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Martina has had a long involvement with Let's Think, one that resulted in a doctoral study supervised by Professor Philip Adey. In this post she shares her views on the ongoing value of Let's Think to her as a school leader. Each year my school has one of its seven core values as a theme for the year. This academic year it is integrity and I will use this as the basis for my first assembly of the year. My twenty-five years of involvement with CASE has been my one constant in a career of relentless change, most notably government-led curriculum and assessment reforms. I believe one of the tenets of the cognitive acceleration (CA) approach has been the moral purpose of the educationists involved to understand the classroom environment that promotes an authentic, long-term enhancement in students' powers of reasoning. Neuroscience continues to provide empirical evidence for the brain's plasticity; this supports Shayer and Adey's conjecture that the environment is one of the key factors that influences cognitive development. I therefore remain committed to encouraging and facilitating professional development in teachers that develops their understanding of the methodology that accelerates students' ability to form new constructs through an alteration in their brains' neurological functions. I believe this is a moral imperative, especially when too many debates are presented and argued on a dichotomous basis, relying on reasoning at a concrete level. I recently had to prepare for a conference which involved consideration of how metacognition is promoted in Let's Think lessons. It was an interesting journey to consider English, mathematics and science lessons and how they encourage students to consider consciously their cognitive journey with a specific reasoning pattern. Metacognition is hard and often slow thinking. It reminded me that I have often experienced the most fruitful reflective discussion with students on a reasoning pattern at the beginning of the next lesson when the previous one's context is a useful opening stimulus. One of my favourite CASE lessons is activity 18; with its high cognitive demand on the reasoning pattern of probability, I have found students benefit from a period of time to consider probability especially where the number of outcomes is not readily obvious. Metacognition allows students to articulate consciously the challenge and possible changes in their thinking; this cognitive activity is arguably one of the most important aspects of cognitive development. At a time of global uncertainty, I believe there is a moral imperative to educate our students to be conscious of the reasoning that underpins their beliefs and to be willing to be challenged on the preconceptions of our complex existence. I can express, however, with great certainty that CA and LT lessons will continue to provide the platform to facilitate and promote students' ability for self-regulation and willingness to engage in challenging discourse. [post_title] => Let's Think at Ruislip High School [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => lets-think-at-ruislip-high-school [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-09-04 14:09:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-09-04 13:09:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=933 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 931 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2017-07-13 14:42:22 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-07-13 13:42:22 [post_content] => When teaching full-time in secondary education I always wondered what it would be like to be part of a school where all staff shared a common view on how best to help their pupils reach their potential. Indeed, as a parent you see the potential in your own children from the moment of birth, and recently having had a daughter leave school at 18 I am beginning to appreciate what it’s like for an individual. But a whole school community … Well on the 25^th April I had the great privilege to visit just such an institution. My colleague Sarah Seleznyov, had recommended that Hugh Myddleton Primary in Islington, was committed enough to be accredited as a Let’s Think School for their work in mathematics. What I did not know at the time was Ofsted inspectors would call after me. So with the benefit of hindsight I will include some of the extracts from their inspection report to give you a flavor of what I encountered that day. The school’s emphasis on pupils mastering key mathematical concepts and thinking deeply is having a very positive impact. It enables pupils, including the most able, to question, talk about their learning, work together and solve problems. 
 Throughout the school, pupils grapple with mathematical concepts and problems that require them to think deeply and articulate their ideas. Well-founded approaches are used in every classroom, supported very effectively by the mathematics leader, to ensure that all pupils have the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to succeed. Leaders have worked exceptionally hard to emphasise and develop pupils’ thinking skills. This has been particularly successful in mathematics, where teachers plan very effectively to develop pupils’ problem-solving skills. The school has recently been recognised and received national accreditation for its work in this field. 
