The development of distance learning material to support decision-related thinking skills in more able children
The development of distance learning material to support decision-related thinking skills in more able children
The last decade has seen a considerable increase in interest in children's thinking, and in the potential for enhancing thinking through support material and programmes. The same period has seen a simultaneous increase in interest in two other areas. There is a greater awareness of, and sympathy for, particular needs of more able pupils; also, an increased interest in, and awareness of the potential of, the development of a range of distance and other flexible learning strategies, including supported self-study.
This study brings together these three areas of interest. Through involvement with a programme of specially written stimulus material, it attempts to develop certain thinking skills in a group of able children, largely in situations removed from normal school and classroom contexts. It is in this combination of interest areas in which its uniqueness may be seen to lie.
The material takes decision-making as its primary focus. Six skill areas are identified, each relating specifically to aspects of decision-making, but additionally having wider and transferable potential within problem solving more generally. As the material explores, enables and supports within these six areas, it simultaneously develops greater pupil awareness in the potential of both transfer and metacognition. Increased metacognition understanding is seen both as a basic aspect of the skill enhancement process - effectively, as an additional and overarching skill - and as an aid to transfer.
The enhancement material upon which the study is based was completed by a group of twenty-seven pupils from three middle schools at a residential Thinking Workshop, and at home individually in an eight week period following the Workshop. Analysis and description of their efforts is related to the identified skill areas, and to notions of metacognition and transfer; it also informs possible future developments in the area of promoting children's thinking.
University of Southampton
Bentley, Richard Alastair
1997
Bentley, Richard Alastair
Bentley, Richard Alastair
(1997)
The development of distance learning material to support decision-related thinking skills in more able children.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
The last decade has seen a considerable increase in interest in children's thinking, and in the potential for enhancing thinking through support material and programmes. The same period has seen a simultaneous increase in interest in two other areas. There is a greater awareness of, and sympathy for, particular needs of more able pupils; also, an increased interest in, and awareness of the potential of, the development of a range of distance and other flexible learning strategies, including supported self-study.
This study brings together these three areas of interest. Through involvement with a programme of specially written stimulus material, it attempts to develop certain thinking skills in a group of able children, largely in situations removed from normal school and classroom contexts. It is in this combination of interest areas in which its uniqueness may be seen to lie.
The material takes decision-making as its primary focus. Six skill areas are identified, each relating specifically to aspects of decision-making, but additionally having wider and transferable potential within problem solving more generally. As the material explores, enables and supports within these six areas, it simultaneously develops greater pupil awareness in the potential of both transfer and metacognition. Increased metacognition understanding is seen both as a basic aspect of the skill enhancement process - effectively, as an additional and overarching skill - and as an aid to transfer.
The enhancement material upon which the study is based was completed by a group of twenty-seven pupils from three middle schools at a residential Thinking Workshop, and at home individually in an eight week period following the Workshop. Analysis and description of their efforts is related to the identified skill areas, and to notions of metacognition and transfer; it also informs possible future developments in the area of promoting children's thinking.
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Published date: 1997
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Local EPrints ID: 462983
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/462983
PURE UUID: 5365b2e5-291b-49ae-b61b-f9d068083028
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:34
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 20:34
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Author:
Richard Alastair Bentley
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