The Thinking Classroom

Sharon Witt23rd September 2011

Aims of this session

• To understand why it is important to establish a thinking classroom for the learners of the 21st century;

• To introduce thinking skills and to develop awareness of a range of teaching and learning strategies to promote thinking ;

• To provide knowledge of resources and further information about different strategies and ideas and conditions for learning

Holistic development Informal Curriculum Partnership

Thinking Skills

“Thoughts stream through our minds all day long, often without us paying much attention to hem. Even when we do notice ‘what’s on our mind’ we might take this mental material quite for granted or, alas forget most of it without considering how it can be used to our greatest benefit”

(Bowkett,2007,pxiii)

Thinking Skills – learning how to learn

What?• Information processing skills

• Reasoning skills

• Enquiry skills

• Creative thinking skills

• Evaluation skills

Metacognition – learning how to learn

Skills Taking it in turns circle

game !

Teaching learners how to learn and think

Why teach thinking ?

“In times of change , learners will inherit the earth while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists”

Eric Hoffer

Why?• We need to prepare the children for life- long learning

• 21st century learners/ workers need more skills than knowledge • Knowledge creators not knowledge receivers • Ability to interpret information not just receive it• Flexible thinkers • Adaptable changers • Creative explorers • Problem solvers • Personal/ social intelligence

• Shifting teachers’ perspective from product to process( Bruner) ;

• Teaching thinking skills is fun and children enjoy the opportunity to be rational , creative and communicative.

Thinking Skills – learning how to learn

Why teach thinking skills?

• Ensure meeting the requirement of article 13 UN Convention Rights of the Child.

• Work completed at Newcastle and Durham Universities e.g.Wall,K .Higgins, S. and Tiplady, L.( 2009) Pupil Views Templates: exploring pupils perspectives of their thinking about learning, Paper to be presented at 1st International Visual Methods Conference Leeds, September 2009 http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cflat/news/documents/WallPupilviewstemplatespaper.pdf

The National Curriculum- Values, Aims and Purposes

• “promote an enquiring mind and capacity to think rationally”

• “the curriculum should enable pupils to think creatively and critically, to solve problems and to make a difference for the better. It should give them the opportunity to become creative , innovative, enterprising …”

P. 11 The National Curriculum, 2000

• Thinking skills should be a curriculum subject in their own right – ‘ operacy’ (De Bono,1992)

Poor critical thinker

How would a poor critical thinker approach a problem?

Muddled, confused, disorganised, overly simplistic, complicated or vague solution, uncaring about getting facts, applies unreasonable data, ready to give up at first obstacle.

What makes a thinker ?What skills would you promote in a thinking classroom?

Thinking skills promote learning for life

inquisitive

open-minded

seeks truth judicious

analytical

systematic

reason confidently

Guy Claxton – Building Learning Power -4R’s

• Resilience – locking on to learning

• Resources fullness – knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do

• Reflection- strategies and elf- awareness

• Relationships – learning alone and with others

• http://www.guyclaxton.com/blp.htm

What makes a thinker?

• Curiosity- the compulsion to wonder

• Creativity- the urge to make something new

• Rigour- the determination to see things through

• Explanation the desire to share

• Understanding – the drive to make sense of it all

How can you create a classroom ethos which values thinking?

What are the features of a thinking classroom?

How? Approaches to thinking-

Philosophy for children (P4C)

• P4C puts enquiry at the heart of learning helping pupils to develop basic skills ( such as respecting other people's ideas, listening and making connections. It boosts self- esteem and develops intellectual confidence )

• www.childrenthinking.co.uk/home.htm

• www.sapere.net

“In today’s educational climate – when objectives are highly prescribed and time is at a premium , when facts must be delivered and content covered and when targets of attainment seem to be the raison d'être of a child’s schooling – it is easy to overlook children’s interests, ideas, concerns and fears regarding the world in which they find themselves”

Stanley,S (2004) But Why? Developing philosophical thinking in the classroom,

Stafford: Network Educational Press Ltd

Let’s have a go…

• Is there more happiness or sadness in the world?