Teachers and teaching assistants are skilled at asking questions that extend pupils’ learning, giving pupils time to think for themselves and respond. The above is inspirational, with the school thoroughly deserving its ‘Outstanding’ judgment but what I saw that April day can best be described as a family; a collection of people all keen to share their learning with me. Over the years I have had the pleasure of visiting and teaching in many ‘Outstanding’ schools but at every level this community was striving to challenge themselves to be the best they could be. From the dining hall to the staff room, staff shared the importance of their Let’s Think Maths lessons. The walls were full of displays from lessons I love such as ‘Jelly Babies’ and the children I spoke to were keenly aware of how the Let’s Think lessons are just one, essential, part of their educational diet. Although I had a sort a script to focus on, our discussion diverged as the pupils shared their thinking experiences with me. One child spoke passionately about a lesson that had made them think in Year 2, despite now being two years older! At every level, from the Head to the support staff, this school is using the Let’s Think approach to develop a thinking dialogue that ensures learning is spoken about thought the day. They have found a professional tool that enables them to respond to the needs of their pupils as they all seek to reach out towards higher levels of attainment. For me it was so lovely to find, in Islington that day, what I had been looking for (sorry U2) but also not to get trapped into the circular argument of ‘We just do not have the time to allow them to think as there is too much content to teach’. In Hugh Myddleton they are focusing upon getting the conditions for learning right and with such a foundation in place everything else, as you can see for the inspection report, will fall into place. [post_title] => Agreeing with Ofsted! [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => agreeing-with-ofsted [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-07-13 14:42:22 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-07-13 13:42:22 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=931 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 929 [post_author] => 97 [post_date] => 2017-06-15 09:50:46 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-06-15 08:50:46 [post_content] => Let's Think is rooted in a subject. The subject provides the context within which pupils face challenges to their powers of reasoning. The challenges also arise from the essential requirements for a pupil's deep understanding of the subject. Thus in Let's Think Secondary Science we have a lesson, 'The P Word' which is set in the context of the pitch of a sound wave created within a set of tubes. In this lesson the student has to reason which of three variables has an effect on the pitch. They are faced with the challenge of identifying and then excluding variables by choosing pairs of tubes that differ only in one variable say, length, whilst variables of width and material remain the same. This is the same reasoning necessary to establish a controlled experiment to establish a proof of a relationship of cause and effect. Let's Think is also rooted in a pedagogy. The way the teacher interacts with the learners is particular to the Let's Think goal of engaging the majority of pupils with a higher learning demand than they might be expected to achieve on their own. The Let's Think teacher gains the skills necessary to quickly establish the context and to build with the learners a relevant vocabulary and concrete understanding of the situation and then present the challenge in such a way that the student can see clearly what is required even though they may not yet be able to puzzle their way to the solution. The Let's Think teacher's skills include an awareness of what is happening in the learning and of responding in ways that support peer to peer scaffolding and provide scaffolding for the whole class. The Let's Think teacher values and finds time for the reflection on learning that provides an opportunity to rehearse the reasoning as well as to consider the strategies they and others have used to arrive at the new meanings. Let's Think began as Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education, CASE at KS3 and this in turn spawned interventions in mathematics, technology, the creative arts and English across the primary and secondary age range. It seems possible therefore to attempt some small trials in other subjects. Geography for example. Where to start? Experienced teachers of geography are well aware of the challenges that their students face. They know when the subject is a struggle although they may not describe the nature of that struggle in terms that a Let's Think teacher might, as one of a type of reasoning and of reasoning mapped against Piagetian developmental stages. Thus the challenges that pupils face in understanding, using and making maps are well known to be difficult for pupils of all ages. They struggle to translate the 2D into 3D, to adjust the scale of the map to find the distances in reality and to understand and create symbols. They struggle with the absolute and relative orientations of the map and the place of something virtually moving across the map. If the students are challenged by the content and if the content is important to the teacher then this suggests that there is something that could possibly be the genesis of a Let's Think lesson. Over the last year and a half I have been working with 4 geography teachers to develop a small number of Let's Think geography lessons that we have trialled with classes in Y7 and Y8. We started with the curriculum and the teachers' intuitions about what is typically more challenging content. We then explored that content to identify and describe a reasoning pattern, something challenging in that content that the student has to get their head around, which some but few students are able to do but where others are likely to struggle. We developed 10 lessons in the context of maps and the flooding of the Somerset Levels. The lessons were geography lessons but had a Let's Think focus around a reasoning pattern such as the use of symbols, exploring scale as a ratio, translating 2D to 3D and vice versa, developing formal models, understanding effects based on combinations of causes. We then taught the lessons. Here we were faced