Helping your Pupils to Think for Themselves (Little books of life skills)

Possibly the biggest challenge teachers face in the classroom is getting their pupils to think for themselves. When children learn to think independently, they are able to take control of their own learning. Whats more, they become good at dealing with the many problems that life will inevitably throw their way not only good at solving these problems, but at choosing the kind of thinking strategies that will help solve them. Helping your pupils to think for themselves defines the various types of thinking (critical, creative, reflective) and discusses in detail the most crucial type of thinking for student progress metacognition, which invoves self-assessment, active decision making and personal goal setting. Focusing on how to choose and use a particular type of thinking or strategy for a particular purpose, this book shows teachers how they can do a audit of their pupils thinking skills and identify their pupils thinking preferences and dispositions, to foster a thinking culture in their classrooms and ensure that all their pupils become skilled and independent thinkers. This book suggests ways to organise the classroom, provides teaching strategies and pupil activities and gives notes on assessment and record-keeping. It is complemented by several pages of proformas, which can be copied or amended for use in the classroom. "Helping your pupils to think for themselves defines the various types of thinking (critical, creative, reflective) and discusses in detail the most crucial type of thinking for student progress - metacognition, which involves self-assessment, active decision making and personal goal setting. Focusing on how to choose and use a particular type of thinking or strategy for a particular purpose, this book shows teachers how they can do an audit of their pupils' thinking skills and identify their pupils' thinking preferences and dispositions, to foster a thinking culture in their classrooms and ensure that all their pupils become skilled and independent thinkers." "This book suggests ways to organise the classroom, provides teaching strategies and pupil activities and gives notes on assessment and record-keeping. It is complemented by several pages of proformas, which can be copied or amended for use in the classroom."--Jacket Cover......Page 1 Helping your pupils to think for themselves......Page 2 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 1 The importance of thinking......Page 7 2 Types of thinking......Page 9 3 The role of the teacher......Page 16 4 Organising the classroom......Page 18 5 Strategies and activities......Page 29 6 Frequently asked questions (and trouble-shooting)......Page 43 7 Tips for the teacher......Page 48 8 Assessment and record keeping......Page 50 9 Proformas for the classroom......Page 56 10 Further reading......Page 69