Cognitive Acceleration Michael Walsh michael.walsh@letsthink.org.uk Q. What are the objectives of MoF? Can you rank them in terms of importance? © Let's Think in English

Principles of CASE Lessons created to stimulate students to develop these reasoning patterns 8 reasoning patterns underlying scientific understanding identified, e.g. handling variables, classification, correlation, probability, etc Brief background to CA © Let's Think in English

The CA/LT approach in practice Concrete preparation: explanation of the topic Social construction: discussion with others to establish understanding of topic Cognitive conflict: challenge to resolve a problem – requires new way of thinking; understanding of topic altered to accommodate conflict Metacognitive phase: explicit review of the thinking that has taken place Bridging: using the same kind of thinking in other contexts Q. How is MoF session structured? Which stages are most relevant to MoF? Which stage(s) do you think MoF are particularly strong at? © Let's Think in English

Principles of CASE Concepts from Lev Vygotsky: Social construction of understanding (“we become ourselves through working with others”) Thought and language (externalising internal thoughts) The more knowledgeable other (teacher, peer, parent) Students challenged to work at the upper limit of their current ability (zone of proximal development) Progress assessed in terms of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development How do MOF set a problem for classes? What ways are there of setting a problem in football? © Let's Think in English

Challenge v Nurture First, following Berlyne’s (1970) analysis methods, they considered cognitive conflict to be a matter of relieving subject uncertainty related to logical necessity. Thus, degree of uncertainty was considered an indicator of the level of cognitive conflict in their study. They chose response latency as the second measure of cognitive conflict based on another traditional measure used by cognitive psychologists. Zimmerman and Blom (1983, p. 22) proposed that when cognitive conflict occurred, it would sometimes be evidenced by hesitation, looking back and forth, and signs of uneasiness and tension. Thus, they said a child’s resistance to conceptually advanced implications of training experiences and the resulting alternation between advanced and more immature modes of thought will be manifested in response delays. How can you be a challenging coach? What would that look like? © Let's Think in English

VISIBLE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS – JOHN HATTIE (2012) Analyses 150 influences on achievement in schools: Ranks the influences in order of effect on achievement Places Piagetian programs 2nd with effect size of 1.28 Self-reported grades / Student expectations came 1st (1.44); Response to intervention 3rd (1.07) No other influence of the 150 exceeded 1.0 Feedback is King. What ways do MOF provide feedback to children? How else might MoF do this? © Let's Think in English

PD – Your training Let’s Think training ensures: Duration (over time) Linked to classroom practice Lesson simulation Extended opportunities for reflection Peer to peer observations. Recorded evidence. Opportunity to personalise to setting. How do MoF prepare for a term? E.g. unit of defending? How well do you know what you are going to teach? How can you improve your knowledge? Session to session? © Let's Think in English

Deliberate/Purposeful Practice Develop skills that other people have already figured out how to do effectively. Takes place outside one’s comfort zone and just beyond current abilities. Well defined, specific goals.. Not vague improvement. It requires a person’s full attention and conscious actions. Involved Feedback and modification of effort in response to feedback. Building or modifying previously required skills by focusing on aspects to improve. Produces and depends on effective mental representation ( like Let’s Think!) If your seeking excellence this is what you follow. However, note the distinguishing factor is mental representation… back to LT… develop reasoning. © Let's Think in English KS2