Re-focussing teaching and learning within a thinking framework

"The promise of the twenty first century lies in our ability to learn from the twentieth and collectively to decide to strike out in a new or renewed direction (Beare and Slaughter, 1993:166)"\ud \ud To realize the potential of the twenty first century, school systems need to break away from their limitations of past understandings of learning/teaching processes and direct their focus on education practices that embrace current and emergent theories on learning, thinking and teaching, so that students graduating from schools in the nineties are well equipped mentally to meet the, as yet speculative, challenges of the future. The biggest step forward would be to begin the process of change by working to establish a culture of thinking in schools through the curriculum.\ud \ud In order for a curriculum that is re-focused on thinking to be central to the whole purpose of schools and schooling, the educational ethos, structure and environment needs also to be re-focused and in place. Active support for the teaching for thinking needs to occur at the classroom, school, state Department and political levels, so that teachers, students, parents and the community have the disposition and the inclination to be committed to the teaching for thinking