Headteacher, Bernadette Hancock describes how thinking maps have been used at her Cardiff school in all curriculum areas, helping children to become more fluent in developing key communication skills.
Provides information and advice on recent developments in the area of cognitive education with specific reference to past, present and future research and publications produced from Exeter University's School of Education and Lifelong Learning (SELL).
Links to thinking schools across the UK.
Aims to support high quality research on cognitive skills and critical thinking development in order to transform learning, teaching and leadership.
Visual thinking tools for educational results.
Picture the Music Create is a multi sensory teaching tool that motivates and inspires creativity.
MPNS is an experienced group of educational professionals whose core purpose is the development of coaching skills and cultures within organisations.
Working with a network of colleges and private training providers supplying key support services.
Helping schools and consortia to identify and meet the challenges of an ever changing educational environment.
A single point of contact for employers of all sizes to help them identify training requirements and improve key business objectives such as efficiency, productivity and profitability.
Set up by the Gatsby Charity Foundation to develop a model of effective teaching and learning drawn from research and best practice.
Links to various education websites.
“Philosophy is a means of placing thinking firmly at the centre of primary education.”
Professor Philip Cam, University of New South Wales, Australia.
A Community of Enquiry approach encourages children to engage in the social and intellectual practice of thinking together through a collaborative and reflective approach to discussion. It aims to develop:
- A sense of community through co-operation, care, respect and safety
- A sense of enquiry through a search for deeper understanding, meaning, truth and values supported by reasons
In a Community of Enquiry, the discussion is modelled on a Socratic structure and guided by agreed ground rules. Children are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences, articulate their thinking and play with ideas in a safe environment, and attention is paid to the skills and dispositions of thinking together through:
- Generating and posing questions
- Using the language of dialogue and discussion
- Giving reasons
- Being fair~minded
- Listening carefully to alternative points of view
- Exploring disagreement
- Developing empathy
- Allowing collective wisdom to emerge
Research suggests that children who have learned how to engage in productive dialogue through the Community of Enquiry approach become more effective thinkers and develop socially as well as intellectually. In engaging in discussion about deeper issues such as belonging, family, friendship, freedom, loneliness and love, and probing for the best answers to difficult questions, they become more thoughtful, considerate and reasonable and develop positive concepts, skills and attitudes for lifelong learning.