with the issue of Let's Think pedagogy, the teachers had little iof any experience of Let's Think and were in fact interested in seeing another approach and another teacher. The lessons were therefore taught by me as a Let's Think tutor and observed by the geography teacher. We reflected at the end of each lesson trial on both the quality of reasoning and the quality of the the geography. Some lessons were too challenging for students, too long or not engaging but most were exciting, rewarding and as one pupil put it 'brain hemorrhaging' in their power to prompt thought. We have refined the less successful lessons, abandoned some initial ideas and have a small number of trial lessons that the teachers will now teach in what they consider to be the Let's Think way. So here lies a challenge for us. If, to be a Let's Think subject teacher, you need to have the subject expertise and the Let's Think pedagogy how does one develop a new Let's Think teacher in geography, or history, or PE? Perhaps a collaboration of Let's Think expertise and subject teacher's expertise is the way forward? [post_title] => Could there be such a thing as Let's Think Geography? How to use what we know about Let's Think in 'another' subject. [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => could-there-be-such-a-thing-as-lets-think-geography-how-to-use-what-we-know-about-lets-think-in-another-subject [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-06-15 09:51:50 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-06-15 08:51:50 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=929 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 923 [post_author] => 65 [post_date] => 2017-05-19 16:01:37 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-05-19 15:01:37 [post_content] => I have been a tutor for the Lets Think Maths courses for many years. Recently I have been responsible for the Yr 5 – Yr 9 course that has been organised in partnership with Ambler Primary School in Islington. One of the delights of the courses is the enthusiasm of the participants; their willingness to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences. This has been especially the case when teachers from primary and secondary schools work together. It provides the opportunity for everyone to develop their subject knowledge, further their understanding of how students learn and to experiment and practise different ways of teaching. All this in a safe environment where no-one is being judged and where it is safe to expose one’s misconceptions and fears. A crucial aspect of the course involves teaching lessons that they have experienced as simulated lessons led by the course tutor. During the simulations, there are opportunities to discuss the maths involved but more importantly, how the reasoning strands are developed. These are very rich sessions and the teachers make a significant contribution by asking questions, clarifying their own understanding about what is happing and thinking about how they will tackle the lessons with their own classes. Everyone is expected to teach each of the lessons at least once before the next session. They are encouraged to keep detailed notes about what happened for the students as well as themselves. We use these narratives at the start of subsequent days together. The discussions and observations enable us to reflect on many aspects of the lessons. But always, we look at how they enabled the students to develop their reasoning, rather than focusing on the mathematical skills and knowledge that form the content for the lesson. Many teachers find this very refreshing and quite often state that they feel ‘freed-up’ to try things out without the constraints they often feel in traditional maths lessons. Over the years, teachers have found interesting ways to capture the lessons they have taught. Some use photographs with comments from the students, often they include examples of the students’ work; some focus on the teacher’s role and their observations. Where possible teachers work together, one teaching and the other observing and making notes of what the students say and do. On a few occasions, teachers have made short videos to capture particularly interesting events. On the course last year, Kevin Groake, from St Joseph’s Primary School, Highgate set up his own Lets Think Maths Blog. Other participants on the course enjoyed his openness and honesty with which he told the story of the lessons. This year, Kevin has attended the Let’s Think Maths Level 2 course with Sarah Seleznyov, alongside other teachers from different introductory courses. He has continued to keep his blog and you can see examples of the lessons he has taught using the link below. letsthinkmaths.wordpress.com Lynda Maple - Lets Think Mathematics Tutor   [post_title] => Changing teachers' practices by Lynda Maple [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => changing-teachers-practices-by-lynda-maple [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-06-01 12:04:49 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-06-01 11:04:49 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=923 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 858 [post_author] => 1034 [post_date] => 2017-04-04 09:08:02 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-04-04 08:08:02 [post_content] => Here Is one of our Let’s Think in English teachers’ accounts of their development while teaching the lessons. Sarah Cunningham is a Year 6 teacher in Berrywood Primary School, Hampshire. She attended a 6 days training course led by Leah Crawford (Hampshire LTE Tutor) and Michael Walsh over 2 years and is leading her school in developing the approach this year. You can learn more about the programme at www.letsthinkinenglish.org.uk or by contacting Michael.walsh@letsthink.org.uk Having recently graduated from the two-year Let’s Think in English training programme,I have been astounded by the