Curriculum and assessment
A famous discussion of the issues raised when a student at Harvard received an A for an examination he did, for fun, in a subject he had never studied.
Even TAFE and Polytech classes are dominated by information- giving by ever-talking teachers. This research discovered that higher levels of thinking are encouraged and used in practical classes more than in theory classes.
This is a review of the work of Peter Freebody in this field. It is a stimulating look at classroom practice, assessment of literacy, and mis-matches of policy and method.
An interesting trail of different kinds of research led Geraldine McDonald to the study of how junior school children learn school-ways-of-thinking. Now a re-think of testing intelligence may be necessary.
NZCER's moderation work
What is good thinking? Creative thinking is always a pleasure. Critical thinking tends to get a bad press, but it is just as necessary. Here it is carefully analysed, and research adds insights on teaching children to think critically.
Teachers can successfully encourage learners to be better thinkers. A research study of techniques for teaching metacognition (thinking about thinking) to 8-year-olds leads to conclusions about how to do it successfully.
In 'A Day at the Races' in set No. 1 this year, it was shown that our ability to do complex mental tasks in real life does not depend on our IQ. But such knowledge does not transfer to strange situations until the similarities are shown to us.
A review of the many research projects on how prior knowledge affects learning. Generally, having old knowledge to which new knowledge may be attached greatly assists learning the new.
