Thinking Through ICT in Primary Schools Steve Higgins, University of Newcastle

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Thinking Through ICTin Primary SchoolsSteve
Higgins, University of Newcastle
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Overview of the presentation

• Teachers using ICT for preparation and planning
  thinking activities
• ICT promoting thinking through pupils interaction

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ICT and teaching thinking in primary schools

• Teachers using ICT for preparation and planning
  thinking activities
• Preparing resources - Living maps
• Presenting information effectively - Odd One Out
• Thinking through ICT in primary teaching
• Developing effective interaction - talk at and
  through the computer
• Effective feedback - Zoombinis
• Visualising information - Kidspiration
• Working efficiently - Writing frames

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Preparing resourcesLiving graphs, maps and
fortune lines
Mrs Jones wants to take her two children for a
picnic. She does not want to go to the beach.

• Support visual learning approaches
• Can support kinaesthetic approaches
• Promote more creative and active learning

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Mrs Jones collects Danny and Lisa from school.
Mr Peters, the postman, drives home for his lunch.
At 2 oclock, a van driver delivers some paper to
the school.
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How did Max feel?
He found his supper waiting for him.
They made him king of all the wild things.
Max made mischief of one kind and another.
He sailed off through night and day.
Max stepped into his private boat and said
goodbye.
The wild things roared their terrible roars and
gnashed their terrible teeth.
But Max was lonely.
He was sent to bed without eating anything.
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Preparing resourcesLiving maps
Mrs Jones wants to take her two children for a
picnic. She does not want to go to the beach.

• Multimap (www.multimap.co.uk)
• DTP package
• Can be interactive

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Presenting informationOdd One Out
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in maths
prime
5
odd
divisible by 5
1 digit
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square
multiples
even
divisible by 3
2 digit
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Odd one out target boards
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Planning Sheets and Writing frames

• can be used on screen or on paper
• give an overview of the writing task
• focus attention on stages of writing
• avoid daunting pupils with a blank sheet of
  paper
• provide a structure for explicit discussion of
  the writing process.

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On-screen writing frames

• Use a template or read-only version
• Use the forms tools in Microsoft Word (drop-down
  or free text)
• Use with word banks or Clicker grids

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Puzzles with feedbackWhich bridge should the
last Zoombini cross and why?
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Discussion at the computer
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Visualising information
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Teaching thinking through ICT some principles

• Pupils articulate and discuss
• The purpose of learning tasks are explicit (and
  understood) by pupils
• Pupils evaluate their own performance
• Pupils discuss and evaluate their own learning
  (metacognition)
• (Higgins, 2001)

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Some pointers

• Preparation
• Presentation
• Problems for pupils
• Puzzles for pupils
• Principles

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Further reading

• Teaching Thinking (Questions Publishing)
  Quarterly magazine
• Dawes, L. Mercer, N and Wegerif, R. (2000)
  Thinking Together A Programme of activities for
  developing thinking skills at KS2 Birmingham
  Questions Publishing.
• Higgins, S (2001) Thinking Through Primary
  Teaching Cambridge Chris Kington Publishing
• DfEE report by Carol McGuinness "From Thinking
  Skills to Thinking Classrooms" (www.dfee.gov.uk/re
  search/re_brief/RB115.doc)

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Some websites

• http//www.chriskingtonpublishing.co.uk/.
• http//www.sapere.net/ (SAPERE)
• http//www.teachingthinking.net/ (Robert Fisher)
• (http//www.dialogueworks.co.uk/ (NEWSWISE)
• http//www.thinkingtogether.org.uk/ (Thinking
  Together)