change in learning characteristics displayed by the pupils I have taught. I have noticed a shift from reserved children to children confident to make a contribution; from one-word answers to developed, well-reasoned responses; from accepting the first answer given as the ‘right one’ to challenging each other’s thinking; from teacher led discussions to child initiated talk; from passive learners to creative and critical thinkers who willingly want to make a contribution. This is the power of Let’s Think in English. My LTE journey started just over two years ago. At the time, I wondered what I was about to be part of. My colleague and I had been sent the course outline and I couldn’t help but notice a section titled, “What happened to Lulu?” We looked at each other in a puzzled manner. She was a 60’s popstar who went on to compete in Strictly Come Dancing, wasn’t she? Nevertheless we had been persuaded by our Headteacher that this course was a game-changer in education and that we were about to become part of something special. We brushed our thoughts of Lulu’s career aside and attended the launch day. Led by the inspiring Michael Walsh and Leah Crawford, at the launch day we were presented with the research base behind LTE and shown the statistics demonstrating the significant impact on results in classes and schools where LTE had been implemented. The different aspects of the lessons were explained to us and we were given the opportunity to be involved in a couple of simulated lessons for us to then take back to our classes to trial. By the end of the day, I was excited. Not only had we discussed what really might have happened to Lulu, (from the Charles Causley poem,) but most importantly I had been exposed to a way of educating children that made sense to me. As a child, I was always the one questioning “Why?” when introduced to new concepts. At the time, it was a case of learning by rote and therefore, on reflection, I spent much of my own education as a passive learner, who lacked a depth of understanding and just plugged through a list of maths equations and learnt the annotations of my poetry anthology and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ off by heart. I remember being highly frustrated by this. It didn’t mean anything to me. When I embarked on my teaching career, much of my time at university was spent having lightbulb moments as I made connections with concepts I had been exposed to, but didn’t understand, as a child. Having experienced Philosophy for Children in the school where I volunteered in my gap year, I became passionate about how it promoted the development of children’s higher-order thinking skills. Since then I have relished the opportunity to ensure the children who I teach do not feel like passive learners and I feel very fortunate to have embarked on my LTE journey from my NQT year. LTE has been central to my development as a teacher as it encompasses many of the aspects of P4C and encourages the children to find and formulate their own voice and ideas. One of the greatest impacts of LTE has been the development of critical and creative thinkers in my classroom. Children in each of the three classes I have taught over the past two and half years have developed their ability to formulate their ideas at a small group level and then been able to present their contribution to the whole class. What was perhaps most encouraging was the children’s interest and desire to listen to each other’s contributions. Even if they disagreed, they could refer to comments made several minutes before. Pupils become confident to respectfully and critically evaluate each other’s and their own contributions and over time, they begin to reflect on what caused the change in their thinking. Class discussions that were previously led and perhaps shut down by more confident children have been replaced with rich dialogue involving each class member and led by the children. It has also been interesting to note the children who make the contributions and to analyse what the children say in their responses. Quite surprisingly I found that many of my more vulnerable pupils, including children on the SEN register, were becoming highly involved in the discussions and providing well thought-through and linguistically developed ideas. Complex grammar develops through talk before it emerges in writing. At this point it is perhaps important for me to say that in our school we do not set or group the children by ability. The children sit in groups of 4-6 of mixed ability. I strongly believe that the exposure of children who would previously have been considered ‘lower ability’ to the high quality, rich texts and stimulus used in the LTE sessions has meant that they have made significant progress, especially within their analysis and responses to texts in reading sessions. LTE encourages struggle and challenge and the children rise to it. I recognise that being the cup-half-full-girl that I am, I have so far presented a very sunny picture of LTE. I am inspired by it and in awe of the impact it has had on many children’s education because of its underlying pedagogies. But it doesn’t mean that I haven’t experienced my own struggle along the way. I have referred to my LTE experience as a journey, which is exactly what it has been. I started it as a very new teacher and on a surface level learnt useful tips such as not choosing your most confident child to begin the discussion as it will then shut the rest of the dialogue down. I found it very difficult not to positively reinforce contributions and respond with a ‘well done’ and an excitable dance at the front of my classroom when the child I least expected shared a thought-provoking idea that changed the thinking of the class. Mastering the art of a poker-face has taken time. Equally, so has not leading the children in a certain direction. It’s very tempting from having simulated many of the lessons on the course