Getting Keyed up for Thinking

Giving students tools that unlock critical and creative thinking can help them develop thinking skills and embed their learning more deeply. Hanna Miller shows how Thinker’s Keys provide a great framework for motivating students and supporting learning objectives.

As Lead of Thinking in a multi-academy trust, I am often asked what the ideal starting point for the ‘thinking journey’ is. Of vital importance is the context of the school and their needs, but regardless of these, I am always keen to involve Tony Ryan’s Thinker’s Keys at some point near the start of my ‘dream journey’.

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      string(363) "... 1984) ContemporaryPerspectives on the Roles of Mothers and Teachers. In More Talkswith Teachers, Urbana IL., ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementaryand Early Childhood Education:1-26. ■ Keyes, C. (2002) A Wayof Thinking about Parents/Teacher Partnerships for Teachers,International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol. 10, no.3. ■ Sylva,K ..."
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      string(5105) "parent-child planning as the key to unlocking children’s minds and enabled them to find outwhat children thought about and what was important and interesting to them■ Staff found it easier to support children■ Staff saw the importance of giving children time to that extended day to day to allow their plans todevelop■ Planning at home resulted in play, which was based upon children’s own lives.■ Parent-child planning showed that children regularly learn through their real life relationships andexperiences■ Parents or carers of 3 year olds were of the opinion that it helped them to form happy relationshipswith staff and other children although they thought that hey might be too young for planning activityin isolation from other activities■ Parents and carers of older children saw it as a valuable means of enabling children to develop self-discipline■ Parents and carers thought that it provided a self-imposed structure that helped children sort out howto go about things■ Parents or carers commented on the better channels of communication which were opened up withstaff as a resultThe overall findings suggested that parents or carers and the home culture are at the centre of children’slives and learning, putting parents or carers in a strong position to influence much of the content andcontext of the curriculum.Source: Bridge, 2001■■ Professional Learning Task: Developing involvementIn what ways does this initiative at Bell Nursery, designed to involve parents or carers in their children’s learningand development, complement their role as outlined in Table 1?How important is the development of relationships in this example? (you will need to give examples fromthe evidence provided)43raise achievement throughparent andcarer engagement……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜ How to…■■ Conclusion- Achieving EarlyIt is worth reflecting on the example of the BellNursery in the context of current government policy,which aims to raise achievement, increase access andreduce the attainment gap. The Tickell review (2011)acknowledged the importance of early years settingsworking in partnership with parents in this process.Current policy and research reflects the Achievement forAll Achieving Early programme – which is working withEarly Years providers to ensure that no child starts schoolat a disadvantage; emotionally, academically or socially.Achieving Early is delivered by dedicated, specialistEarly Years professionals and is designed to supportsettings to meet the needs of the most vulnerablechildren. The approach includes identification andassessment of need, planning and tracking progress, andmeets the criteria for Early Years Pupil Premium, whichcan be used to fund the Achieving Early programme.Achieving Early has four interdependent elements:■ Leadership and management■ Progress and learning■ Health, happiness and wellbeingWorking with others. This element supports theestablishment and strengthening of relationships withparents and carers, including those that you may findhard to reach.Achieving Early uses a proven approach – TakingTime for Talk – that helps build effective relationshipsbetween parents, children and staff to ensure parentsare in the best possible position to support their child’sdevelopment and work with the setting.References: Blandford, S. and Knowles, C. (forthcoming) DevelopingProfessional Practice 0-7, Abingdon: Routledge ■ Bridge, H. (2001)Increasing parental involvement in the Preschool Curriculum: whatan action research case study revealed, International Journal ofEarly Years Education, Vol. 9, No.1 ■ Katz, L. G. (1984) ContemporaryPerspectives on the Roles of Mothers and Teachers. In More Talkswith Teachers, Urbana IL., ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementaryand Early Childhood Education:1-26. ■ Keyes, C. (2002) A Wayof Thinking about Parents/Teacher Partnerships for Teachers,International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol. 10, no.3. ■ Sylva,K Melhuish, E, Sammons, P Siraj-Blatchford, I and Taggart, B (2004)Effective Pre-School Education. Final Report. DfES. London: Instituteof Education ■ Tickell, C. (2011) The Early Years: An independentreport on the Early Years Foundation Stage to Her Majesty’sGovernment, London: CrownSandra Garner, Pat Gould and Lesley WoodwardThe basis for successful mathematicaldevelopment is laid down in firstexperiences. These games andactivities are centred on earlymathematical ideas and concepts.Each pack contains 20 games, suitablefor nursery and key stage 1 children.309 Scott House, Gibb St, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4DT Fax: 0121 224 7598www.teachingtimesbookshop.co.uk/product-category/early-years/Order Hotline 0121 224 7599For Postage & Packing add:"
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Professional Development

How to... raise achievement through parent and carer engagement

22 Sep 2015

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      string(5751) "displayed and incorporate their language into your practice.The wider role of Philosophical Enquiry and thinking tools in creating a thoughtful and considered approachto the world needs to be recognised by the educational community and not merely as a ‘bolt-on’ activityto broaden the curriculum.Carl HubbardTeacher of Science and Literacy CoordinatorExtending thinking in scienceI have used many thinking tools with my science groups and feel that one of the most beneficial towardsstudent progress and individual learning are the thinking maps. I introduced the thinking maps with classesin each year group and have found that they are generally accepted more at KS3 than KS4. However,where KS4 students have taken them on board and used them, they have realised their benefits. In somecircumstances, they have found them to be a useful revision tool.I have now been using thinking maps for a couple of years and can see the development of the use ofmaps throughout early KS3. As these students progress, they will continue to come into contact with themaps, which should provide them with very useful skills when it comes to revision for GCSEs. By usingthese maps and understanding the thinking processes behind them, they are also likely to become moreindependent learners, which will obviously benefit them in their examination years.I introduced each mind map to the class by first talking through the type of processing that they are usingwith certain pieces of information. I then introduced the map as a method of getting the thinking onto paper.After using the thinking maps a couple of times in this way, I am now able to present students with theinformation and they are generally able to derive and complete the correct thinking map. I am confidentthat with further use, the students will choose to use the correct maps without any guidance, and in someinstances this has already been the case. More capable Year 7 students are already asking to put informationinto the thinking maps without prompting.The next step and one that I am currently working on is the use of the ‘frame of reference’ which extendsthe thinking and can be used to increase complexity of the task. Where this has been used, students havebeen very keen and the process has clearly increased their thinking skills. It can be used to differentiatework and provide extension tasks for higher ability students.When using thinking maps, I’ve found it essential to plan the lesson objectives first and then choosethe correct maps to suit the processing skills needed for each lesson. The use of thinking maps just forthe sake of using them is likely to do more harm than good. As a whole school measure, they are mosteffective when introduced to KS3 as I have found them to be more receptive. The skills will then be takenup through KS4 and beyond by the students.Kelly KnightTransition Coordinator and Teacher of ScienceMaps in the maths roomI have found that the easiest thinking map to introduce into the maths classroom is the circle map,representing defining in context. I use it regularly at the start of a new topic. The students are given the topicin the centre circle and then as a starter activity, asked to fill in everything they know about it. There areno restrictions given and students can use words, comments, examples, pictures and of course, numbers.This activity encourages them to access the lowest rung on Bloom’s revised taxonomy – ‘remembering’– upon which all new learning is built.While the students are working, I circulate the room, asking questions, offering praise and returning tonnThinkingSkills14Volume4.2nCreativeTeaching&Learningthe board to put up the students’ ideas.Class discussion follows, and the boardis further updated during the discussion.Misconceptions can be addressed here ifappropriate, or if not, at a later time. Thequestioning is crucial at this stage as itmoves students up another level in Bloom’staxonomy to ‘understanding’, and can eveninch into the next level, ‘applying’. This thirdlevel is more usually addressed in the mainbody of the lesson though.Personally, I find the use of the circle mapincredibly useful as it informs me of what thestudents can actually recall independently orthrough nudges from their peers, and letsme know where I initially need to pitch thetopic. The frame of reference in this map isunused in this type of activity, as the ‘Howdo I know what I know?’ is all too oftenanswered with ‘Because my teacher toldme…’ or ‘I learnt it from Mr so-and-so lastyear’!Some teachers in the department get thestudents to return to their circle map to addtheir new learning to it in different coloursonce the topic is finished, while others useother tools to reinforce and consolidatelearning.Often in the main body of the lesson, Iwill use the flow map to identify a strategythat students need to follow for a particularprocess, such as adding/subtractingfractions. 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Creative Teaching & Learning

Cognitive tools across the curriculum

18 Oct 2013

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      string(5616) "4 5Learning Spaces  Vol 1:1 Learning Spaces  Vol 1:1News NewsEnd of BSF to affect achievement?After cancelling the Labour government’s£55bn Building Schools for the Future(BSF)programme and suspending projects in 715schools, Michael Gove might find attainment levelsslipping and pupil behaviour getting worse. Last yearthe government’s auditor, KPMG, published a report onthe effects of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) – a keycomponent of many BSF programmes – on educationaloutcomes. It found that the rate of improvement instudent attainment was 44% higher in PFI schoolsthan in conventional schools and that unauthorisedabsences were decreasing in PFI schools and increasingin conventional ones.Chris Husbands, Dean of faculty at the Instituteof Education, and quoted in The Guardian of July8th, is rather more reluctant to make a direct causallink between new school buildings and studentperformance. “The available research is variable andoften of poor quality,” he said.“We do know that bad school buildings impactnegatively on learning: what we don’t know is just howmuch good buildings improve the quality of learning.“However, it’s not difficult to hypothesise that thequality of the school environment must have an impacton student achievement. Back in the 60s and 70s, mostschool buildings were of a higher standard than thehomes of their students. This sent a clear messageabout the importance society placed on education.“By the 80s many school buildings were a great dealworse than the homes of their students – somethingthe Labour government tried to put right when it cameto power in 1997. It would be disastrous to return to thelevels of capital funding of the 80s and 1970s.“However, it’s not difficult to hypothesise that thequality of the school environment must have an impacton student achievement. Back in the 60s and 70s, mostschool buildings were of a higher standard than thehomes of their students. This sent a clear messageabout the importance society placed on education.“By the 80s many school buildings were a great dealworse than the homes of their students – somethingthe Labour government tried to put right when it cameto power in 1997. It would be disastrous to return tothe levels of capital funding of the 80s and 1970s.”The £55bn BSF programme was abandoned inJuly, but schemes that had got to certain stages ofprocurement and construction have been allowed tocontinue in various forms.A capital review team is due to have reportedback to the government before Christmas on itsrecommendations for a system to replace BSF and thePrimary Capital Programme.It is understood that money will be chanelled intonew school provision in areas of demographic pressureas well as into essential maintenance.The capital review team will probably recommenda schools building system heavily reliant on offsitemanufacturing.According to the Government, almost £10 billionof funding will be available for new schools capitalprojects over the next four financial years.The future of CABEOn 20 October, the Department of Culture decidedas part of the Comprehensive Spending Reviewto withdraw funding from CABE (the Commissionfor Architecture and the Built Environment).CABE’s website has stated that it is “bitterly disappointed”with the decision. It says: “We are now working withGovernment and others to try to find a way to ensure thekind of expert, impartial design advice for which CABE hasbeen known remains available to councils, communitiesand developers across the country.“Meantime, CABE remains the government’s statutoryadvisor on architecture, urban design and public space.We are continuing to conduct design review and todeliver many of our programmes.”The architectural practice EllisMiller has commented:“News that CABE is to be one of the many quangosto fall victim to the new government’s axe is sad, if notentirely surprising.EllisMiller have been involved with CABE from thevery early days, and as a practice we owe it a huge debtof gratitude. CABE has allowed us to work in sectors wewould not have otherwise been able to work in and toinfluence major building programmes for the better.CABE has allowed us to learn from the work of our peers,to disseminate best practice and to identify bad practice.At its best, CABE was a focused and visionary forcefor change.  The CABE Schools Audit went to SelectCommittee and significantly changed the way we thinkabout school design, allowing design-focussed practicesto become involved in schools for the first time.Unfortunately, CABE became stodgy and bureaucraticover time; it produced reams of worthy research that justsat on bookshelves unread, and in so doing became aneasy target for cuts. We remember well the CABE 10thAnniversary party at the Saatchi Gallery, a grandioseand misguided celebration at the taxpayer’s expense,which could never have been anything other than amassive own goal.In our experience, the true (unsung) heroes of CABEwere the Enablers, who did much good work for littleor no pay. The Enabling programme was optimistic andforward thinking, getting in early to influence the peoplethat mattered.Despite CABE’s eventual inefficiencies, we verymuch hope that 10 years of learning and knowledge isretained and continues to be disseminated in a moremodest form. It is important that the value of gooddesign continues to be championed.Many schools will still benefit from the lastinginfluence of the excellent work that CABE carried out.”JSA’s expertise lies in a range of sectors, including leisure, commercial,"
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Learning Spaces

News

22 Feb 2011

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      string(296) "example, if a child wearing the yellow hat noticesa flaw in the plan, another child in the group can stopthat line of thinking – and tell them to save it for blackhat thinking. Getting back on track is part of the bluerole – it can be put on briefly to remind a ..."
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      string(5715) "example, if a child wearing the yellow hat noticesa flaw in the plan, another child in the group can stopthat line of thinking – and tell them to save it for blackhat thinking. Getting back on track is part of the bluerole – it can be put on briefly to remind a group of thetask in hand.Case study: using the Thinking Hats in anofficeA fictional business is considering opening its building topublic tours. Here’s how the staff could use Thinking Hatsto discuss the issue.Facilitator: Let’s start with some red hat thinking on this– how do you feel about it? I’ll move round the room andeveryone can speak briefly or gesture.There are a variety of responses. Some say they hate it,some say great. Some shrug their shoulders. One blowsa raspberry.Facilitator: OK – we need some white hat thinking. In yourgroups, can you spend five minutes or so listing whatwe know to be true? Can someone act as a scribe foreach group?All the groups work collaboratively and produce listsof fact. Questions arise – one group wants to clarifywhether the public would access all areas. There aresome points of drifting – one employee, Mr Black, saysthere would be traffic chaos. He is reminded that thegroup is in White Hat mode, so his concern is recordedas a question: “What would the impact of public accessbe on local traffic?”Facilitator: (takes the feedback and lists what needs to befound out, and who will do it.) Lets move on to yellow,black and green hats. What are the pros and cons?The proposal’s supporters lead the yellow hat conversation.With prompting, the others come up with statementsstarting with “I suppose…” or “Maybe…” A list of potentialpositive benefits, some of them funny, are listed. With black hat, the people who like the idea find itdifficult – but they contribute some possible areas ofconcern. These ideas are listed too.The facilitiator then allows ten minutes for some greenhat thinking. When the group seems to be struggling forideas, he introduces some random word techniques tospark off ideas. Hilarity arises – but there are some credibleideas offered. Summing up, the facilitator lists some tasks– mostly fact finding – and arranges a follow up meetingto pursue some of the new suggestions.The most important thing in this example is that thediscussion is harmonious, focused and target orientated.I’ve seen it used in primary school councils to makedecisions about recycling and in sixth form colleges (seeLouise Astbury’s feature) in a wider creative learningproject.Case Study two: using the Thinking Hats ina secondary schoolPicture this. Year eight – a pretty boisterous group in Stokeon Trent. The school is a ‘Change School’ – which meansthey are developing a new creative curriculum to try tochange behaviour, partly funded by Creative Partnerships.This has allowed the school to employ a graphic designerto help the Communications Team (English and ICT)to deliver a project which links several subjects into a‘Mantle of the Expert’ project. (In a ‘mantle of the expert’project, students pretend to be experts in a field solvingbusiness problems. Projects like this are thought to sparkchildren’s imaginations and encourage them to come upwith creative ideas.)In this project, the students are ‘employees’ of a failingsoft drinks company – StokaCola. Their jobs are on theline. New products are required – which need branding– to save the company. Some external consultants havebeen brought in to help the company but the ideas, themarket profiling and the manufacture and marketing ofthe products is up to the employees.When the class enter the classroom on the first day, theyare initially bemused to be in role, but they soon warm up tothe task. They are asked to identify where the problems liein the current branding. The children immediately decidedthat the name ‘StokaCola’ was too regional. They foundproblems with the image of cheap cola – they thought itwas too unhealthy.The children then drew ideas for new products, butthere was a lot of disagreement in the group. The childrenneeded help to work more co-operatively and to organisetheir thinking. We decide to start the next session with some 10Pedagogy in practice   www.teachingtimes.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 10:1Professional Development training – with a ‘managementconsultant’ (or me!) specialising in Six Thinking Hats.I asked the groups to identify what their problemswere. They nearly all maintained their roles and spoke infirst person as if their enterprise was real. I give them anoverview of Thinking Hats and explained that we weregoing to use the hats to decide on a new cola brand.Even children who had taken entrenched positions theday before showed they were able to see the potentialweaknesses in their ideas when doing the Hats exercise.One child who normally found it very hard to concentratewas fully focused in this task – he found it easy to switchmodes of thinking quickly.Far more ideas were generated after thinking hatstraining – and the ideas were followed through. The teachersaid she was amazed how well the children had retainedthe colours. We were delighted to overhear children talkingabout the colours in class conversations – saying: “We needto put on a black hat here”.The Thinking Hats formed only a small part of the process.But the important thing is that it was contextualised in a‘real’ context. Thinking skills are often taught in isolation.While it is necessary for the hats to be ‘taught’ andexperienced"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Hats off to collaboration

22 Nov 2009