Newcastle University

The Research Centre for learning and Teaching (CfLaT) at Newcastle University has a strong reputation for teaching and research on Thinking Skills. Historically, CfLaT has evolved from the former Thinking Skills Research Centre, where a great deal of research activity in Thinking Skills took place. A team of colleagues in the Thinking Skills Research Centre (David Leat, Vivienne Baumfield and Sally Taverner) was awarded a grant from the TTA (as then was) to form one of four national School Based Research Consortia. The funding was to support the development of a research partnership with 6 secondary schools and, in this instance, 3 LEAs and had the infusion of thinking skills into the curriculum as its focus. The project was of national significance and, since its inauguration in March 1998, led to invitations to present papers at national conferences. Centre colleagues (Sue Robson and Mei Lin) were also involved in a collaborative research project with the National Institute of Education in Singapore investigating the pedagogy of thinking skills lessons with particular emphasis on patterns of classroom discourse. The project was funded by NIE, Singapore and the British Council and was supported by the Ministry for Education in Singapore. The Centre has also established a number of smaller scale projects with partners in LEAs and schools which reflect the dual focus of investigating teaching and learning and promoting new patterns of collaboration.

Teaching Thinking Skills involves ‘courses or organised activities which identify for learners translatable (as opposed to directly transferable) mental processes and/or which require learners to plan, describe and evaluate their thinking and learning’ Moseley, D. et al. (2004).

David Moseley’s work - Frameworks for Thinking - along with other colleagues from Newcastle (Steve Higgins, Jen Miller and Doug Newton), Durham (Julian Elliott) and Sunderland Universities (Maggie Gregson) is a milestone providing an overarching framework, developed from analysing over 100 typologies and frameworks of Thinking Skills.

 

 

In addition the Newcastle team led by Steve Higgins (now at Durham) and Vivienne Baumfield (now at Glasgow) involving Mei Lin, David Moseley and Elaine Hall, produced a number of syntheses (or meta-analyses) of research on the impact of Thinking Skills. These EPPI reviews provide reassuring evidence of the positive impact of such approaches.

We also have a considerable reputation and experience related to Thinking Skills strategies, both produced commercially and informing Secondary Strategy policy and practice. The strategies include, for example:

• Mysteries
• Living Graphs
• Reading Images
• Collective Memory

David Leat was responsible for producing the Leading in Learning materials while working on secondment for the Secondary Strategy in the Department for Education and Skills (as it then was). David Leat's publication Thinking Through Geography won the Geographical Association Gold Award in 1999 and Thinking Through School by Anne de A’echevarria and David Leat won the prestigious British Education Suppliers Award for best book in 2006. This approach has spread to other countries with adaptations and translations appearing in Holland, Germany and China. The approach of using powerful teaching thinking strategies allows teachers to innovate incrementally, learning as they go, rather than adopting a package over which they have no ownership (Leat & Higgins 2002).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other CfLaT staff who work in this area include Rachel Lofthouse, Hanneke Jones (Philosophy for Children specialism) and David Wright.

We have a strong association with the Thinking for Learning Unit in Northumberland, who have championed the use of teaching thinking strategies which are widely used in Northumberland schools, across the region and nationally.

The use of teaching thinking approaches with pupils is unlikely to succeed unless teachers have good opportunities for learning, which is why CfLaT has evaluated a Thinking Skills Programme in Scotland and also researches Coaching, Learning to Learn and Action Research. These approaches have the effect of creating Learning Space in which teachers and leaders can begin to think and act differently, breaking the mould of transmissional teaching.

 

IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

It is evident that teaching Thinking Skills can be very effective in raising attainment. It excites some teachers, most pupils are enthusiastic, especially when it is taught well and it can transform classrooms and outcomes. So why is it not transforming educational outcomes. There are three big reasons:

1. Teacher issues – lots of teachers find it hard to do as it requires a different knowledge base and teaching skills from more routine teaching;
2. School level issues – for example a subject-based curriculum, which emphasises content, with little linkage between learning experiences militates against transfer of thinking;
3. System level issues – assessment regimes do not immediately encourage such an approach, there is a tendency to play safe and not take risks.

CfLaT colleagues currently have projects with Knowsley and Oldham Local Authorities and with the Helen Hamlyn Trust (the Open Future project) supporting teachers in developing and researching their own teaching thinking practice. The schools involved are variously using teaching thinking as a basis for curriculum reform. We are currently exploring how to support teachers in planning for teaching thinking lessons, where conducting metacognitive plenaries is particularly difficult and teachers may not have a sufficient knowledge base to feel confident.

We offer research and consultancy in:

• Infusion approaches in teaching thinking;
• Professional development to support teaching thinking, including action research, teacher learning communities and coaching;
• Curriculum development using teaching thinking as a spearhead to develop inquiry based approaches;
• Assessment approaches for teaching thinking;
• School development for innovative pedagogies.

If you have any further queries about our past research and consultancy, or are interested in exploring future collaborative work, please email us.

Related Publications

Hall, E. Teachers and metacognition: drawing together evidence from systematic review and action research. Paper presented at the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction: Metacognition Special Interest Group Conference, Cambridge University, July 2006. Download here.

Hall, E.., Higgins, S. How do you solve a problem like Maria? What meta-analysis can tell us about effective educational innovations and the teacher effect. Paper presented at the International Association of Cognitive Educational Psychology Conference, Durham, July 2005. Download here.

Hall, E., Higgins, S. and Baumfield, V. The impact of thinking skills: the results from three reviews Presented to the EPPI-Centre conference, Institute of Education, May 2005.

Moseley, D., Elliott, J., Gregson, M. and Higgins, S. (2005) Thinking Skills Frameworks for Use in Education and Training. British Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 81-104.

Moseley, D., Baumfield, V., Elliott, J., Higgins, S., Miller, J. and Newton D. P. (2005). Frameworks for thinking: a handbook for teachers and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Hall, E. A meta-analysis of the impact of thinking skills Paper presented to the Education section of the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, at Glasgow University, November 2004.

Hall, E. and Higgins, S. Picking the strawberries out of the jam: thinking critically about narrative reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analysis Presented at the British Education Research Association conference, at Manchester Metropolitan University, September 2004. Download here.

Higgins, S. and Hall, E. The impact of thinking skills interventions on pupils Paper presented at the ESRC Learning to Learn Seminar, July 2004, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Robson S. and Lin M. (2004) Teacher Change and Student Autonomy: Thinking Skills Interventions and Young People with Disabilities in China International Journal of Learning: Volume 9, 2004.

Robson S. and Lin M. (2002b) Impact of Thinking Skills Interventions on Students With SLDD in China: Final Report Year Two.

Robson S. and Lin, M. (2004a) Interim Report to British Council Year 3 Report Developing a model for teacher professional development in Thinking Skills in China August 2004.

Lin, M. and Robson S. (2001) The Potential of a Thinking Skills Approach for young people with disabilities in China; University of Newcastle.

Robson S. and Lin, M. (2001c) Report to British Council The Introduction of a thinking skills project for young people with disabilities in China: Final Report Year One.

Robson S. and Lin, M. (2004b) Final Report to British Council Teacher Professional Development for Quality Education in China. December 2004.

Leat, D. and Lin, M. (2003) Developing a Pedagogy of Metacognition and Transfer: some signposts for the generation and use of knowledge and the creation of research partnerships. British Educational Research Journal 2003, 29(3), 383-415.

Lin, M. and Robson S. (2000a) Report to British Council on Current economic, social and educational policies in China and the impact of these policies on people with disabilities, December 2000.