1. Developing Thinking Skills in Primary Classrooms Carol McGuinness School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast Email c.mcguinness@qub.ac.ukc.mcguinness@qub.ac.uk www.sustainablethinkingclassrooms.ac.uk NAHT Primary Conference 21 October 2009 Glenavon Hotel Cookstown Funded by ESRC TLRP, DENI, CCEA, ELBS

2. & Managing Information Working with Others Self-Management Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making Being Creative Northern Ireland Revised Curriculum

3. ACTS in Northern Ireland– a pedagogical intervention in primary classrooms Activating Working for Children’s SustainableThinking Skills Classrooms ACTS in Wales ACTS in Surrey ACTS in East Ayrshire

4. Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms of

6. Sequencing, ordering, ranking Sorting, grouping, classifying Analysing, identifying parts & wholes. Noting similarities & differences. Finding patterns & relationships. Comparing & contrasting. Making predictions & formulating hypotheses. Drawing conclusions, giving reasons. Distinguishing fact from opinion. Determining bias, reliability of evidence. Relating causes & effects, designing a fair test. What Kinds of Thinking? Generating ideas & possibilities. Building & combining ideas. Formulating own points of view. Taking multiple perspectives & seeing other points of view. Identifying & clarifying situations Generating alternative solutions Selecting & implementing a solution strategy. Evaluating & checking how well a solution solves problem. Identifying why a decision is necessary. Generating options. Predicting the likely consequences. Weighing up the pros and cons. Deciding on a course of action. Reviewing the consequences. Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms

7. Sequencing, ordering, ranking Sorting, grouping, classifying Analysing, identifying parts & wholes. Noting similarities & differences. Finding patterns & relationships. Comparing & contrasting. Making predictions & formulating hypotheses. Drawing conclusions, giving reasons. Distinguishing fact from opinion. Determining bias, reliability of evidence. Relating causes & effects, designing a fair test. What Kinds of Thinking? Generating ideas & possibilities. Building & combining ideas. Formulating own points of view. Taking multiple perspectives & seeing other points of view. Identifying & clarifying situations Generating alternative solutions Selecting & implementing a solution strategy. Evaluating & checking how well a solution solves problem. Identifying why a decision is necessary. Generating options. Predicting the likely consequences. Weighing up the pros and cons. Deciding on a course of action. Reviewing the consequences. Planning Monitoring Redirecting Evaluating Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms

8. Teachers are absolutely willing to invest effort in the instruction of metacognition within their lessons, but they need the ‘tools’ for implementing metacognition as a integral part of their lessons, and for making students aware of their metacognitive activities – and the usefulness of the activities. (Veenman et al. 2006)

9. Specific Kind of Thinking Topic or Concept Learning Intentions Infusion

10. Thinking Outcome Literature Outcome Curriculum Area Compare and Contrast Two winter poems English Identify similarities Language used Identify differences Style and mood Find patterns Personal preference Reach conclusions Example of Infusion Lesson English - Poetry

11. Examples of Lessons Compare and Contrast Two winter poems Two pieces of writing (redrafting) Properties of materials Pieces of music Decision Making Irish famine story A bullying story Generating Possibilities Measuring the assembly hall Helping children feel included

12. Examples of Lessons (contd) Whole/Parts Relationships Parts of a plant Parts of a sentence Ourselves (parts of the body) Classification Odd one out (numbers) Picture Classification Problem Solving Attacking a round tower Reliability of evidence Measuring wind speed with a wind stick

13. Key aspects of Thinking, Problem solving And Decision making ScienceMathsGeogHistoryMusicEnglish Sequencing and ordering Classification (comparing and contrasting) Making predictions Examining evidence (fact & opinion) Causal reasoning Opinions and conclusions Generating possibilities and solving problems Examining options (pros & cons) and making decisions Thinking across the Curriculum

14. Learning Intentions Topic/Thinking Thinking Actively Challenging Task Thinking Diagram Pair/Group Work Dialogue/Questioning Thinking about Thinking Reflecting Evaluating Applying Thinking Making connections

16. Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms From Swartz and Parks (1994) Examples of Thinking Diagrams

17. From Swartz and Parks (1994) Thinking Diagram:Choosing

18. Similarities How are they similar? Differences How are they different? COMPARE AND CONTRAST Did you notice any patterns?

19. CHOOSE ONE OPTION CHOICES What can we do? PROSCONS Is this a good choice? ___________________________ Give a reason for your answer? ____________________

20. The Whole One Part PARTS AND WHOLES ? What would happen if one of these parts was missing?

22. T: To help us make the decision we are going to use the method of the thinking diagram….we have used this before (teacher picks up diagram and shows it to the class). What’s the first thing we have to do…? (points to the diagram) P1: Brainstorm……. T: The first step is to brainstorm and to get the ideas ….and then we have to get the ideas down……..then what do we do…..Martin? P2 (Martin): We will vote and see what is best…… T: And how do we decide which one is best……? P2 (Martin): By getting the vote….. T: Before you do that…..Martin? P2 (Martin): do the pros and cons…. Recall of process Use of thinking language Making the process of decision-making explicit

