought process connections between pieces of information easier recall break information into manageable amounts easier to see relationships formation of concepts Empowering thinkers to exchange and compare ideas, articulate points of view, defend their own thinking and examine thoughts of others. Why do we need thinking skills ?

16. ‘ Only more able children will be capable of higher order thinking’. Partners Brainstorm thoughts and opinions

17. Fluency: the number of responses Elaboration: a detailed idea Originality: unlike others in your group Score each extended brainstorm and total points. Extended Brainstorm

18. ‘Only more able children will be capable of higher order thinking’. almost literally stretch their minds they become cleverer, across the curriculum CASE programme (Cognitive Science Education) students achieved better across the board in all areas

19. ‘Only more able children will be capable of higher order thinking’. ‘thinking skills diet’ maximises our mental potential teaching pupils ‘how’ to think not ‘what’ to think

20. 1.How could a specific ‘thinking skills programme’ be implemented? 2.How would it link to the rest of the curriculum? 3.How essential is it that it becomes an integral part of each lesson? Use the first question and consider the following questions when completing your diagram. CONSEQUENCE WHEEL DIAGRAM

21. plaster approach - doesn’t stick thinking and solving problems that are real and relevant to our lives embed the skills in context and then reflect on our thinking processes deliberately work towards transferring those skills into a different context Belle Wallace, Teaching Thinking Skills Across the Primary Curriculum (2001)

22. A whole-school approach: Empower students Managing, organising and recording thinking Higher order thinking skills Transfer of skills for life-long learning An essential element in developing a thinking culture will be the explicit teaching of thinking skills to all students. Michael Pohl, Teaching Thinking Skills in the Primary Years, 1997.

23. A whole school approach for the teaching of thinking skills will assist in overcoming some of the less desirable practices to be observed in some school. e.g. ‘feast or famine syndrome’ ‘flavour of the month syndrome’ Michael Pohl, Teaching Thinking Skills in the Primary Years, 1997.

24. What evidence is there that teaching thinking skills makes a difference? THINK, PAIR, SHARE

25. As students are exposed to a range of thinking strategies their thinking skills will develop in many different ways; –critical –creative –problem solving and –metacognitive thinking

26. all individuals can improve their capacity to think all individuals are capable of reasoned decision making. modeling thinking skills supports the slow learners provides faster learners with skills for independent or small group work Belle Wallace

27. Lewis & Smith in a perplexing situation, higher order thinking is necessary higher order thinking skills are important for everyone, not an ‘extra’ teaching of higher and lower thinking skills may be closely interwoven in the classroom helping children with learning difficulties to develop skills in higher order thinking may be especially important

28. Use the question matrix at your table to design a range of questions. List questions you have regarding ‘thinking skills’.