A THINKING ORIENTED CURRICULUM

So what is a thinking oriented curriculum?

The answer to this first question will take time to absorb and come to grips with and will change over time as we learn more about how we think and learn.

Does the same curriculum content get covered?

Yes, and a whole lot more. Children are able to look at topics in depth and then take the strategies and skills they develop and apply them into other situations.

Will my children be missing out on something because of this different way of doing things?

No, because they will be able to manage better the vast array of skills and the boundless information that they are expected to know.

 Will I still be able to help my child if he or she gets stuck? 

Yes, particularly if you become a facilitator of how and where to find information and then offer some guidance as to how that information could be used. In other words be prepared to guide rather than tell, be prepared for mistakes to be made and be prepared most of all to be supportive of the efforts that are made. The final product may not be spectacularly presented and may not even work or be published. It is the thinking and the strategies that are the key and what we are looking for.

Some background......................

    For centuries men and women have been looking at people's behaviour and the patterns of thinking that individuals use. What people have learnt is that although we can draw some generalisations about thinking, no two people think alike all the time. We celebrate this diversity, yet as an education system we prefer conformity. We have a set of standards and a curriculum framework that needs to be achieved and yet because people think and learn differently some will achieve well and others will struggle if children are still being taught the same way as their parents were being taught at school and in some cases, their parents' parents. Basically we have structured the learning situations so that someone whose main learning styles are linguistic and numeric have a great advantage. Yet these styles do not encourage development of the whole individual.

    Why is there need to change? For good or bad the world has changed and children need to be prepared properly for it. There is an enormity of information at people's fingertips that has to be made sense of. In a workforce potential employers are looking for adaptable, motivated, multiskilled people. Leisure time too now has so many options. The only way that children can maximise their opportunities is to:

• develop strategies about how to manage information,
• learn what to do with it when it has been collated
• develop a range of skills for employment and leisure.

In short they need to learn how to plan, make decisions, build on ideas and to think in a variety of ways.

The thinking orientated curriculum highlights strategies for students to use, encourages cooperation, celebrates success and failure, as failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. It builds on the ideas of:

•  De Bono's Thinking Hats
• Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
• Bloom's Taxonomy
• Anderson's Revised Taxonomy
• Learning Theories and Instructional Strategies Matrix.
• Teaching and Learning Models
• Brian Cambourne's Conditions of Learning
• Art Costa's Habits of Mind

(To find out more information about the above ideas click on the links)

For a very comprehensive guide see Palmerston DPS on-line and its Looking at Learning section or Frankston High School's Supporting Thinking. It provides tools and structure to assist students to "learn" the curriculum and meet standards. It recognises diversity of learning styles and provides support and encouragement for all students achieve their best. We are training children in

How can a school incorporate this into their teaching and learning program?

Essendon North's diagram of Learning to Learn gives a general idea of how a school can tackle it. Apollo Parkways designed a learning tree which children use as their prime strategy and teachers use for planning the implementation of curriculum content. Our school uses an integrated curriculum approach because:

•  in real life learning is not broken up into compartmentalised non-linked segments
• children can establish links between Key Learning Areas and develop strategies for future learning
• it is the smartest way and most effective use of time to cover the huge amount of content of curriculum content that is expected to be covered.

The integrated curriculum is developed from the C.S.F. incorporating Science and S.O.S.E and often has a literature based element to it. (see Integrating English from Tasmanian Education) Planning is essential so that all areas are covered. (see Tasmanian Education planning guide.)