The Thinking Skills Programme aims to develop thinking communities in schools by teaching CoRT 1 and the Six Thinking Hats method to pupils with the teacher present who in turn would apply and integrate the skills acquired by the pupils in the curriculum. Regular training is also provided to teachers through in-service training and also, when requested, during staff development meetings. Each year research projects are carried out to evaluate and improve the work being done in schools. Research carried out so far has included: Pre- and post- testing to look at the effects of the Thinking Skills Programme on pupils. The thinking skills teacher-researchers have found out that strong benefits include better pupil-pupil interaction, improved results in academic work and exams, increase in independence and autonomy of thought. Perhaps the most difficult to achieve is transfer of knowledge of the skills outside school. This has improved through more focus during our lessons of how the tools being learnt can be transferred. Pupils’ retention of the Thinking Skills acquired has also been researched. Some tools seem to be retained more than others for instance P.M.I. and CAF are more frequently recalled than A.G.O. and C&S. |