to want to steer the children in a certain direction or to expect them to reach a certain point. On some occasions, I have had to learn to accept children not getting to where I was expecting them to get to or to accept that they have taken the course of discussion down a different route. Two years on, I’m now excited to see how the children steer the discussion and where they take it. As teachers we are so driven and pressured by feeling like we have to get the children to a certain point of understanding by a certain time that it is refreshing to adopt this approach. It has however, taken time to know when to draw the children back to the question and knowing when to intervene, when to probe and when to encourage generalisation. When I began teaching my first series of LTE sessions, my colleague and I were observed by the rest of our LTE cluster group. I was amazed by the quality of the dialogue and on this occasion, spent approximately half an hour on the social construction aspect of the lesson. It’s easy to get caught up by the quality of children’s responses and forget you are the guardian of the lesson shape. I often ran short of time for the meaty part of the lessons: cognitive conflict and metacognition. This was a learning curve for me. There are countless points that I could list detailing how LTE has impacted on my teaching practice.  Most importantly, my style of questioning has changed – my favourite question now being, “What led you to think that?” As a result of LTE, I have thought more carefully about how my questions can facilitate an open discussion, ensuring I am not leading, but encouraging speculation and challenge from the children. Soon after beginning the LTE course, it was apparent how many aspects, especially the cognitive conflict, could be applied to other areas of the curriculum. In maths we often begin the lesson with a reasoning starter. I approach this as I would LTE by giving the children time talk in their group to respond to the starter before opening it up into a class dialogue. I facilitate the discussion exactly as I would a LTE lesson. This leads to a range of responses and the children evaluating which answer is more likely and providing evidence to justify why. As well as this, I have planned English units in which I have used a LTE style lesson to present the text to the children. This worked effectively with the book ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker and caused lots of rich discussion and ultimately resulted in some really high quality writing. One of the biggest changes we have made, only recently and as a result of LTE, is to the teaching of reading. We now expose the children to the text, or part of the text in the first session, depending on how we have planned the structure of the questioning that follows. We then facilitate a LTE style session to develop children’s responses to the text and gain a deeper understanding and allow children to bring their own experiences to the discussion. The natural way LTE supports children to infer from the text and refer to the text in their responses to justify their contribution has been central to developing their ability to respond to high quality texts. Following this, in the third session, the children write a written response to the questions discussed on the previous day. Since starting this way of teaching reading in September, children are writing developed, well-evidenced and reasoned answers. They are confident to explain why they have chosen to include a certain quote to support their response and are answering the questions more thoroughly and accurately than we have ever experienced before. It is only right to include the response of the children “Let’s Think has helped me expand my imagination, made think outside the box and when I am editing pieces of work.” “Let’s Think has helped me feel more confident in showing and giving my ideas.” “It’s helped me listen.” “The Let’s Think lessons have helped me to read through the text more carefully and look for clues in words I wouldn’t normally look at. Although sometimes I don’t want to answer the question, it has boosted my confidence to try.” “Let’s think has helped me think more deeply and try to find hidden meaning through texts. I say my answers in better ways and have more confidence to disagree with others opinions if my own are different.” “Let’s Think has helped me be more confident in giving thorough answers. It’s helped my memory and listening skills.” “Let’s Think has helped me to read in-between the lines and listen and concentrate better.” “I am confident with Let’s Think. It has helped me think more deeply about things and it gives me a better memory.” “Let’s Think helps me in my reading because it is making my writing more mature and it helps me to retrieve evidence from the text.” “I feel different since October but I still need to improve.” “Let’s Think has helped me with my inference skills and my skills for backing up my opinion. I have also learnt how to link other ideas to the conversation and plan out what to say before saying it.” It is exciting and rewarding to read these comments, knowing it has had a huge impact on the children’s learning; LTE goes far beyond delivering curriculum content. It has the power to engage learners, make them passionate about what they are discussing and be creative and critical when responding to both a stimulus and each other. As Nelson Mandela so famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon we have to change the world.” LTE empowers children to engage in their learning critically and creatively, children become passionate about the contributions they and their classmates make and be actively involved in leading their learning. At a time when teachers are hounded by pressures of ensuring each child makes enough progress, delivering a significantly more challenging curriculum and mounting paperwork pressures, there is potential to lose the sole purpose of education and to end up creating learners taught by numbers in a robotic fashion. LTE can be the difference. It supports the move from reserved children to children confident to make a contribution; from one-word answers to developed, well-reasoned responses; from accepting the first answer given as the ‘right one’ to challenging each other’s thinking; from teacher led discussions to child-initiated talk; from teacher to facilitator; from passive learners to creative and critical thinkers who willingly want to make a contribution. Sarah Cunningham Year 6 teacher Berrywood Primary School Hampshire [post_title] => The Power of Let's Think in English [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => the-power-of-lets-think-in-english [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-04-04 16:57:11 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-04-04 15:57:11 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=858 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [5] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 835 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2017-03-10 11:31:41 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-03-10 11:31:41 [post_content] => Last year I was able to work with five teachers from the Compass Partnership of Schools in Greenwich. Our aim was to develop some new Let's Think Science lessons for the primary phase and I would like to share one of them with you here. It is called the Three Billy Goats and explores the relationship between the distance of the light and shadow size. Please have a look at our resources and try the lesson as we would love to receive your feedback as we seek to produce a new series of lessons to develop scientific reasoning across Years 2 - 6. 3 billy goats 8_shadows-1 The 3 Billy Goats Gruff [post_title] => A new science lesson for you to try [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => a-new-science-lesson-for-you-to-try [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-03-10 11:31:41 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-03-10 11:31:41 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=835 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [6] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 698 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2017-03-02 10:58:51 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-03-02 10:58:51 [post_content] => It has been a few months since my last post and the main reason for this is that we have been thinking long and hard about the purpose of the Let's Think website. The first outcome of this discussion has been the decision to redesign and update our site. As you read this post you will be able to see the changes that we have made.  We hope you like what you see. Please let us know what you think and what you would like us to include. You will now be able to access many resources without the need to subscribe to the site - indeed this aspect has already gone.  If you want to find out about the updated CASE materials please get in touch. You can now see some video testimonials from schools who have been using the Let's Think resources to enhance the learning of their pupils and teachers. These schools are actively using the Let's Think approach as a key part of their pupils educational diet. You will already have received our new newsletter which will be sent out each term to update you as to all things Let's Think. I must flag up our conference that takes place on the 7th of July at York. The 2017 conference is aimed at those who are new to Let's Think and I strongly encourage you to join us in York if you want to find out just what this approach can offer you and your pupils. Please get in touch if you want to find out more about this event.       [post_title] => It has been quite a while. [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => it-has-been-quite-a-while [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-03-02 10:58:51 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-03-02 10:58:51 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=698 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [7] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 660 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2016-09-29 10:57:49 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-09-29 09:57:49 [post_content] => At the end of last term I was sent an e-mail by Mark O'Donnell from Broadwater School in Surrey. They have been using CASE/LTSS for a couple of years and I was wondering how they had been getting on. I enclose his reply below: [post_title] => Gathering Momentum [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => gathering-momentum [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2016-09-29 11:04:56 [post_modified_gmt] => 2016-09-29 10:04:56 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=660 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [8] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 655 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2016-04-22 10:56:26 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-04-22 09:56:26 [post_content] => I had the great pleasure of visiting Ercall Wood Technology College before Easter in my capacity as tutor for the LTSS project. I had not been for a while and I was wondering how things were going for this school. Quite soon into the meeting the dreaded Ofsted word was mentioned! Despite the fact this was said with a very straight face I had nothing to worry about for very quickly smiles broke out and they handed the report to me, from which I will quote directly: "Some teachers use excellent questioning skills that promote thinking and discussion among their pupils. Pupils enjoy thinking creatively and contributing to class discussions, and learn from the contributions of other pupils. For example, in a science lesson, pupils justified how they had