NQT Spring Conference Thinking Skills in a Creative Curriculum Wednesday 6 th March 2013 Mark Higginbottom

NQT Spring Conference Objectives Develop a clear understanding of how, by using thinking skills, pupils can focus on ‘knowing how’ as well as ‘knowing what’ – learning to learn, during lessons Recognise why teaching thinking is important across all key stages Outcomes Have successfully used five thinking skills strategies and considered the pedagogy underpinning each strategy Reflected how each could be planned for, developed further and used in your own classroom(s)

NQT Spring Conference Starter Activity Odd One Out. Traffic Management Tasks 1 Decide which is the odd one out and why? What connects the other three? 2 Think about how you are thinking. Act metacognitively. Are you processing information, reasoning and explaining?

NQT Spring Conference Thinking skills in the classroom Lessons that are effective in developing thinking skills have the following characteristics. Pupils are given open and challenging tasks that make them think hard. Pupils are encouraged to use what they already know so that new learning is built on existing knowledge structures. Opportunities are offered to work in collaborative groups where high-quality talk helps pupils to explore and solve problems. Pupils are encouraged to talk about how tasks have been done. This gives them the opportunity to gain insights into how they have learned and helps them to plan their future learning. There are learning outcomes at different levels. Some relate to the subject content but others relate to how learning can be used in other contexts. The aim is for pupils to be able to apply these strategies independently.

NQT Spring Conference By using thinking skills, primary pupils can focus on ‘knowing how’ as well as ‘knowing what’ – learning to learn; The thinking skills specified in Curriculum 2000 for KS1 and KS2 Information Processing Reasoning Enquiry Creative thinking Evaluation

NQT Spring Conference By using thinking skills, secondary pupils can focus on ‘knowing how’ as well as ‘knowing what’ – learning to learn; In the secondary curriculum, from 2007, PLTS support the delivery of the curriculum to meet the three aims; ‘The curriculum should enable all young people to become: Successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society

NQT Spring Conference Strategies to support delivery of the primary NC thinking skills and secondary PLTS. It is important to understand how a particular strategy makes pupils think in particular ways…..you have to understand HOW and WHY the strategy works in order to ensure it serves a purpose and is not ‘just a bit of fun’. 1 Classifying 2 Living graphs 3 Mysteries 4 Reading images

NQT Spring Conference Classifying A thinking skill we use naturally to organise information and ideas. A vital skill for processing information and for the ability to use and apply information in new ways. A common way of setting up a classification task is by means of a card sort or using objects. Classifying enables pupils to identify common features, improves their ability to handle and interpret information and enables them to retrieve information from their long-term memory more easily The classification activity can also support literacy… Cards can be used from other thinking skills strategies such as odd one out. Activity Battle of Hastings

NQT Spring Conference Living graphs Living graphs (along with fortune lines) is a strategy related to graphical representation. It requires pupils to consider how one variable relates to another, such as the heart rate of a football player over the period of a match or the mood of Hamlet during different episodes of the play. A line is presented, together with a set of related statements. Pupils position the statements on the graph and give reasons to justify their decisions. It moves pupils beyond the world of plotting points and reading off values! It supports the active construction of real life meaning from line graphs. Pupils are encouraged to suggest hypotheses and to give reasons for opinions and deductions based on what they think the graphs indicate. It makes pupils think, talk and ask questions. It raises their awareness that a variety of answers is sometimes possible. It reinforces the importance of explanation and reasoning and encourages pupils to think beyond what appears on the page Activity. The climate of Rio de Janeiro

NQT Spring Conference Mysteries Pupils are presented with 15 to 20 items of information/data on slips of paper about a situation where there is a single open question or problem for them to resolve. Statements can be generic, background information, specific detail and sometimes ‘red herrings’, but always there is an element of uncertainty or ambiguity. Mysteries help pupils deal with ambiguity, to make links between disparate, apparently unconnected pieces of information, fit them together to make sense of disorder, read between the lines, come up with a variety of ideas and evaluate them. They do this through addressing a central question which has no single correct answer and where they are not even sure what information is relevant…rather like real life! Pupil thinking is evident as they move the slips of paper around Activity. Who killed Enid?

NQT Spring Conference Reading images A very basic but powerful technique. Provide pupils with an image with a border as a source of information and ask them to annotate or label it. The questions they ask of the image and each other are often referred to as the 5W’s

NQT Spring Conference

Objectives Develop a clear understanding of how, by using thinking skills, pupils can focus on ‘knowing how’ as well as ‘knowing what’ – learning to learn, during lessons Recognise why teaching thinking is important across all key stages Outcomes Have successfully used five thinking skills strategies and considered the pedagogy underpinning each strategy Reflected how each could be planned for, developed further and used in your own classroom(s)

NQT Spring Conference Plenary The lesson plenary, its purpose and questions to ask. See handout. Next actions What will happen when? How will you start or further develop short and medium term planning to incorporate specific thinking skills strategies. How will you further broaden your repertoire? See book list. How will the NC 2014 support/allow the use of thinking skills? Complete aide- memoir sheet

NQT Spring Conference References Thinking through series… Chris Kington publishing Kagan Sutton Trust toolkit DCSF: Secondary National Strategy; Leading in Learning WSI