This thesis reports on the results of a study to produce. ‘A Guide To Better Thinking’, a resource designed to help children more effective thinkers and learners, to bridge the gap between theory and classroom practice, and move teaching for thinking into the classroom. The study presents a broad overview of the literature on teaching thinking, and its implications for practice. It includes a review of relevant research on motivation and metacognition and an analysis of existing Thinking Skills Programmes, identifying their strengths, as well as the practical and theoretical weaknesses. This provides the theoretical foundation, highlights general issues concerning the design of effective programmes, and the need for a programme which: provides teachers with a manageable framework for teaching thinking, that synthesises the work of leaders in the field, but takes account of the constraints the classroom teacher faces; introduces a broad range of skills in Positive, Critical and Creative Thinking, considers how we can motivate children to want to use these skills, and emphasises the development of metacognition to help children monitor and direct their own thinking; provides ‘child and teacher-friendly’ material which is intellectually challenging, with issues of real concern, that provides explicit links with functioning in the real world for children; introduces ‘fun’ characters to model the thinking strategies and how to overcome obstacles to good thinking; is not restricted to the cognitive domain alone but embraces feelings attitudes beliefs and values. The goals of the programme were: to develop Positive Thinking and improve children’s concept of themselves as thinkers and learners; to develop Critical Thinking and improve children’s ability to reason and reflect on their thinking; to develop Creative Thinking and flexibility of thought. Given the broad aims of the programme, evaluation had to be wide-ranging in nature and a major concern was to use evaluation instruments well focused on the goals of the programme. Careful consideration was given to selecting appropriate assessment procedures and to the tailoring of instruments to the capacities being developed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:653481 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Kite, Anne |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22381 |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds