Developing broader learning goals have become a national priority for many countries and great emphasis is being placed on developing the quality of children’s thinking and learning. In England, the National Curriculum identifies a list of thinking skills that teachers must embed within all learning areas - information processing, reasoning, enquiry, creativity and evaluation. The Northern Ireland Revised Curriculum includes five broad strands - managing information; thinking, problem-solving, decision-making; being creative; working with others; and self-management. Curriculum bodies in Scotland and Wales are involved in similar activities. And indeed in South East Asia, Australasia and the US, more and more attention is being given to this issue.
Thinking Lessons for Thinking Classrooms will help primary schools seeking new ways to promote children’s thinking. Focusing on skills such as: information processing, reasoning, enquiry, being creative, evaluating, problem-solving, decision-making and working with others, the book shows teachers how to design and teach thinking lessons across the curriculum. This practical handbook is divided into three parts:
What is ‘thinking’? How can thinking-lessons be designed? How are they best taught?
It guides teachers on how to get started and provides plenty of examples of case studies from classroom teachers who have already used the methodology. A brief theoretical framework is also provided for teachers to interpret and to advance their current practice.
The book is based on a project called ‘Activating Children’s Thinking Skills’, during which the authors found that an effective way of working with children was to teach a curriculum topic and a specific pattern of thinking, together. All the activities have been tried-and-tested in busy primary schools. For those teachers who are ready to advance their practice, it explores issues related to planning schemes of work, progression in developing thinking skills, observing and assessing thinking, as well as advice related to how teachers can share their practice.