• What is the happiest colour?

• Ian Gilbert – Independent Thinking

Questions !

Approaches to primary geography enquiry- Philosophy for children (P4C)

• Session begins with a stimulus: • Story, image, music , object, game

• After reflection on the stimulus the students are encouraged to generate philosophical questions

• Children then vote on the question they would like to respond to and this chosen question becomes the focus for a community of enquiry • Making connections, valuing reasons, providing

examples and building on concepts

• At the end of a session is a debrief allowing for reflection

Brain theories about the optimum conditions for learning

• high level of sensory stimulation

• high levels of challenge low levels of threat

• the learner is motivated and having fun

• immediate feedback ( adjusts its neurons)

• making choices

• the brain learns best in short chunks

• operates ALWAYS on 2 levels – conscious and unconscious

• language and music are key processing mechanisms for the brain which loves patterns and rhythms

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.

(Plutarch)

Three useful resources

• Mike Fleetham http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/

• Alite

http://www.alite.co.uk/

• Independent thinking

http://www.independentthinking.co.uk/

What tools/frameworks do you have in your tool box

to promote thinking?

• Blooms Taxonomy to promote higher order thinking

• Multiple Intelligences –Howard Gardner

• Mind- mapping – Tony Buzan

• Thinking Hats- Edward de Bono

• TASC Wheel – Belle Wallace

BLOOMS REVISED TAXONOMY

CreatingCreatingGenerating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing thingsDesigning, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. EvaluatingEvaluatingJustifying a decision or course of actionChecking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging  AnalysingAnalysingBreaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationshipsComparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding ApplyingApplyingUsing information in another familiar situationImplementing, carrying out, using, executing UnderstandingUnderstandingExplaining ideas or conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining RememberingRememberingRecalling informationRecognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding 

Mind Mapping

De Bono’s Thinking Hats

feelings

negative

facts

control

positive

creative

De Bono Evaluation

Red Hat: How did you feel about this lesson?

Yellow Hat: What has worked well? Why?

Black Hat: What is not going so well?

Green Hat: How could we have changed the lesson?

Belle Wallace – TASC WHEEL

http://www.nace.co.uk/tasc/tasc_home.htm

http://www.tascwheel.com/

Conditions for Learning

• Diet

• Sleep

• Exercise

• Role of emotions

• Caring environment

• Community which celebrates teaching and learning

The Piano Stairs

Children’s attitudes can be motivated by …

Fostering a climate conducive to the development of thinking skills

• Set ground rules well in advance

• Provide well- planned activities

• Show respect for each pupil

• Be flexible

• Accept individual differences

• Show positive attitudes

• Acknowledge every response

• Allow pupils to be active participants

• Create experiences that will ensure success

• Use a wide variety of teaching styles

• Be wary of gimmicks

• Consider critically the practices you see in school . Use reputable sources e.g ttrb to get a balanced view

• Ask yourself – how do they strengthen , spread and deepen children’s learning.

• Are our young people starved of movement in the classroom?

Brain gym claims?

• Whole brain balancing

• Reduces the effect of stress and anxiety

• Removes learning blocks

• Improves concentration

• Makes learning easier

• Improves concentration and memory

• Improves behaviour and emotional balance

• Develops physical skills for sport and music

http://www.braingym.org.uk/

"What is the evidence for ‘brain-based learning’?

“There is relatively little scientific evidence to support brain-based learning because our knowledge about the brain is incomplete and also, in some aspects, inaccurate. So what does this mean for popular activities such as ‘brain gym’ for which there is no scientific evidence yet thousands of enthusiasts? The lack of scientific evidence for these sorts of activities doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do them, but it does suggest the need to be cautious about the claims made for them and that we should consider neuroscientific ideas carefully before we base our teaching around them.“

NERF Bulletin Issue 5 Spring 2006 Page 13

Have a go!

