learning to think
By Marsha
Elms “A good teacher makes you think even when you didn’t
want to.” So said R.Fisher in his 1998 book Teaching Thinking. The
government’s vision for transforming standards at Key Stage 3 was launched
in January 2000. Since then some 200 schools in 17 LEAs have taken part in a £10m
pilot programme designed to raise standards for all 11-14 year old pupils across
the whole curriculum. My school is one of these. New teaching
and learning programmes for English, mathematics, science, thinking skills and
ICT, including an ambitious programme of continuing professional development for
teachers, are underway. There are also catch-up programmes
in English and mathematics for pupils who have not achieved the expected standard
for their age (level 4) at the end of primary education. Pilot
schools have the opportunity to trial their own projects, including working with
primary schools to ensure greater continuity between Key Stages. New draft English
and mathematics frameworks for Year 7, available to all schools, have already
been published. Learning and teaching
We
were particularly keen to be involved in a project that would focus on the teaching
of thinking skills, as we were already investigating learning as part of our Learning
& Teaching Group. Our group was already beginning to address the issue of
raising standards by focussing beyond what children learn, to how they learn and
how teachers intervene in the process. As schools we are sometimes
accused of: emphasising content rather than capabilities; emphasising lower rather
than higher-order thinking; emphasising coverage rather than in-depth learning;
and having a tendency to dictate what students will learn rather than allow student
involvement. We were keen to challenge these assumptions. Thinking
Skills appears under the new heading of Transforming Teaching and Learning. The
five elements of the Transforming Teaching and Learning (TTL) strand of the KS3
Pilot involve: Transfer and Transition; Thinking Skills; Assessment for Learning;
Motivation and Engagement; and Individual pupil target setting. Transfer
and transition
This element will focus on transition issues
between KS2 and KS3 since nearly 40 per cent of pupils make a loss or no progress
in the year following transfer. Pupils characterise work in Years 7 and 8 as “repetitive,
unchallenging and lacking in purpose”. Thinking skills
Statistics show that schools where thinking skills are taught
are improving attainment and pupil engagement. Thinking skills are defined as
‘information processing skills, reasoning skills, enquiry skills, creative
thinking skills and evaluation skills’. Assessment
for learning
This involves learner and teacher in the following
ways: effective and specific feedback, which identifies the next steps in learning
and how to take them; informed self assessment, helping pupils understand and
recognise the standards they are aiming for; and blurring the traditional distinction
between summative and formative assessment. The TTL strand
will be piloted from January 2001 with a national roll out to follow in 2002 and
a wide variety of teaching approaches and contexts to be developed. Teachers’
guidance will offer lesson models that provide opportunities for pupils to develop
skills that enable them to show interest in their work, sustain concentration,
and think and learn for themselves across all the National Curriculum subjects,
linked to the new POS. There will also be models to illustrate
effective approaches to assessment. This means that lessons will not focus on
the teaching of thinking skills as an end in itself unrelated to subject content
and requirements. The standard lesson of the past that we are
all very familiar with had: - An introduction that may
include some objectives
- Teacher input, often lengthy
with questions and answers, with teacher as ‘performer’
- Pupil
input often written work, usual individual
and finished off for homework.
The Magnificent Seven
New exemplar
lessons will incorporate the Magnificent Seven: - Greater
explanation in depth of context and learning objectives
- Assessment
criteria fully explained
- Variety of learning styles
planned, involving all pupils
- Plenary sessions delivered
at appropriate time
- Self-assessment encouraged
- Follow up lesson(s) clearly linked
- Individual
pupil targets the basis for next steps
Schools in
the pilot will have to assemble a TTL team, ideally with representation from SMT,
ICT and classroom level. We are excited by the prospect of working with the support
materials that will come into the school. There will be training
supported by a TTL adviser appointed in all pilot LEAs and the team will be expected
to deliver INSET in due course. All pilot schools will have to carry out one of
the many audits that have become the trademark of the KS3 pilot. One
of the greatest difficulties we already anticipate with this particular initiative
is showing in hard data how a pupil’s learning and thinking will actually
improve as a result of the TTL initiative. We remain convinced that it will, however,
and are equally certain that it will be shown through soft data such as increased
confidence and motivation. Whatever the outcome, it is invigorating
to be part of the pilot, and I have high hopes that what we achieve will benefit
all schools. Marsha Elms is head teacher at a girls school
in Reading. | 
