Learning and Thinking Skills

Developing ‘effective participators’ using the World Café

scameron — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:12:51 +0100

What is ‘the World Café’?

Developing ‘effective participators’ using Appreciative Inquiry

scameron — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:36:22 +0100

This e-bulletin continues our focus on the final key competence of the QCDA Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework – developing 'effective participators'. We are exploring a range of different approaches and strategies that have been used to help young people play a full part in the life of their school, college or wider community.

Developing ‘effective participators’ using Narrative Enquiry

scameron — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:53:37 +0100

We will look at the key stages of a Narrative Enquiry, and how it has been used in a range of different contexts with one in-depth example from a Northumberland High School showing how it has been used to support and inspire student-led research.

Helping young people to become ‘effective participators’

scameron — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:21:31 +0100

This ebulletin is the first in a series that looks at how we might encourage young people to actively engage with issues that affect them and those around them. We will look at a range of different approaches and strategies that have been used to help young people play a full part in the life of their school, college or wider community.

'Learning for transfer' - Hugging and Bridging

scameron — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:45:13 +0000

As we have seen, in a typical PLTS-focused plenary, students are asked to share not only what they have learned about the subject, but also what they have learned about the process that made the learning possible. For example, the teacher might ask her class to reflect on the type of thinking they have been doing, the strategy or methods they adopted, the social dynamics they observed within their team, and so on.

'Learning for transfer' - activities for developing an ‘inner voice’ to monitor thinking

scameron — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:30:20 +0000

Last time we looked at how to run an effective PLTS-focused debrief or plenary – in particular how rich questioning is the key to generating conversations about learning in your classroom. As we saw, the plenary in a PLTS-focused lesson is distinctive because it puts thinking and learning under the spotlight. Students are asked to share not only what they have learned about the subject, but also what they have learned about the process that made the learning possible - their thinking.

Effective debriefing: making thinking and learning skills visible

scameron — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:39:54 +0000

Debriefing: making thinking and learning skills ‘visible’
‘Debriefing’ refers to the discussion that takes place following or during a learning episode. The purpose of these discussions is to encourage pupils to talk not only about their answers/solutions – what they have learned about a particular subject – but also to:

Reflective learners: helping learners make sense of their learning

scameron — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:46:36 +0000

It is becoming widely appreciated that, in current times:

Exploring emotional resourcefulness: activities for developing empathy

scameron — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:58:14 +0000

This week’s e-bulletin continues our focus on developing ‘self-managers' – one of the six areas of the QCDA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework.

Last time we looked at strategies to help young learners become more aware of the blocks and limiting beliefs that get in the way of their potential, and how these are often reflected and reinforced by the language they use.

The activities shared this week focus on developing the ability to respond more capably to other people’s emotions and behaviour.

Building a self-concept: positive reframing

scameron — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:01:42 +0000

Learning and Teaching Update continues to look at practical activities that can be used to help young people explore the idea of 'emotional resourcefulness', that is, the capacity for self-knowledge and understanding – and the ability to make the best use of that understanding

Building a positive self-concept: emotional resourcefulness

scameron — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:30:27 +0000

This e-bulletin continues our focus on developing ‘self-managers' – one of the six areas of the QCDA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework.

We continue to look at practical activities that can be used to help young people explore the idea of 'emotional resourcefulness', that is, the capacity for self-knowledge and understanding – and the ability to make the best use of that understanding.

Developing students as ‘self-managers': further exploration of 'emotional resourcefulness'

scameron — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:31:38 +0100

This issue, we will continue to look at practical activities that can be used to help young people explore the idea of 'emotional resourcefulness’, that is, the capacity for self-knowledge and understanding – and the ability to make the best use of that understanding.

The activities shared below focus on three key elements of emotional resourcefulness: identifying emotions, noticing your own emotional responses, and learning to respond more flexibly to circumstances, incidents and situations.

