Thinking is fun! thinking skills stimulate enjoyment in the classroom for both teachers and pupils

Abstract

This article tells the story of the author's discovery of thinking skills, how this has affected her teaching, and how these ideas have now spread to other curriculum areas in her school. In November 2001 the author began to carry out a research project on thinking skills, introducing new activities into lessons to encourage pupils to think and ask questions. This was a joint project between the National Union of Teachers and the General Teaching Council for Wales, and involved introducing new thinking skills activities across several subject areas including geography, history and religious education. The main focus of the research was the use of thinking skills in the Faculty, and the key aims were to spread the use of thinking skills across the Faculty; to raise the level of interest in all subjects across the Faculty; to introduce a greater variety of thinking skills in geography. The research included lesson observations, videos, questionnaires and interviews of pupils and staff. The results were encouraging and the activities proved stimulating to both pupils and teachers. This research has now been combined with a whole-school initiative which involved the creation of a team of teachers working together to raise standards. This group has grown from 5 to 15 teachers over three years. It has produced many new activities and run workshops for teachers in this school and other schools in the area.