School Improvement Service Sue Atkinson – Science Consultant sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk Developing Thinking Skills.

School Improvement Service

Sue Atkinson – Science Consultant sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk

Developing Thinking Skills


Starter Activity 1:Maths puzzle

• Your task is:• Using numbers 1-8, to put a number in each

circle so that….• No two consecutive numbers must be in

adjacent or connected circles.• To be able to explain how you did it!


Learning outcomes

By the end of this session you will……

• have tried out a variety of strategies• have had time to reflect on how you could

adapt these to use in schools.• know where to go to find out more.


Can thinking be taught?

Regardless of our age, perceived ability or background, we can all improve our thinking with encouragement, guidance and practice.


Can thinking be taught?

Six key principles for teaching thinking:• Active – explore ideas• Meaningful – relevant to everyday life• Challenging – cognitive challenge• Collaborative – differences of opinion• Mediated – act as guide/adviser• Reflective – what/how they have learnt


The five ‘Thinking skills’ which pupils need to develop, as defined in Curriculum 2000 are:

• Information-processing skills eg. Sort, classify, sequence, analyse relationships

• Reasoning skills eg. Give reasons for opinions and actions, draw inferences, make deductions, making judgements informed by evidence

• Enquiry skills eg. Ask relevant questions, pose and define problems, predict outcomes, anticipate consequences

• Creative thinking skills eg. Generate and extend ideas, suggest hypotheses, look for alternative outcomes

• Evaluation skills eg. Evaluate information, develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others’ work


Activity 2: Collective memory

• Your task is to work as a team to make a copy of the poster onto A3 paper.

• Try to ensure you include the key messages and information.

• Each member of the team, in turn, will only get 30 secs to look at the poster.


What is the most powerful learning that has taken place here?• The strategies devised by the group• The conversations taking place• The collaboration


Activity 3: Carousel

• You will have 3 minutes at each ‘station’ to try out the activity.

• Complete the task by ticking the relevant boxes on the grid, to record which thinking skills are used in each activity.

• Then think about if/ how you might use/adapt each one for your students.


For effective group work:• Children need to be taught how to work well in

groups• Structure the task: ‘Chunk’ it up into smaller steps• Give clear time limits - and stick to them! (use a

countdown timer on screen?)• Give clear success criteria – what are they trying

to achieve?• Learning objectives and outcomes should

emphasise skills, not just knowledge.


TEEP Visual Tools

• The booklets provide a range of further ideas and strategies to promote thinking skills, with templates to use.

• The bookmarks provide a useful reminder of some of these ideas to keep handy.

• You have 3 mins to look at these resources and consider how you might use them


Where to get more ideas from?

• Thinkers Keys for Kids• By Tony Ryan, Special Needs (G&T)

consultant, Queensland, Australia• 20 Thinkers Keys to stimulate thinking



• Visit the TeachFind website at www.teachfind.com and ‘search’ for either ‘Thinking skills’ or ‘Leading in learning’, in either Primary or Secondary phase.

• Subject-specific exemplars


Where to get more ideas from?• Teaching Thinking Pocketbook• A troubleshooting approach takes five types of

thinking that students typically struggle with - processing information; reasoning; inquiry; creative thinking; evaluation - and matches then with 'thinking tools'.

• Available from Amazon for £7.55 + free delivery



• Go to www.yorkla.org (then to Teaching & Learning/ Science/Thinking skills) for all the resources from this session


Summary: To stimulate thinking …..It is NOT about giving pupils the right answer. Rather, it is about developing the skills needed through learning which is:

• Active– exploring ideas• Meaningful – relevant to everyday life• Challenging – cognitive challenge• Collaborative – differences of opinion• Mediated – act as guide/adviser• Reflective – on what/how they have learnt


How might this impact on your work with pupils?

Think of 2 ‘golden nuggets’ you might take away from this session

to try out back in schools.

Reflection- so what now?

School Improvement Service Sue Atkinson – Science Consultant sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk sue.atkinson@york/gov.uk Developing Thinking Skills.

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