TEACHING THINKING CERTIFICATE

1. TEACHING THINKING CERTIFICATE

2. COURSE STRUCTURE • 12 – 15 hours of taught time plus approx. 10 hours of planning and teaching time. • Full Half Half Half • day day day day research research research

3. ONE DAY INTO HALF A DAY! • HALF A DAY • S • Principles S • S • Context S • S • ONE DAY • Principles S • S • Context S • Input S • Processing S • Sorting SSS

4. Teaching Thinking Strategies DIAMOND RANKING What Was the War in Iraq About?

5. Factors Affecting the Movement of an Object gradient lubricant mass temperature friction roughness of object time density roughness of surface

6. Teaching ThinkingWhat Are Thinking Skills ? So what kind of thinking were we doing? In pairs, please make a list of at least 5 types of thinking you used in the opening activity, eg negotiating.

7. Types of Thinking

8. PRINCIPLES • 1. There is more than one credible answer and/ or there is more than one way to reach an answer. 2. It’s often helpful to struggle.

9. Cognitive conflict COGNITIVE CONFLICT comfort zone - stasis COGNITIVE CONFLICT Outside this line, shut-down occurs Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

10. PRINCIPLES • 1. There is more than one credible answer and/ or there is more than one way to reach an answer. 2. It’s often helpful to struggle. 3. Dialogue is at least as important as the answers, process as product.

11. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Lines Strongly Agree agree Disagree Strongly disagree D C

12. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Corners • Students need to be told when they are wrong otherwise how will they learn ?

13. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Corners Opinion Corners Strongly agree D C Disagree C D D C Strongly disagree Agree

14. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Lines • Some parts of the maths curriculum are of no use in the world of work and should not be taught in schools. ‘Big Brother’ is a bad influence on young people and should be banned.

15. PRINCIPLES • 1. There is more than one credible answer and/ or there is more than one way to reach an answer. 2. It’s often helpful to struggle. 3. Dialogue is more important than answers, process than product.

16. Teaching ThinkingWhat are Thinking Skills ? In addition to Bloom, there is also SWARTZ AND PARK’S TAXONOMYWorking in primary education in the USA in the 1980s and 1990s, Swartz and Park developed a non-hierarchical analysis of thinking skills which identifies different types of applications for thinking.

17. Teaching ThinkingWhat are Thinking Skills ? SORTING, CLASSIFYING & GROUPING SEQUENCING AND ORDERING INFORMATION MAKING DECISIONS WEIGHING PROS & CONS PLANNING & MONITORING SCHWARTZ AND PARKS SUGGEST THAT THINKING SKILLS INCLUDE SOME OF THESE… SETTING PRIORITIES TESTING & EVALUATING OUTCOMES ANALYSING & IDENTIFYING RELATIONSHIPS SETTING GOALS & SUB-GOALS MAKING PREDICTIONS, HYPOTHESISING THINKING UP SOLUTIONS DRAWING CONCLUSIONS DEFINING & CLARIFYING PROBLEMS COMPARING & CONTRASTING BRAINSTORMINGGENERATING IDEAS

18. WHAT ARE THINKING SKILLS ? SEQUENCING AND ORDERING INFORMATION MAKING DECISIONS SETTING PRIORITIES WEIGHING PROS & CONS SORTING, CLASSIFYING & GROUPING THINKING UP SOLUTIONS SETTING GOALS & SUB-GOALS ANALYSING & IDENTIFYING RELATIONSHIPS BIAS & RELIABILITY listening talking EARLY THINKING BASED ON SCHWARTZ & PARKS’ TAXONOMY making connections remembering concentrating making decisions asking questions answering questions RECOGNISING CAUSE & EFFECT giving reasons PLANNING & MONITORING BRAINSTORMING, GENERATING IDEAS DRAWING CONCLUSIONS TESTING & EVALUATING OUTCOMES MAKING PREDICTIONS, HYPOTHESISING DEFINING & CLARIFYING PROBLEMS COMPARING & CONTRASTING

19. What are Thinking Skills ? • Carol McGuinness, Queen’s University… • “…thinking skills support active cognitive processing which makes for better learning. Thus pupils are equipped to search out meaning and impose structure, to deal systematically, yet flexibly, with novel problems and situations; to adopt a critical attitude to information and argument and to communicate effectively.”

20. What are Thinking Skills ? • For ‘active’ we could substitute ‘conscious’. Thinking skills teachers attempt to make pupils more conscious of their thinking and the strategies they can employ to help them make better meanings. • MAKE EXPLICIT WHAT IS USUALLY IMPLICIT. • By creating more opportunities for success and, thus raising self-esteem, such strategies help to develop positive dispositions towards learning.

