Principle 4
The Principle: Good teaching and learning means employing a blend of approaches including those that promote problem solving and creative and critical thinking.
For effective learning, pupils need an open mind and a questioning disposition that embraces uncertainty. Creative thinking skills; those which enable pupils to imagine and improvise, are important life skills. Real-life problems, or those which grow out of learners’ own interests, will motivate learners in working towards answers to problems across all areas of learning. Pupils need to be supported towards independence in learning critical thinking skills, giving them the means to plan, carry out, review investigations and draw conclusions from their work. They need to do this in all areas of learning.
These are the areas addressed: ➢ Creative Thinking (generating ideas) ➢ Critical Thinking (judging ideas) ➢ Memory Skills
Video Introduction
Literature Review
With what research did we engage?
An Ethic of Excellence - Ron Berger
The Components of Authentic Learning - Rule, Audrey C.
Using Authentic Contexts to Academically Motivate Students - Willems, Patricia P.; Gonzalez-DeHass, Alyssa R.
What has this meant for us?
Authentic Contexts for Learning
Using the outdoors has been a key driver in this for us. We have used outdoor projects as a focus to improve our provision and create exciting projects for pupils.
Beautiful Work
A key part of our work involves children producing something at the end of a project. For example, pupil might run a business, write a report or participate in a play.
School Visitors
We have developed a 'Special Visitor Programme' so that we have a broad range of visitors to inspire and motivate children. We ensure that we invite people from a broad range of industries and experiences.
REAL Projects
We decided that we would like learning to have a purpose and goal at the end, therefore we have introduced Real, Engaging, Authentic Contexts for pupils' learning. We use this to guide the development of curriculum topics.
Pupil Voice
Year Four pupil:
"I have loved meeting George. We are going to set up our own company and I would like it to be like his, using a hobby that I love to inspire my designs."
Evaluations
We feel that we have made significant progress with this pedagogical principle. We would like to continue to develop our ability our extra-curricular activities.
We would also like to continue to ensure that our REAL projects both motivate and inspire pupils.
