What do teachers think about thinking skills?

Presents findings from a case study of the implementation of three different thinking skills programmes - Somerset Thinking Skills, Instrumental Enrichment and Philosophy for Children, in year seven of an inner city secondary school. Focuses on the perceptions of the teachers involved and explores the extent to which teacher perceptions affected implementation. An understanding of teachers' perceptions is important if effective training and support is to be provided and the problem of poor implementation of thinking skills programmes is to be addressed. Analysis of teacher perceptions will also contribute to our understanding of why a particular programme is chosen and the extent to which the needs of the teacher are consistent with its aims. Findings of the study reaffirm the difficulty experienced teachers face when attempting to develop new skills and highlight the problems presented by the lack of immediate, concrete outcomes from a thinking skills lesson. Identifies teachers' planning and perceptions of what constitutes group work as areas deserving further research and notes the importance of the presentation of thinking skills materials for the teachers using them.CAPBaumfield, V.M. (Ed.) (1995), Improving Students' Performance: a Guide to Thinking Skills Programmes in Education and Training, Tyneside Training and Enterprise Council, Gateshead. Baumfield, O. and Meagher, (1996), What Students Think About Thinking Skills, unpublished report, Thinking Skills Research Group, University of Newcastle. Blagg, N. (1991), Can We Teach Intelligence?, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ. Burbules, N. (1993), Dialogue in Teaching: Theory and Practice, Teachers College, New York, NY. Dearing, R. (1996), Review of Qualifications for 16-19 Year Olds, SCAA, London. Dillon, J.T. (1994), Using Discussions in Classrooms, OUP, Buckingham. Doyle, T. (1977), Learning the Classroom Environment, Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 28, pp. 51-5. McGuinness and Nisbet (1990), Teaching Thinking in Europe-, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 61, pp. 174-86. Miles and Huberman (1994), Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Source Book, Sage, London. Parlett and Hamilton (1972), Evaluation as Illumination: A New Approach to the Study of Innovatory Programs, Centre for Research in the Educational Sciences, University of Edinburgh Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Sammons, Hillman and Mortimore (1995), Key Charactersitics of Effective Schools, Institute of Education, London. Resnick, L. (1987), Education and Learning to Think, National Academy Press, Washington, DC. Rich, E. (1993), Stability and change in teacher expertise-, Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 9, pp. 137-46. Rudduck, B. (1990), Understanding curriculum change-, USDE Papers 6, Division of Education, University of Sheffield.6pub613pub