Frequently students are faced with problems where they have had no opportunity to explore the way they think, the most basic of all learning skills, and they are not aware that these basic and crucial skills can be taught.

The Academy has designed a course for teachers that will close this gap with their students armory of learning skills.

The programme covers the major aspects of thinking that requires exploration by students as follows:

• Emotional Thinking
• Logical Thinking
• Creative thinking

This one-day course designed by Dr Paget, a neuroscientist working for the Academy, addresses these 3 crucial issues and offers a number of formats for the delegate to implement in their schools.

The Formats:

• Format one is for use with 30 students in a classroom setting
• Format two is for a thinking day for the entire of the year group of say, 170 students

Delegates on the day will be given all the necessary information for the two formats as well as delivery guidelines.

Outline Content

Students are asked to explore their current thinking in specially designed situations in each of the 3 key areas. This creates a baseline in the student's mind of how they currently think.

Students are then given a series of situations where they can practise alternative ways of thinking that they have been taught in each of the key areas.

The time given for this exercise will be governed by the school timetable.

Examples of the sort of situations to be tackled by the students are as follows:

• Emotional Thinking
• Situations involving conflict either observed or as a participant
• The control of personal anger
• Dealing with personal verbal attack, such as put-downs
• Creative Thinking - Students are taught how to stimulate their creative thought. Then the students are given a series of situations to test their new skills by looking at a problem from a different perspective or designing something new. Also they are taught how to use these creative skills in the production of written materials such as essays.
• Logical Thinking - Students are given graded exercises in logical thinking to develop their skills

Formats

Format for a thinking day for the entire of the year group of say 170 students.

This is the more spectacular ways of making the teaching of thinking fun: to organise a fast moving thinking day using the main hall of the school as the venue. It takes little pre-preparation. The hall has three houses situated in three of the corners and plenary area in the centre:

• Emotional House
• Phantasy house (Creative Thinking)
• Log Cabin

Students are split-up into manageable groups: one teacher occupies each of the houses and the lead teacher takes plenary sessions.

A typical outline of the day is fully explored on the course with each delegate designing a day for theie school.

Classroom Variant

This where the teacher designs a group of 4 sessions that ideally should be run a week apart, timetable permitting. This Variant can be specifically focused on just one subject. On the course, delegate teachers will be shown how to construct lesson plans to cover this short course on thinking skills.

Investment

The fee charged per delegate is £260 +VAT

The number of teachers from any school is unlimited.

In-house 'Inset Days' are available covering this course, prices available on request. For more details, select 'Inset Days' from the menu to the left.