23. T (returning attention to the whole class): Pros and cons are two new words for us this year, can you give me another way of saying pros….? P3: ….the positive P4: ….the pluses T : …pluses…., the good points, the positive things that can happen…… the cons are what…? P3: ….the minuses P5: the bad things…. T: …the bad things. So let’s go through that again. We are going to write down as many things as we can that can happen…, we then have to discuss them…., and then pick one, and then we are going to do the good points and bad points about it and that will help us make up our minds if that might be a good decision ……or not. Use of thinking language Summary of thinking process

25. Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms

27. T: …..four cons and four pros…..did it work out like that or did you try to get four pros and four cons…? P1: ….it just worked out.. T: Is it important that it just works out like that..? P2:..unless you get one pro……there is no point in doing it…. T: There’d be nothing positive….do you have to get four cons..? Ps (chorus): No….. T: Why not…? P3 (who hadn’t spoken before): One…. T: What do you mean …one? P3: You could have one con and lots of pros…. T: Yes…and the pros would win then….? P3: No….. P4 (another child chips in): …it could be so bad, like getting evicted or you could die…. T: It could be so bad that 10 pros wouldn’t be good enough…. (teacher gets distracted by something else in the room) Are we nearly finished…? P5: …even a thousand pros would not be good enough. Explicit examination of a thinking process Teacher challenges thinking Sustained dialogue Use of thinking language

28. T: Can you think of another time, or another topic we did or maybe something outside, where the parts have to work together to make the whole work properly, can you think of something like that …John? P1: The circuit, you have to made the circuit for the battery T: Yes, and we had the different parts of the electrical circuit – well done John – and we had to have all the parts working, if we hadn’t all the parts working, what would have happened…? P1: It would just get lost, you would have no electricity… T: You would have no electricity, remember we said that if you can’t make a circuit it wouldn’t even get started… P2: If it can’t find its way back home then it would break T: Excellent ……..is there another example you can give me where the parts work together? P3: A football team T: Ok, tell me about that P3: All the different positions need to work together and pass the ball T: Right and what will happen if they do that? P3: They will win T: Well, you might not win, but what would you have..? P4: a good team Making connections about parts/whole thinking Asks for connection Asks for a prediction Another connection Another prediction

29. T (changing focus): Last thing – can anybody think of a situation in their own lives where it might be useful to compare and contrast two things ….. The real life situation that I told you about at the beginning was choosing a class captain? (short silence) P5: If you were looking for a job..so let’s say you have T: …two job offers… P5: …and you don’t know which one to choose…and by looking at the similarities and differences it might help you understand which job is right for you. P6: Buying a house.. T: Explain… P6: You’re looking at two houses, and there is one that is cheap but it isn’t so good …hasn’t a garden and things like that… T: So it would help you weigh up two things like choosing a house… P7 (from the back of the room): If you got accepted by two universities you could see which one was better and it would help you decide which one to go to…. T: That’s a good example…. P8 (hesitantly but gaining in confidence): I got invited to two birthday parties and they were on the same day – and I had to decide which one to go to……. T: Very good……. Making connections about compare and contrast Asks for connection Uses thinking vocabulary

32. T: What do you think about working in the group, Mary? P1: Three brains are better than one and when we work together it gets the job done, we were able to get the work done much quicker, Rita and Mary were able to help me T: R and M were able to give you information to complete your work…. P2: A good thing about working in the group is…. cause you can get all different ideas and you can learn new things about them and I like it T: What helped you think today (are we listening?) P3: You can think more harder because you are thinking - would that be a good idea? And see, whoever you are working with can tell you T: Right, you can give each other ideas, you can bounce ideas off each other and say - What do you think of that? What was your idea there? Do you think this would be right? P4: You put more work into it cause if you were working by yourself you wouldn’t be thinking about it. (more talk) Invites an evaluation Another reason Refers to own thinking Makes a comparison Evaluating the merits of working as a group

33. Lesson Variation Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms LOW Use of thinking vocabulary (mainly by teacher) Overly teacher directed Practices as rituals (enacted as surface features) HIGH Evidence of the thinking process at all stages in lesson Pupils appropriated the vocabulary Pupils initiated reasoning, making connections Teacher prompts and questions

34. More ProActive Learners Impact of ACTS on students’ learninig MadeCognitive Worked MoreMetacognitive Harder EffortStrategies Time to buildModerate ability benefit most Improve Reading Maths Attainment

35. Being Metacognitive Explicit Deliberate Teaching Thinking Infusion Lesson Planning Classroom Talk Dialogic Collaborative

36. Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms The bigger picture……. ACTS in Northern Ireland ACTS in Wales (Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Afan Valley) ACTS in Surrey ACTS in East Ayrshire ACTS in Thailand National Curriculum Developments Northern Ireland: Framework for Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities - www.nicurriculum.org.ukwww.nicurriculum.org.uk Wales: The Skills Framework: Developing Thinking across the Curriculum ( BBC Learning Wales DVD) Scotland: LTS Journey to Excellence Website www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/learning/movies www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/learning/movies

37. Forthcoming publication McGuinness, C et al. Thinking Lessons for Thinking Classrooms: Tools for Teachers (Routledge, part of the TLRP Practitioner Series) Copyright ACTS II Sustainable Thinking Classrooms