Developing Active Learning in the Primary Classroom

Anitra Vickery

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781446293010
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Grundschulbildung

Establishing an effective learning environment in the classroom requires a clear understanding of different teaching strategies that make children active participants in their own learning. This book explores a range of philosophies and strategies to develop active learning in primary education. It balances theory with practice to provide evidence-based guidance and suggestions for use in the classroom. Key topics include:

• Creating a supportive learning environment
• Developing the questioning skills of teachers and children
• Learning through assessment
• Developing thinking skills through curriculum subjects
• Active learning in early years education
• Philosophy for Children (P4C)
• Frameworks to promote thinking

This is essential reading for professional studies modules on primary initial teacher education courses, including university-based (PGCE, PGDE, BA QTS, BEd), school-based (SCITT, School Direct) and employment-based routes into teaching. It also serves as a handbook for schools that are developing their approaches to active learning.

Anitra Vickery works as senior lecturer in primary mathematics education and the Professional Studies Coordinator at Bath Spa University.

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CHAPTER 1

FRAMEWORKS FOR THINKING

Anitra Vickery

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I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.

Socrates

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Chapter overview

For many years the primary curriculum put an emphasis on passive learning, with the child being considered an empty vessel that needed to be filled with knowledge through a didactic approach. Encouraging children to be active about their own learning and their development of cognition and metacognition requires a very different pedagogy, one which enhances general thinking skills. The explicit development of thinking skills can be offered in different ways; through specifically designed programmes added to the normal curriculum, through targeting thinking and reasoning in specific subjects and by permeating the normal curriculum by identifying and creating opportunities within all lessons. Whichever approach is taken the objective will be to enable children to participate actively in high quality thinking and learning. Efforts to make thinking skills a more central feature of the curriculum have met with resistance. There are competing opinions as to whether thinking skills can be taught, or whether they are best developed through the subject disciplines, and there are questions from some quarters as to whether the teaching of thinking skills is a legitimate curriculum objective.

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INTRODUCTION

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This chapter will consider the role of thinking skills in the learning process and different approaches to developing thinking skills.

The definition of thinking has occupied academics in a range of fields including psychology, sociology, neuroscience and philosophy from the beginning of time. Each of these fields has influenced the creation of taxonomies, frameworks and definitions of thinking skills. Models that can provide a basis for programmes for the development of thinking skills are available from a number of different sources. These include the ideas of educational thinkers such as Dewey, Feuerstein and Bloom; programmes that focus on implementation (such as the Somerset Thinking Skills courses (Blagg, Ballinger and Gardner, 1988), and Top Ten Thinking Tactics (Lake and Needham, 1993)), programmes that are based on thinking skills in particular subjects (such as Cognitive Acceleration in Science Education (CASE) (Adey, Shayer and Yates, 1989) and Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics Education (CAME) (Adhami, Johnson and Shayer, 1995)), and movements that seek to add to the traditional curriculum such as Philosophy for Children (see Chapter 10). Reference to the development of thinking skills can also be found in the National Curriculum (DfE website).

The chapter will identify concepts that are common across a range of different frameworks and suggest how these can be incorporated within the curriculum. It will suggest how teachers can integrate thinking skills into their teaching through establishing an effective framework which supports planning, assessment and progression. It will consider the role of:

• the development of metacognition and thinking through pupil presentation;
• assessment for learning, including self and peer assessment;
• collaborative learning and group work;
• discussion.

The chapter concludes with the case study of a primary school practitioner who has been proactive about the development of a greater focus on children’s thinking and empowering children as active learners who take responsibility for their own development.

PROGRAMMES FOR THINKING

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There has been a surge of interest in the teaching of thinking skills in recent years as a result of an increased understanding about learning and the working of the brain (Fisher, 2005). A number of programmes that claim to help in the development of thinking skills have been developed in the light of this new evidence of brain function.

Dewey (1938) is associated with frameworks for reflection where learners are encouraged to reflect on the process of learning in order to modify and improve it (see Chapter 5). He is also associated with the notion of experiential education (Dewey, 1938). Rebecca Carver was a passionate believer in experiential education and she developed the concept of the ABCs of experiential education (Agency, Belonging, and Competence), to provide meaningful memorable experiences (Carver, 1999). She viewed these as crucial to the development of critical thinkers and life-long learners believing that they enabled growth and deeper critical thinking; characteristics necessary for learners in a complex world. Carver (1999) argued that the ‘ABC’ elements would support the development of thinking individuals and describes each one as follows:

• Agency – represents the development of active learning where children are encouraged to be participants in their own learning. They are encouraged to consider and reflect on their thinking in the problem-solving process, seek and give explanations and be creative and imaginative. This process empowers children to effect changes in their own lives and communities and recognise that they can do so.
• Belonging – refers to children recognising themselves as members of a group or community who share the same values and goals. They undertake activities which are meaningful and relevant to all. They feel safe and acknowledge their responsibilities and learn to respect the needs and interest of the members of the group.
• Competence – refers to the learning and application of knowledge in different areas, cognitive, physical, artistic, social and technological. The opportunities for application and reflection are provided by the adults and peers with whom the children interact; each adding to the experience of the individual.