21. TEACHING AND LEARNING? How often does teaching get in the way of learning?

22. WHY TEACH THINKING? • 80% of children in the first year of Primary school will enter careers that don’t exist now, involving technology that hasn’t been invented. • Employees will change professions, not just jobs, 4 or 5 times in their lifetime. • The amount of information in the world is doubling every 2.5 years. • Source: Government Think Tank 2001

23. Working across cultures Working alone and as a team

24. “Our Brains Are Our Country’s Most Valuable Resource” • “Our children must develop creativity and innovation if we are to survive as a prosperous nation. • The ability to look at issues from different angles is the key to being creative. Innovations often arise unexpectedly and across disciplines.“ • Minister of Education, Singapore

25. SCHOOLING FOR TOMORROW • Paradoxically, the very importance of knowledge in the 21st century may increase, not diminish, the need for the school to place a strong emphasis on establishing a healthy personal and social foundation in the young. • It should give them the tools with which to cope with the complex, rapidly changing world in which they live, with many such tools being about personal development and citizenship rather than cognitive knowledge itself. • OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

26. LEARNING OR TOWING? After an idea by Professor Guy Claxton

27. THE IMPLICATIONS? • Flexibility • Teamwork • Independence • Creativity • Openness • Risk-taking • Resourcefulness

28. Teaching Thinking Strategies ODD ONE OUT

29. Bamburgh Holy Island Hadrian’s Wall Alnwick

30. Odd One Out similarities differences

31. Odd One Out Odd One Out 9 5 10

32. Odd One Out

33. A CIRCLE K AREA U TRIANGLE B MULTIPLY L PARALELLOGRAM V DIVIDE C OBTUSE ANGLE M 60 W RECTANGLE D 360 N RIGHT ANGLE X DIAMETER E ADD O 3 Y ACUTE ANGLE F 180 P SQUARE Z 4 G DIVIDE Q LINE AA VENN DIAGRAM H SPHERE R EQUILATERAL BB REFLEX ANGLE I QUADRILATERAL S CIRCUMFERENCE CC CUBE J 90 T PYRAMID DD ROOT Teaching Thinking StrategiesOdd One Out MATHS ODD ONE OUT

34. Odd One Out Developmental use Pictures Words and numbers Find just one odd one outJustify any one as the odd one out Provide words/pictures/lists/add a further word etc to each set numbers without changing the odd one out ( adding to their classification group ) Give sets Pupils make up their own sets

35. PRINCIPLES • 1. There is more than one credible answer and/ or there is more than one way to reach an answer. 2. It’s often helpful to struggle. 3. Dialogue is more important than answers, process than product.

36. Thinking for learning Thinking and The Brain

37. A GOOD CAR MECHANIC .. ..UNDERSTANDS THE ENGINE.

38. Thinking and the Brain • Thinking is a part of the learning process. Learning is a complex process that involves many factors. Research suggests that these can be grouped into four areas.

39. Learning Processes and the BrainWhat is the brain like ? • CONTEXT – the learning environment • INPUT – initiates learning • PROCESSING – handling and • manipulation of data • RESPONSE FILTERS – doing something about it/reaction

40. Four Areas of the Learning Process • 1 1 • 1 1 • 1 1

41. Learning Processes and the BrainWhat is the brain like ? • CONTEXT • Temperatures – hot/cold • Social conditions – alone/with others • Relationships– with teacher/other learners/content

42. Environmental Factors Under Our Control • Water • Performs electrolyte function in brain • Dehydration causes drowsiness, inattention • 2 litres per day • Oxygen • Brain uses 20% of body’s oxygen • Gentle movement sufficient to increase blood flow • Air quality • Negatively charged air increases mental functions • Positive ions from heating and electrical appliances

43. Environmental Factors Not Under Our Control • Sleep • Re-organisation of information during REM • Insufficient sleep impairs learning • BRAC • Basic rest-activity cycle continues day and night • 16 cycles per 24 hrs (every c.100 minutes) • Linked to left/ right and visual/ verbal switchovers • Diet • What we eat affects how we learn (Jamie Oliver) £6.6 billion spent on dealing with effects of obesity

44. Four Areas of the Learning Process • 2 2 • 2 2

45. Teaching Thinking INPUT – LEARNING STYLES LEARNING STYLES – What is YOUR preferred learning style ? V ? A ? K ?

46. Teaching Thinking INPUT – LEARNING STYLES LEARNING STYLES V A K

47. Learning Styles - VISUAL • Keeps eye contact with person talking, eg teacher • Upright posture, tend to look upwards • Likes handouts, books, computers, overheads, art, photos, videos… • Uses visual terminology – “See what I mean?” • Usually a good speller • Enjoys writing • Organised, neat • Good at visualization but may have trouble with verbal instructions • Tendency to daydream, making mental images

48. Teaching Thinking Learning Styles - VISUAL • Teaching for visual learning… • The use of yourself - dress, gestures • Utilising the visual display opportunities above eye level within the room • Video, OHP, slides, flip chart, coloured board markers or chalks • Lively and engaging textbooks • Memory–mapping, collage, visual note–taking • Keywords displayed around the room.

49. Teaching Thinking INPUT – LEARNING STYLES LEARNING STYLES V A K

50. Learning Styles- AUDITORY • Talks constantly – to self and others • Easily distracted eg. by music when working ‘cos sensitive to sound • Eyes move side to side • Greater use of tempo, pitch, tonality, volume • Answers rhetorical questions • Wants test questions to be put in the order learned • Can mimic sounds of other’s voices, tell jokes • Often replays conversations in head • Maths and writing more difficult • Like discussion and social occasions • Uses aural terminology “Let’s talk about this.”