St Benet Biscop High School T&L First Day

1. St Benet Biscop High School T&L First Day What questions would you ask a spoon?

2. St Benet Biscop High School T&L Morning Session Introductions & Welcome

3. St Benet Biscop High School T&L Morning Session Aims – To share good practise To investigate examples of Thinking Skills Activities To evaluate methods of de-brief

4. What are ‘Thinking Skills’?Centre the Learning • In Pairs • Write down THREE things you already know about ‘Thinking Skills’ • Formulate ONE question You would like to ask

5. Teaching Thinking Strategies DIAMOND RANKING What job is more important?

6. Jobs Policeman Nurse Hair Dresser Bin-man Teacher Ambulance Driver Doctor Fireman Shop Keeper

7. 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 Diamond Ranking, eg negotiating.

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

11. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Lines • Students need to be told when they are wrong otherwise how will they learn ? • You can tell what a person is like by looking at their face • Big Brother’ is a bad influence on young people and should be banned. • School should be fun

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

13. 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.

14. Teaching Thinking StrategiesOpinion Lines Most important In teaching Least important In teaching

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 at least as important as the answers, process as product.

16. Facilitating Dialogue as opposed to Debate Question Stems Can you give me an example of that? Has that ever happened to you? Is that always true? Why do you believe that? What do you mean by …..? Can you say that in a different way? Is it ever Ok/Right to …? What is the difference between (a) and (b)? Is there a difference between (a) and (b)? What is doing the thinking/feeling? How is that connected to ….? Whose thoughts are you making links with? What evidence have you got to back that up? Does anyone agree or disagree with? Why? Does anyone have a different idea? How could we find that out? Can you summarize what you have just said? What other reasons would make us believe that? Could it be ever possible that ….? Is that exactly what you mean? Would there be any circumstances that would make you give a different view? What might change your mind?

17. 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.”

18. 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.

19. 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

20. Review of session One 1 Question left to ask 2 skills used 3 new pieces of knowledge De-brief – A Review Pyramid

21. St Benet Biscop High School T&L Afternoon Session What are the advantages and Disadvantages of having door knobs made out of chocolate?

22. Jointly formulate one question arising from what we looked at this morning (3 minutes) Link Previous Learning ‘Bridging’

23. Mystery • A Mystery must have one central question to investigate • Eg Why was Eric made redundant? • How did John Patterson die?

24. In pairs chose two examples of skills you have used in The Mystery Activity

25. Debriefing a Mystery • Using words to describe thinking skills based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy Open questions, individually, in small groups and as a whole class What did you physically do with the pieces of paper and why? How did your ideas and approach change over the course of the activity? Ho did your group operate? Who took the lead role? Was it hard to get everyone to listen? How did you resolve arguments? What did you remember? How? Were some statements harder than others to classify? What did you learn from the exercise? How do these skills link to real life? Where have you used these skills before? Where could you use it in future?

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

27. Plenary/Review of the Day Reflect back over the day What would the person next to you consider to be the most IMPORTANT point to take away from the day

28. Your Subject Area HWK! Think back over the activities we have looked at today, chose a topic where you would trial each one. Be prepared to trial at least one of the activities before next session and be ready to report back to the group