Teaching Thinking

Teach all your students to be better thinkers

Everyone can be taught to be a better thinker. Not that “better” simply means “more efficient”; better also means being more effective, ethical, social, creative and deliberate. With improved thinking, one has the opportunity to be a more successful learner, a more thoughtful citizen, and a more confident person.

“Thinking Skills instruction enhances academic achievement. Studies which looked at achievement over time found that thinking skills instruction accelerated the learning gains of participants, and … experimental students outperformed controls to a significant degree.” (Kathleen Cotton, School Improvement Research Series, 1991)

At Sustained Success, we can help you to develop any aspect of thinking skills and thinking for learning. Within our team we have accredited trainers in techniques such as:

• Bloom's taxomony and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
• de Bono's Lateral Thinking
• Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment
• Habits of Mind
• Newcastle Thinking Skills
• Philosophy for Children (P4C)

Our trainers include:

James Nottingham, the director of Sustained Success, who was part of the original Thinking Through Humanities group working alongside David Leat, Vivienne Baumfield, Steve Higgins and Peter Fisher at the University of Newcastle in the mid-1990's. Together they developed many of the thinking skills strategies such as Odd One Out, Living Graph, Fortune Lines and Mysteries that now appear in the National Curriculum for England and Wales. James also trained with Prof Edward de Bono on Lateral Thinking techniques at the University of Malta, and is a senior trainer for Philosophy for Children (P4C), accredited to run introductory and advanced courses in P4C.

Martin Renton, senior consultant with Sustained Success, who has led recent developments in Northumberland's Teaching Thinking Certificate, including its application for Further and Higher Education. Martin also featured on the acclaimed Intelligent Learning DVD, is a regular contributor to the Teaching Thinking and Creativity magazine, and is presently writing a book entitled Thinking Through Music

Steve Williams, Sustained Success associate, who for many years was the Editor of the Teaching Thinking and Creativity magazine. Steve was the first teacher in the UK to introduce P4C into secondary schools and has since helped to found SAPERE, a charity focussed on P4C, as well as p4c.com, an international resource and collaboration site for philosophy with children and the community of enquiry

These three wise monkeys can offer your nursery, school, college or university:

1. Support with planning for thinking skills
2. Demonstration lessons with any group/age of students
3. Inspirational INSET
4. Fully accredited courses in thinking skills, that can count towards a Master degree
5. Online support and resources for teaching thinking

 See also: SEAL   PLTS     P4C     James's Bio     Martin's Bio     Steve's Bio   Carol Dweck conferences

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“Great session. Strategic approach to thinking. Entertaining and with considerable clarity. Thank you.” (Terry Holding, Takapuna School, New Zealand)