Developing students as ‘self-managers': a practical activity

scameron — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:49:35 +0100

This e-bulletin continues our focus on developing ‘self-managers' – one of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework. Last time, we began with an introductory strategy that can help young learners to start thinking and talking about the concept of 'self-management', and thereby begin to uncover for themselves the skills and dispositions involved.

Introducing the skills and dispositions of self-management

scameron — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:24:21 +0100

This e-bulletin continues to explore how the QCA Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework can be put into practice, exploring useful case studies, digests of relevant research and, above all, practical ideas for classroom use. It is hoped that these resources will help staff and students to develop a common understanding of what the different PTLS skills and competencies mean, and a common language for exploring their value both in school and in everyday life.

Assessing creative development: the ICEDIP model

scameron — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:18:12 +0100

In this issue, we will look again at Geoff Petty's model of creativity and explore how it might be used to help students reflect on and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as creative thinkers. The term 'creative' is used here in the widest possible sense, to include the creative arts, but also invention, design, problem solving, writing, entrepreneurial initiatives and so on.
Future bulletins will look at a range of other approaches to assessing creativity.

The ICEDIP model

Creative thinking in the classroom: learning how to analyse

scameron — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:55:02 +0100

This e-bulletin continues our focus on developing ‘creative thinkers’ – one of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework. So far we have looked at practical 'creative thinking tools' that can be used to support both the generation and development of ideas.
In this issue, we will focus on the Control Panel strategy – a tool for analysis and synthesis that can be adapted for use in any subject area.

Developing creative thinking further

scameron — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:16:00 +0100

Thinking tool no. 1: Four by Four

Four by Four is a strategy that encourages students to explore and experiment with ideas before making judgements about their quality and viability.

Four by Four: instructions

Creative thinking tools for the classroom: Concept Fan, Morphology

scameron — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:06:53 +0100

Last issue we looked at three practical 'creative thinking tools' that can be used to support the generation of ideas. This issue offers two further idea generation techniques that are specifically designed to help students gain the confidence to think past the first ‘safe’ ideas they come up with and develop personally novel and innovative solutions.

Thinking tool no. 1: Concept Fan

Creative thinking tools for the classroom: Kick Cards, The Inverse, Double Six

scameron — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:17:01 +0100

We all have a natural capacity to imagine, think speculatively and make bold connections between ideas. However, as children grow older, this capacity is often dulled whether due to an overdose of high-stakes testing, fear of failure, anxiety or peer pressure.

Creativity: promoting discussion through a Concept Line activity

jlee — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:57:16 +0100

Last time, we looked at a case study from a secondary school in Northumberland where staff and KS3 students are actively engaged in exploring how creativity might be promoted in students’ learning across the curriculum. In this issue, we will look at one of the activities used to initiate dialogue about creativity between staff and students.

Encouraging creative thinkers: working across the curriculum

scameron — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:26:32 +0100

This e-bulletin will continue to explore how the QCA Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework can be put into practice. So far we have explored practical ideas and classroom resources useful for helping students develop as ‘Independent Enquirers’ and effective ‘Team Workers’.

Developing pupils' social skills to improve teamwork: part 2

scameron — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:48:21 +0000

Last time we looked at the first three steps of this structured approach:

Step 1: Set up a Teamwork Skills Centre
Step 2: Choose a Skill-of-the-Week
Step 3: Introduce the skill

This week we will look at the final three steps, namely:

Developing pupils' social skills to improve teamwork: part 1

scameron — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:29:05 +0000

When teams fail, it is almost always for one of two reasons: the students don't want to work together, or they don't know how to work together – they lack the will or the skill to co-operate as a team. Last issue, we focused on the principles of team-building and strategies that can be used to help learners develop the will to work together during the lifespan of a team.

Troubleshooting problems with students' teamwork

scameron — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:22:45 +0000

When teams fail, it is almost always for one of two reasons: the students don't want to work together, or they don't know how to work together – they lack either the will or the skill to cooperate as a team. This week, we will focus on team-building strategies that can be used to help learners develop the will to work together during the lifespan of a team.

