Thinking about thinking in the primary class

Abstract

The current research encompasses three chapters. The first reports on a systematic review of relevant literature. The second connects the findings from the review to the empirical study, whilst reporting on conceptual and methodological considerations. The final chapter reports on the findings from the empirical study and the associated implications. Researchers and theorists have acknowledged that skilful thinking enables a range of psychological and educational benefits such as enhanced academic performance and increased participation in teaching and learning. A range of interventions exist which have been developed to enhance thinking skills (TS) in school contexts. A systematic review of eleven studies examining a) the effects of TS interventions and b) the nature of TS interventions is presented. Taken in synthesis, findings suggested that interventions often measured individual effects. Teachers and pupils were often consulted at the evaluation stage of an intervention, rather than being involved actively during construction and implementation. This study aimed to explore how pedagogical action might support processes of teacher and pupil thinking in a primary classroom. Attention was afforded to factors which might support and sustain the implementation of a TS intervention. One teacher and six pupils from a Year Four class participated in the study. Consultations and focus groups were conducted, during the implementation phase of the ‘Think Aloud Paired Problem Solving’ intervention. Participant experiences of the intervention were explored through discussion and the completion of thinking templates. Constructionist Grounded Theory (CGT) was applied to the data generation and analysis process. General factors supporting thinking included the stance taken by the teacher, teacher responsiveness and teacher access to further support. Specific factors associated with the TAPPS intervention included particular organisation of pupil learning such as mixed ability pairings, and specific teaching strategies such as questioning. A suggested grounded theory outlines that there may be some general foundations that need to be in place before a more specific thinking pedagogy is applied. Educational Psychologists can continue to research this with teachers in their ongoing practice through reflective consultations.