• Hawaii five –o

• TV theme tunes are useful because they are short

Nine ways to use music in the classroom

1. For entering the classroom

2. To accompany brain breaks

3. To give the children thinking time

4. To help tidying up

5. For timed challenges

6. For relaxation

7. To celebrate

8. To help stimulate ideas/ create a picture

9. To establish a mood

Using music in the classroom

1. Beginnings • Jupiter Suite Gustav Host

2. Celebrate good times –• Superstar – Jamelia

3. Enhancing a mood –• Oh what a beautiful morning from Oklahoma

4. Setting a time limit – • Match of the Day theme tune

5. Energisers – • When I’m cleaning windows by George Formby

Using music in the classroom

1. Inspiring-• Reach for the Stars – S Club 7

2. Thematic – • 3R’s Jack Johnson

3. Enhance bran breaks • TV theme tunes

4. Endings • Mission Impossible

Opportunities to focus on thinking and learning

• How do I learn best? – questionnaires about multiple intelligences , graphs etc

• What a good learner needs in their rucksack?

• Motivational posters

• Conditions for learning – water, healthy food, sleep?

• Are you ready to learn?

• Think about beginnings and ends of lessons – starters and plenaries

Nettlestone Primary

Ideas for thinking activities

• Lists e.g. ten uses for a piece of string, pencil pot etc

• Designs e.g. a secret code , a Cd cover , the new Harry potter book

• Improvements e.g. think of ten ways to make some-one smile or look at a plastic cup. Can you improve its design

• Answers – what could the question be e.g. blue, fluffy, tomorrow, it's far too dangerous

• Big questions – How do you know you are not dreaming at this moment? Is it right to help a bully? Is an apple dead or alive?

Robert Fisher

What do we mean by ‘creativity’?

‘It is a pity that the notion of ‘creativity’ in education has to be

fought for... Thinking up fresh ideas is what teachers are paid for.’ Ted Wragg

Teaching should be creative...

What do we mean by creativity?

”Creative processes have four characteristics. First they always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second , this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieve an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original . Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective.”

All Our Futures, 1999

Pupils who are encouraged to think creatively and independently become:

• More interested in discovering things for themselves

• More open to new ideas

• Keen to work with others to explore ideas

• Willing to work beyond lesson time when pursuing an idea or vision

• ( QCA website for creativity: www. ncaction.org.uk/ creativity)

Promoting a Creative Curriculum-

1) Encourage play: role play, simulations, story telling

2) Focus questions : enquiry- open ended questioning

3) Risk taking

4) Foster flexibility

5) Focus on children’s passions and capabilities

6) Provide challenge

7) Exchange ideas with others –discussions and collaborative learning , group work, make connections

8) Relevant , purposeful and based on real life-hands on experiences

Be a role model

• As Albert Einstein said: “the only serious method of education is to be an example.” And he added ruefully, “ if you can’t help it be a warning example.”

• As Guy Claxton says: “If we are serious about wanting to help children cultivate a creative attitude to life… We have to start by walking the talk. Or rather dancing it.”

Further Reading

• Bowkett, S .(2007)100+ ideas for teaching thinking skills, London: Continuum.

• Fisher , R ( 2001)Teaching Children to think , Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes

• Moseley, D., Baumfield, V., Elliott, J., Gregson, M., Higgins, S., Miller, J., and Newton, D.P. (2005) Frameworks for Thinking: a handbook for teaching and learning, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

• Stanley,S and Bowkett, S (2004) But Why? Developing philosophical thinking in the classroom, Stafford: Network Educational Press Ltd

Websites

http://www.childrenthinking.co.uk/home.htm

http://www.sapere.net/- good UK source of training

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/omc/kidsphil/index.html

http://www.philosophyslam.org/

http://www.icpic.org

Useful sources