Cooperative learning approaches for developing team workers

jlee — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0000

So far in our series on ‘Team Workers’ we have looked at procedures involving:

Language for developing team work in young learners

scameron — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:52:28 +0000

The Thinking Together Project

A team at the Open University, led by Professor Neil Mercer (now of Cambridge University), began investigating the nature and value of children's collaborative talk in the late 1980s. The early research focused on talk during computer-based problem solving, but talk in other activities across several subjects including mathematics, science, English, citizenship, design and technology and geography has since also been studied.

Strategies for developing team work in young learners

scameron — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:16:25 +0000

This week we will look at strategies that can help young learners to start thinking and talking about the concept of 'team work'. As in previous bulletins, these strategies will help to make the ‘invisible’ qualities and skills associated with thinking and learning, both ‘visible’ and learnable. They are designed to help staff and students develop a common understanding of what the different PTLS skills and competencies mean, and a common language for exploring their value both in school and in every day life.

Exploring subject-specific enquiry skills

scameron — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:25:45 +0000

This e-bulletin concludes our in-depth focus on developing ‘independent enquirers’ – the first of the six areas of the QCA’s Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills framework. The thinking tools and strategies shared in recent issues have all related to the different stages of a generic model of enquiry. (See the Enquiry Wheel).

Investigating decision making as an integral part of enquiry

scameron — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:59:54 +0000

The model of enquiry shared previously – the Enquiry Wheel – shows the main stages of a generic enquiry process together with related ‘thinking tools’ to support each stage. These thinking tools can be used in practical, structured activities that help make the skills of enquiry ‘visible’ and explicit to students.

An enquiry tool for evaluating information

scameron — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:36:50 +0000

The model of enquiry shared in Developing independent enquirers: how to structure enquiry – the Enquiry Wheel – shows the main stages of a generic enquiry process together with related ‘thinking tools’ to support each stage. These thinking tools can be used as practical, structured activities that help make the skills of enquiry ‘visible’ and explicit to students.

Enquiry tools for organising and making sense of information

scameron — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:55:34 +0100

The model of enquiry shared previously – the Enquiry Wheel – shows the main stages of a generic enquiry process as well as linking them to related ‘thinking tools’ to support each stage. These thinking tools can be used as practical, structured activities that help make the skills of enquiry ‘visible’ and explicit to students.

Enquiry tools for promoting emotional engagement and ownership

scameron — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:31:26 +0100

Previously, we have looked at resources and practical activities to help students develop their own understanding of what enquiry is and how it might be structured.

Developing independent enquirers: how to structure enquiry

scameron — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:00:29 +0100

If students are to become increasingly independent in, and empowered by, their enquiry work, you will need to make the way knowledge is constructed – the process of enquiry – the focus of classroom activity and dialogue. This may be unfamiliar territory for some students, constrained as many have been by a National Curriculum and testing regime that has seemed to promote a ‘banking’ view of knowledge in which knowledge is ‘deposited’ in students’ minds. Many have learned to passively consume what they are taught – the products of o

Developing independent enquirers: introducing enquiry

scameron — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:55:23 +0100

Independent enquiry involves the ability to use and combine the entire spectrum of thinking skills from information processing to reasoning, from creativity to evaluation. Take a look at the QCA’s definition for example. The framework describes an ‘independent enquirer’ as a person who can:

Success in teaching thinking programmes: 7 key classroom strategies

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:44 +0100

This issue also looks at the utility of teaching ‘skills’ without also encouraging the disposition to use them. At the end of the page you will find 7 key classroom strategies that will be vital to the success of any ‘teaching thinking’ programme or approach.

Introduction

Implementing QCA's framework for (PLTS) personal, learning and thinking skills

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:43 +0100

The QCA has come up with its own list – a set of Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills grouped into six main areas: