Thinking Skills

Session 1: 16th October 2013

CPD: Thinking Skills

Dates:
Wed 16th Oct 2013: method one Thurs 5th Dec 2013: sharing experiences and method two Wed 29th Jan 2014: sharing experiences and method three Between 29th Jan 9th April: a peer observation should take place Wed 9th April 2014: sharing and planning for the future

This session:
1. An introduction to thinking skills 2. Method one: De Bonos Thinking i. Why is thinking important? Hats ii. How do we learn how to i. Overview think? ii. Examples of task-setting iii. How do we teach thinking iii. Planning time skills? iv. Evaluation

CPD: Thinking Skills

Why is thinking important?

What thinking skills do students need? What do we want them to think about? Why is thinking important?

CPD: Thinking Skills

Benefits of advanced thinking skills for students:

A move from passive to active learning. Increased resilience and confidence to take risks. 90% of accredited schools in the Thinking Schools programme reported an improvement in the quality of lessons, 89% said the approach raised attainment.
Evidence from Case (cognitive acceleration through science education, a programme of teaching science through a thinking skills approach developed by a team at King's College London) shows:

Schools teaching the Case programme at key stage 3 go on to achieve 19 per cent more A-C grades in GCSE science than similar control schools that use traditional methods. Case students also achieve 16 per cent more A-Cs in English, and 15 per cent more in maths, suggesting that pupils have successfully transferred their thinking skills to other subjects.

CPD: Thinking Skills

Have a think about it.

What do we mean by this? How do we want students to think? How can we make thinking an explicit rather than implicit part of our teaching?

CPD: Thinking Skills

How do we learn how to think?

CPD: Thinking Skills

Jean Piaget: developmental psychologist

who is particularly well known for his work with children and regarding education. He looked at how childrens minds develop. Birth 2: Children experience the world through their senses and movement. They cannot perceive the world through anothers viewpoint.

2-7: Why? the start of reasoning. Children realise they have knowledge but dont know how they got it.
7-11: Children begin to think logically but are very concrete in their thinking. They can problem solve more effectively. 12-16: Children develop abstract thought and are capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. They begin to consider different possible outcomes and can use trial-and-error to solve problems methodically.

CPD: Thinking Skills

What are thinking skills?

Metacognition: when someone becomes aware of their own thinking process. Higher-order thinking: using the brain for more than storing and retrieving information.
(e.g. rote-learning the kings and queens of England doesnt involve higher-order thinking, but developing a mnemonic to help you remember them does.)

Understanding the process of learning: information processing, reasoning, enquiry, evaluation and creative thinking (National Curriculum).

CPD: Thinking Skills

Blooms Taxonomy

CPD: Thinking Skills

How do we teach thinking skills?

CPD: Thinking Skills

Edward De Bonos Thinking Hats

(today)

Tony Ryans Thinkers Keys

(next session)

Frank Costas Habits of Mind

(future session)

CPD: Thinking Skills

CPD: Thinking Skills

There are six metaphorical hats and each defines a certain type of thinking. You can put on or take off one of these hats to indicate the type of thinking you are using. This putting on and taking off is essential, because it allows you to switch from one type of thinking to another. In this system, thinking is divided into six categories with each category identified with its own coloured metaphorical 'thinking hat'.

http://youtu.be/yUIiluJrWKg?t=5m18s

White Hat
The colour white is neutral It is about data and information - facts, in a neutral and objective manner Map out the problem: What information do we have? What information do we need? Whats missing? What questions do we need to ask? How are we going to get the information?

Red Hat
Seeing red, anger (De Bono 1985) About emotions, feelings and intuition How do you feel about it? All emotions are legitimate and dont require a logical basis or justification. You dont have to analyse the feelings

Yellow Hat
Yellow is bright and sunny Positive, bright side, optimism. (De Bono 1985) What are the positive aspects? How were going to make it happen Opportunities Visions Benefits

Black Hat
Black is gloomy, dark and stormy (De Bono, 1985) The Black thinking hat is negative Pessimistic, cautious and critical This will not work because Identifies logical problems Identifies risks, obstacles, weaknesses to be overcome Points out problems, not solutions

Green Hat
Green relates to growth (De Bono, 1985) Creativity, lateral thinking New ideas and approaches New concepts and perceptions Listen and feed off each others ideas

Blue Hat
Blue is cool, in control, disciplined (De Bono, 1985). Organise the conversation Plan and define the problem or mind map The Blue Hat asks for summaries, conclusions and decisions It often starts and finishes the process and reports back to the group

CPD: Thinking Skills

Guiding Principles: Use the hats to direct attention, not to categorise existing thinking. Focus the thinking only one hat at a time. Dont have to use all the hats, and can use a hat more than once. You dont have to debate or argue brainstorming is okay Generally begin and end with the Blue Hat. Red Hat generally very brief. Maintain a brisk time discipline (i.e. 3-4 minutes per hat). This forces thinkers to focus and prevents rambling.

CPD: Thinking Skills

Example task: English Great Expectations - Pip has been ordered by the convict, Magwitch, to steal a file and some food from his sister and brother-in-law. If he doesnt comply the convict will tear out his heart and liver. Pip lives with his sister who beats him and her weak husband who is kind to Pip.

What should Pip do? Analyse the situation he is in. How does Dickens portray this situation to the reader?

CPD: Thinking Skills

What are the facts?

What could Pip do?

What should Pip do? Analyse the situation he is in. How does Dickens portray this situation to the reader?

Positive aspects of Pips situation. How are these shown?

Negative aspects of Pips situation. How are these shown?

What is Pip feeling? How do we know?

Summarise ideas. Answer the question.

Individuals use hats to guide thinking, filling in grid for each hat. Blue hat as final task. OR group work with each student given a different hat, discussion led by blue hat student.

CPD: Thinking Skills

What do your results show? How accurate are they?

What could you do next?

What went well? Which results fit?

Example task: Science evaluating an experiment

What went badly and needs to be improved? Which results dont fit?

What did you enjoy? What was confusing?

Summarise ideas. Was the experiment a success?

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What is the definition of a prime number? 6x7 = Formulas etc.

How many ways could we...? If the calculator didnt work, how could we...?

What are the good points about using this method?

What problems are there with this method?

What is your favourite shape? What makes you anxious about maths?

What did you learn? How can we check that 6x7 = 42?

Example: Maths

CPD: Thinking Skills

How could you use thinking hats in your subject area?

Use the sheets to help you come up with some ideas.

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Evaluation use the hats approach to evaluate the hats approach!

White Red Yellow

Black

Green

Blue

CPD: Thinking Skills

Next session: Thurs 5th December Tony Ryans Thinkers Keys Plus an opportunity to share your ideas about and experiences of using Thinking Hats in the classroom.
To help: http://independentlearningatkeswick.weebly.com/staff---route-three.html