Thinking skills

The tool is divided into sections to promote certain types of thinking skills.

Gather and organise

– learners are encouraged to write down what they know and what they need to find out about the subject. They can make connections between knowledge learnt in the classroom, in different subject areas and also knowledge acquired outside the classroom. This promotes learners' metacogition – their understanding about their own learning.

Identify and generate

– learners are encouraged to be active and curious, asking their own questions and defining their own approach to a task. This allows learners of all abilities to succeed since they can set their own pace and be guided by their peers.

Decide and implement

– learners are encouraged to reflect on their work so far, explore the consequences of their ideas, decide which ideas are the most important to communicate to others and how they will present those ideas.

Evaluate and learn from experience

– learners are encouraged to evaluate their work and the work of their peers and use this to contribute to their understanding of their own learning.