Developing cognitive skills

across the curriculum

 Session aims
 What are thinking skills?

 Why are thinking skills important?

 How can we promote thinking skills within the classroom in our

day-to-day teaching?
What is the purpose of
21st century education?
not just to teach the subjects on
the curriculum
about teaching the skills to be
successful
the subjects are the vehicle to
teach those skills that students
need to succeed in learning, work
and life in the information age.
What do we
mean by thinking
skills?
 Higher order
thinking skills

Lower order
thinking skills
Why is it important to
develop cognitive
skills?
Important in all aspects of life
Cannot be successful without having
a higher order of thinking
By thinking deeply about knowledge
and information students will think
deeply about issues
Will make connections with what
they learn and what they already
know.
Without thinking learning cannot
happen
“Learning is the outcome of
thinking and as such gaining
insights into ways students
think is crucial for teachers,
allowing them to alter
students’ dispositions.”
Caroti, Howell, Kester Dodgson –
Making Thinking Visible, 2017
How can we develop
young learners’
thinking skills?

“Knowing the answer will

help you in school.
Knowing how to question
will help you in life?”
Warren Berger – A more beautiful life
What’s the
question?
How many
questions does the
288
average 6-year-old
ask in a day?
If watermelon
is the answer,
what is the
question?
If “I would be
rich” is the
answer, what’s
the question?
 develop cognitive skills
 encourage thinking
skills
 encourage problem
solving skills
 encourage cooperation
and communication
 are fun – leaners like
doing them
 I rise in the morning
 I am hot
 I am bright
 Do not look straight
at me
 I disappear at night
 I live in the sky
A cowboy rides
into town on
Friday, stays for
three days, and
leaves on Friday.
How did he do
it?
Wonder wall
‘Chubby’ or ‘Skinny’?
1. In which country is Machu Picchu?
2. Is Mach Picchu 500 years old?
3. Who destroyed Mach Picchu?
4. Why do you think they built a city
in the clouds?
5. Why do you think it was
destroyed?
6. What do you think it would have
been like to live there?
‘Chubby’ or ‘Skinny’?
1. In which country is Machu Picchu?
2. Is Mach Picchu 500 years old?
Thin
3. Who destroyed Mach Picchu?
4. Why do you think they built a city in
the clouds?
5. Why do you think it was destroyed?
6. What do you think it would have been Chubby
like to live there?
‘Skinny Questions’
 Will only get only one or two word
answers
 Yes or no questions
 story or the book
Don’t ask about information
 Ask only about basic facts
‘Chubby Questions’
 Will be answered with lots of
information
 Get at the main ideas of the
 May be about feelings
 Ask about opinions
 Maybe to clarify things students
 Ask if students have ever had
similar experiences
 Make predictions
 Explain how or why
 Make connections or
comparisons
 “Questions can be extraordinary
learning tools. A good questions
opens minds … In education, we
tend to value a student’s ability to
answer our questions. But what
might be more important is their
ability to ask their own great
questions – and more critically
their willingness to do so”

Terry Heick, Teach Thought

Visible Thinking
Routines
Key goals:
 Deeper understanding of
context
 Greater motivation of learning
 Development of learner’s
thinking and learning abilities
 Development of learner’s
attitudes to learning
 A shift in classroom culture
towards a community of
engaged thinkers and learners
 Core Thinking
Routines
Circle of viewpoints

Claim, Support, Question

Compass Points

Connect, Extend, Challenge

I used to think … , Now I think …

See, Think, Wonder

Think, Pair, Share

Think Puzzle, Explore

What makes you say that?

Think, Pair, Share
Answer the questions
1. What are three things you can do
with an old water bottle?
2. What’s the Ecological Bottle House
made of?
3. How may glass bottles did Ingenieri
use to make his house?
4. What do the artists from Argentina
want to teach people?
5. Why did Maria Ponce build her
house from bottles?
 Think, Puzzle,
Explore

1. What do you think you know

about this topic?
2. What questions or puzzles?
3. What does the topic make
you want to explore?
 KWL Chart
What I know

What I want
to know
What I learnt
Connect – Extend -
Challenge
1. What do you already know
about rivers?
2. What new ideas or
impressions do have that
extend your thinking in new
directions?
3. What is challenging or
confusing? What do you
still wonder about?
Where do you
live?

