Thinking Skills

At Southbridge School we believe that a key goal of education is to promote life long learning. Children need to learn the skills required to continue their learning outside of the school setting.  We encourage the use of a variety of “thinking skills” to develop a thinking culture within the classes.

Some of the models used are:

• SOLO Taxonomy:

Solo taxonomy is a tool which can be used for planning, teaching and assessment. It is used to ensure a balance between surface and deep thinking and is a true taxonomy.

	Category	Definition	Example
Surface	Uni-structural	Responding to a given idea –one thing	Name one of the characters in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
	Multi structural	2 or more things used to sequentially create a list	Make a list of the characters in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Deep	Relational	Working out patterns.	Make a list of the good people and a list of the bad people in Little Red Riding Hood
	Extended Abstract	Looking at a rule or a principle which applies beyond the given.	What is the moral of this story?
			Why in so many stories is the animal made to be human?

• Six Hat Thinking:

Children look at problems and situations from six different view points (hats), in order to evaluate ideas and actions in a balanced way.

•  Extended Brainstorm
  
  4 Elements of brainstorming, including:

  • Fluency

  • Flexibility

  • Originality

  • elaboration

   

• Questioning Techniques

  A range of question types i.e.

  • Open and closed questions

  • Fat and skinny questions

  • Q-matrix questions

   

• Thinker’s Keys:

  These keys provide a variety of ways of looking at a topic from every angle. They help children to access and extend their own knowledge on a subject.

   

• Graphic Organizers:

  Ways for children to organize and order their thinking.

  • P.M.I (plus, minus and interesting);

  • Concept mapping;

  • Venn diagrams and double bubbles;

  • Idea webs;

  • Flow charts;

  • Cause and effect charts.

   

• Multiple Intelligences

  Provides students with diverse opportunities to demonstrate ways of knowing and understanding through the use for the following intelligences:

  • Verbal linguistic

  • Logical mathematical

  • Visual spatial

  • Musical

  • Bodily kinesthetic

  • Interpersonal

  • Intrapersonal

  • Naturalist
    
     

• Scope Sequence

  The following guidelines are the minimum teaching requirements for each year level to ensure that by the time children leave Southbridge they have a full tool kit of thinking strategies. It is expected that these will be taught in the specified year (if children have not used them previously). Thinking strategies used by teachers should be determined by learning activity.

  Level	Inquiry Learning Model	Thinking Strategy
  Year 0/1		Six Thinking Hats
  Year 2		Extended Brainstorming
  Year 3		Questioning Techniques
  Year 4		Thinker’s Keys
  Year 5		Graphic Organisers
  Year 6		Multiple Intelligences