classified different species of fish. Other pupils in the class identified strengths and weaknesses in the ideas presented, and pupils took action in the light of the feedback they had received." As part of a lesson feedback session we could not have got off to a better start! I include this quote here as it highlights very clearly what we are trying to do with the approach we call Let's Think - it might be worth viewing our vision for Let's Think in the light of this comment. I personally struggle with Ofsted and its manifestation within schools and I often find myself cringing when I drive past a school, that have paid for an Ofsted banner, displaying the results of their latest inspection. One school near me have placed their banner near a very busy road that proudly declare that 'Safeguarding is effective!' [post_title] => Celebrating the difference [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => celebrating-the-difference [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2016-04-22 10:56:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2016-04-22 09:56:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=655 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [9] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 626 [post_author] => 11 [post_date] => 2016-01-22 12:28:05 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-01-22 12:28:05 [post_content] => To me one of the most interesting aspects of the work started by Carolyn, Michael and Philip is the international appeal of their educational research. Regularly, at least once a month, we receive via social media or email an indication of how far reaching their ideas have become. Earlier this month Dominic Edwards shared his developing understanding of all things Cognitive Acceleration and how his efforts to impact the world of football training is bearing fruit. His latest thinking can be found on the website danabrahams.com and this post really does serve to highlight how the desire of Philip Adey to give teachers a theory is becoming a reality. Most recently the work of our colleagues Mary Oliver and Grady Venville has been published. Please read this and get in touch to share your views on what they have been able to achieve with schools in Australia:  Oliver Venville RISE paper 2016 [post_title] => Bringing CASE in from the cold [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => bringing-case-in-from-the-cold [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2016-01-22 12:28:05 [post_modified_gmt] => 2016-01-22 12:28:05 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.letsthink.org.uk/?p=626 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 10 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 933 [post_author] => 68 [post_date] => 2017-09-04 10:44:53 [post_date_gmt] => 2017-09-04 09:44:53 [post_content] => Dr. Martina Lecky is the Headteacher of Ruislip High School. Martina has had a long involvement with Let's Think, one that resulted in a doctoral study supervised by Professor Philip Adey. In this post she shares her views on the ongoing value of Let's Think to her as a school leader. Each year my school has one of its seven core values as a theme for the year. This academic year it is integrity and I will use this as the basis for my first assembly of the year. My twenty-five years of involvement with CASE has been my one constant in a career of relentless change, most notably government-led curriculum and assessment reforms. I believe one of the tenets of the cognitive acceleration (CA) approach has been the moral purpose of the educationists involved to understand the classroom environment that promotes an authentic, long-term enhancement in students' powers of reasoning. Neuroscience continues to provide empirical evidence for the brain's plasticity; this supports Shayer and Adey's conjecture that the environment is one of the key factors that influences cognitive development. I therefore remain committed to encouraging and facilitating professional development in teachers that develops their understanding of the methodology that accelerates students' ability to form new constructs through an alteration in their brains' neurological functions. I believe this is a moral imperative, especially when too many debates are presented and argued on a dichotomous basis, relying on reasoning at a concrete level. I recently had to prepare for a conference which involved consideration of how metacognition is promoted in Let's Think lessons. It was an interesting journey to consider English, mathematics and science lessons and how they encourage students to consider consciously their cognitive journey with a specific reasoning pattern. Metacognition is hard and often slow thinking. It reminded me that I have often experienced the most fruitful reflective discussion with students on a reasoning pattern at the beginning of the next lesson when the previous one's context is a useful opening stimulus. One of my favourite CASE lessons is activity 18; with its high cognitive demand on the reasoning pattern of probability, I have found students benefit from a period of time to consider probability especially where the number of outcomes is not readily obvious. Metacognition allows students to articulate consciously the challenge and possible changes in their thinking; this cognitive activity is arguably one of the most important aspects of cognitive development. At a time of global uncertainty, I believe there is a moral imperative to educate our students to be conscious of the reasoning that underpins their beliefs and to be willing to be challenged on the preconceptions of our complex existence. I can express, however, with great certainty that CA and LT lessons will continue to provide the platform to facilitate and promote students' ability for self-regulation and willingness to engage in challenging discourse. 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