Dear Colleagues
Three headlines have returned attention to the perennial issue of encouraging our students to think.
First the report by OECD on the most recent PISA review of international education standings. See graphic above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment
The critical point made by the OECD was that Shanghai’s incredible improvement was down to “moving away from rote learning, improving teacher training and focussing on problem solving in lessons”
Then the recent suggestion that OFSTED has in mind to fail all below average schools who cannot provide evidence of steady improvement.
Thirdly and most recently that Michael Gove is setting a new target beyong the EBacc as a measure of success.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13772923
Positive News
The Cognitive Acceleration Forum has proposed several strategies to the Curriculum Review body and these are being discussed.
The network of Science Learning Centres have decided to support CASE in the programme for 2011/2012 and are running two courses CASE: An introduction (see table right) and later in the year CASE:Revisited.
Cognitive Acceleration in English has been developed for Key Stage 3 and now means that the Cognitive Acceleration approach is available in all three core subjects.
Cognitive Acceleration has a high profile at the 15th International Conference on Thinking in late June.
Research is ongoing in Australia to look for neuroscience evidence of the impact of Cognitive Acceleration techniques on students' brains. |
Introduction to CASE
SLCNW September 22 SLCYH September 23
SLCWM September 27
SLCSE October 4
SLCEM October 5
These are the dates for the sessions I am running in September and October 2011. Contact the relevant centre via this link:
www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk
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Strategies you can adopt
1. If you don’t know much about Cognitive Acceleration in general and CASE in particular then the Science Learning Centres have included a number of days training days across the country to introduce CASE to schools considering running the programme or who want to find out more.
2. Sign up for one of the in-school training programmes that I run. See my website for details or email me with your requests.
3. Designate a member of staff to oversee the implementation of a Thinking approach across the curriculum
4. Do all 3 of the above!
A reminder from a student
A few years ago at the end of a CASE lesson I was demonstrating in a North Manchester school I posed the question”What have you learned from today’s lesson?”
The response from the Y7 girl was unexpected and uplifting: "I’ve learned there isn’t one answer, there are lots, but some are better than others"
More Information
ThinkingandLearning Ltd, 1 Boulton Close, Sandbach, CW11 4GH.
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