One of the most well-known programmes for developing thinking is Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) (Feuerstein et al., 1980) which was actually developed about 40 years ago. FIE was developed by Reuven Feuerstein, a child psychologist, whilst he was working with holocaust survivors. He believes that intelligence is not fixed and that the cognitive skills of children can be developed if they learn how to think. The FIE programme has been implemented as a curriculum, especially for children with additional support needs, in many countries. The teachers adopt the role of mediators and help the children to think and learn by helping them to filter and interpret the information from set tasks which focus on specific cognitive functions. The tasks which require analytical thinking become increasingly more complex and abstract as the children move through the programme. The sessions are interactive and the children are expected to be active. Those who recommend the programme claim that the children are motivated by the tasks and that they develop problem solving strategies which they can apply in real life. The FIE programme was changed and developed here when Blagg et al. (1988) reported no positive outcome in children’s cognitive development in a UK context. The programmes developed as a result were The Somerset Thinking Skills Course (Blagg et al., 1988), a series of generic thinking programmes for secondary-aged children, and Top Ten Thinking Tactics (Lake and Needham, 1993) which is suitable for primary school children. The contents of both were firmly underpinned by Feuerstein’s theory. These programmes aim to develop the skills of classification and seriation, focusing on the organisation of ideas and facts and interpreting interrelationships.

Philosophy for children

Philosophy for children (P4C) is used extensively throughout primary classrooms particularly in regard to the development of children’s social and moral education. Its use has developed both the quality of questioning and discussion amongst children. It is believed that if children understand their own thinking through thinking about thinking (metacognition) they will improve and develop their ability to think (see Chapter 10).

Bloom’s taxonomy

This taxonomy divided learning objectives into three domains – cognitive (thinking, intellectual), affective (feeling, emotional) and psychomotor (doing, practical) – and set out descriptors of progress in each area. The aim was to provide a balance in learning over the three domains and signpost progression in each. In the cognitive domain the objectives range from knowledge and comprehension to the application of skills associated with critical thinking. The taxonomy provides a valuable structure for classifying different types of questions (Bloom et al., 1956) which has been amended and revised by Lorin Anderson, a student of Bloom (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) (see Chapter 4 for more detail).

Thinking skills through discrete subjects

Science, mathematics and geography are subjects for which there are well evaluated programmes in which thinking and reasoning are targeted. Cognitive acceleration programmes in maths and science (e.g. Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education, CASE, (see Chapter 9) and Cognitive Acceleration through Mathematics Education, CAME) aim to develop thinking skills by asking questions that facilitate ‘guided self-discovery’. These programmes are underpinned by the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. A major focus is placed on helping children to make the transition from concrete to operational thinking as described by Piaget. The role of the teacher in the programme is defined as operating in what Vygotsky described as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) or the gap between what children can do unaided and what can be achieved with the aid of intervention. The programmes also recognise the importance of discussion between peers and promote the idea of pupils working in groups to solve a problem.

Thinking through Geography (Leat and Higgins, 2002) initiated a movement amongst geography teachers to move away from a knowledge-based curriculum to an approach which focuses on learning. Activities associated with this approach set up rich cognitive challenges and scaffolding for metacognitive analysis. Although designed for secondary students they can be used as a model for primary classrooms.

The infusion approach

Activating Children’s Thinking Skills (ACTS) (Dewey and Bento, 2009) was implemented in the Northern Ireland curriculum and initially used with upper Key Stage 2 children to develop thinking skills. It employed an infusion approach in which a teacher’s pedagogy is developed alongside making children’s thinking explicit. In this programme lessons are designed and planned by teachers across all areas of the curriculum using a framework based on Swartz and Parks’ taxonomy of thinking skills. (Swartz and P...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Frameworks for Thinking
• Chapter 2: Active Learning in the Early Years
• Chapter 3: Creating a Culture of Enquiry
• Chapter 4: Developing Teacher and Learner Questioning Skills
• Chapter 5: Reflective Teachers, Reflective Children
• Chapter 6: Learning Through Assessment
• Chapter 7: Active Learning with ICT
• Chapter 8: Thinking Skills through Mathematics
• Chapter 9: Developing Thinking and Learning Skills in Science
• Chapter 10: Philosophy for Children
• Chapter 11: Talking and Learning through Language
• Index