I see …
I think …
I wonder …
“Without image,
thinking is impossible”

Aristotle
Who?
Why?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?
Who?
Why?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?
• What am I looking at?
Visual Literacy Inquiry
• Where is it?
• Who is in it?
• What is happening?
• How does the photo
make me feel?
• What does the image
mean to me?
• What is the story
behind the image?
LOTS HOTS
Remembering (remember Reasoning (to develop reasoning skills; Why is this an abstract
information) painting?)

Ordering (to order Discussing (to develop enquiry and discussion)

information)

Defining (to define Creative thinking (How would you paint these shapes to show action?
objects; What is a race?

Checking (to check Evaluating (to evaluate the work of oneself and others; How has your
understanding) work improved this term?)

Reviewing (to review Hypothesising (to hypothesise about what could happen)
learning)
Key concepts
 Learners need progressively challenging tasks so they can
develop their thinking skills.
e.g. (maths) Measure
the radius of the circle How can you calculate the
diameter?
(music) How many beats are in the bar?
Why does the composer change the rhythm?
 Learners benefit from a language rich classroom which helps
them to think and learn well, e.g.
posters related
to the curriculum subjects on the wall labelled with key
content vocabulary and with two or three questions beside
them.
 Learners need wait time.
They need opportunities to
stop, think, and process curricular concepts and language.

This helps them give longer answers, become more

involved, add to what other learners say and offer alternative
ideas.

 Weneed to look at tasks and be aware of the

cognitive demands required of the learners.

Are the concepts too easy?

Are the
concepts too difficult?
Types of thinking Types of questions
• concrete thinking
(defining) What is a race?
(recalling facts) Where did the race start?
(recalling facts) Where did the race take place?
• reasoning
(examining parts and how they Why is this an abstract painting?
relate)
• creative
(imagining) How would you paint these shapes to show
action?
• abstract
(finding patterns and connections) What links can you make between the
artist's ideas?
• evaluative
(judging) How has your work improved this term?
Practise Task
These tasks are from a history course book. Look at the list of cognitive
skills in Participants’ Worksheet 1 as well as the table in slide #2. Which
cognitive skills do they aim to develop?

A. Study the pictures of metal working techniques in the Metal Ages.

First order the pictures. Then match the texts with the correct
pictures.
B. Look at the photos on this page. What was the purpose of each
object?
C. If the objects A and B were found in a tomb, what would this tell us
about the occupation of the dead person?
(from Essential Geography and History 1, Santillana Richmond 2008)
Reflection
Which of these statements do you agree with and why? Think
about the materials you use for your subject/s.

I think teachers should

It’s not important to to
use a wide range of
look at the tasks in my
materials and activities
coursebook and work
to encourage learners to
out the cognitive skills
develop their thinking
they demand.
skills

Some curricular subjects need

Most of my questions should learners to use more thinking skills
be lower order ones than others
because I must check if
learners understand what I
am saying.
Discovery Activities
1. Find a picture, poster or diagram for your teaching programme.
Write three or four questions to develop your learners’ cognitive
skills. Find some more pictures or diagrams and ask your learners
to write questions about them. Which questions do they think are
easy to answer and which are more difficult? Why?
2. Look at a unit or handouts used at the beginning of one of your
courses or modules. Read the activities for learners. Do they
progress from developing lower order thinking skills to higher
order thinking skills? Which cognitive skills do they develop?
3. Look at a unit or handout from the end of one of your courses or
modules. Read the activities for learners. Are they more
challenging than at the beginning of the course or module? If not,
how could you adapt them to develop higher order thinking skills?
4. How do you know if your learners are developing reasoning,
enquiry, creative thinking and evaluation skills?