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Thinking skills

Pupil concentrating

The phrase 'think about it' is often heard in the classroom, but if learners are not taught how to think, how do they know what is expected of them?

Thinking skills include different types of cognition such as information processing, enquiry, creative thinking and reasoning.

Schools take different approaches to teaching thinking skills, either introducing them within the curriculum as a discrete unit, or instituting them through the use of a specific methodology. The best approach however, is one that stimulates learners to use and apply thinking skills across the curriculum and upon their one learning.

Offering learners opportunities to apply their higher order thinking skills offers stretch and challenge and can reduce the boredom experienced in conventional lessons.

The teaching of thinking skills can be grouped into three broad categories.

  • Brain based
  • Philosophical
  • Cognitive intervention

London Gifted & Talented's e-TASC, designed for teachers and learners, is an online multi-media tool which provides a framework for developing thinking skills across the curriculum.