This exciting, practical book is an essential resource for every busy primary teacher and very easy to use in the classroom. It provides advice, original themed stories, critical learning activities and beautifully illustrated photocopiable resources for helping children to: Develop critical thinking skills Understand reason and knowledge in all the areas of the curriculum Draw on their natural wonder and curiosity, to engage in philosophical discussion. The photocopiable learning activities are differentiated for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, plus there are extension activities for enthusiastic, gifted and talented children. This fun resource will help your students practice generic skills, interdisciplinary skills which necessarily draw on several kinds of knowledge and understanding, and subject centred skills covering all areas of the curriculum in additional to the cross curricular values domains. Philosophy involves particular kinds of critical thinking and is also introduced in this book. Original, beautifully illustrated stories illuminate the abstract material, to make concrete and readily understandable the unfamiliar and complex ideas. Developing critical thinking skills has never been easier.

Consider that many of the people who are alive today will be working at jobs that do not currently exist and that the explosion of information means that today's knowledge will quickly become outdated. As a result, two goals for education clearly emerge -- learning how to learn and how to think critically about information that changes at a rapid rate. We face a multitude of new challenges to our natural environment, difficult dilemmas concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction, political agendas for the distribution of scarce commodities and wealth, psychological problems of loneliness and depression, escalating violence, and an expanding elderly population. International in scope and in magnitude, these new problems strain resources and threaten the continuance of life on earth. To creatively and effectively attack these imminent problems, a well educated, thinking populace is essential. An abridged edition of Halpern's best-selling text, Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum is designed to help students enhance their thinking skills in every class. The skills discussed are needed in every academic area and setting -- both in and out of class. They are: determining cause; assessing likelihood and uncertainty; comprehending complex text; solving novel problems; making good decisions; evaluating claims and evidence; and thinking creatively. In this adaptation of her best-selling text, Diane Halpern applies the theories and research of cognitive psychology to the development of critical thinking and learning skills needed in the increasingly complex world in which we work and live. The book is distinguished by its clear writing style, humorous tone, many practical examples and anecdotes, and rigorous academic grounding. Everyday examples and exercises promote the transfer of critical thinking skills and dispositions to real-world settings and problems. The goal is to help readers recognize when and how to apply the thinking skills needed to analyze arguments, reason clearly, identify and solve problems, and make sound decisions. Also of importance, a general thinking skills framework ties the chapters together, but each is written so that it can "stand alone." This organization allows for maximum flexibility in the selection of topics and the order in which they are covered. This book is intended for use in any course emphasizing critical thinking as an approach to excellence in thinking and learning.

Over the last 15 years the Primary National Strategy and the standards-driven curriculum in teacher education have demonstrably improved the primary education of children in the UK. Yet there has been a growing awareness that creativity has been neglected. To address this, a range of initiatives have been launched to offer support for creativity in the primary curriculum. This book will provide teachers with a set of teaching strategies to provide children with a tool-kit of creative skills. This book suggests that a child, who might dislike a lesson on the correct use of grammar, will become excited by a lesson that involves using his or her own talents and experiences to create a story. Throughout the process of composing the story the child will attend to aspects of grammar in order to share their work with others. Results from the classroom research conducted using the exercises in this book suggest that the book has the power to enable teachers to engage pupils in writing lessons, who are often uninterested in classroom writing lessons. The book also includes: 20 creative writing templates for classroom activities A variety of exercises to help develop creative writing skills and build pupil confidence Detailed curriculum links Teaching Creative Writing in the Primary School is essential reading for all primary school teachers.

Powerful strategies, tools, and techniques for educators teaching students critical reading skills in the humanities. Every educator understands the importance of teaching students how to read critically. Even the best teachers, however, find it challenging to translate their own learned critical reading practices into explicit strategies for their students. Critical Reading Across the Curriculum: Humanities, Volume 1 presents exceptional insight into what educators require to facilitate critical and creative thinking skills. Written by scholar-educators from across the humanities, each of the thirteen essays in this volume describes strategies educators have successfully executed to develop critical reading skills in students studying the humanities. These include ways to help students: focus actively re-read and reflect, to re-think, and re-consider understand the close relationship between reading and writing become cognizant of the critical importance of context in critical reading and of making contextual connections learn to ask the right questions in critical reading and reasoning appreciate reading as dialogue, debate, and engaged conversation In addition, teachers will find an abundance of innovative exercises and activities encouraging students to practice their critical reading skills. These can easily be adapted for and applied across many disciplines and course curricula in the humanities. The lifelong benefits of strong critical reading skills are undeniable. Students with properly developed critical reading skills are confident learners with an enriched understanding of the world around them. They advance academically and are prepared for college success. This book arms educators (librarians, high school teachers, university lecturers, and beyond) with the tools to teach a most paramount lesson.

Critical thinking requires a deep understanding of the topic at hand and the ability to look at content from diverse, and often unfamiliar, perspectives. Critical thinkers engage with material in innovative and creative ways to analyze, synthesize and assess it in order to reach their own informed conclusions. Critical Thinking: From Theory to Classroom Practice invites readers to revisit their pedagogy to promote this type of inquiry. Scholars and practitioners from several content areas introduce several examples of instructional strategies, classroom practices, and projects at multiple grade levels. Their experiences come together to highlight practical ways to foster students’ critical thinking skills and encourage them to engage in learning in new ways.

How do we encourage children to think deeply about the world in which they live? Research-based and highly practical, this book provides guidance on how to develop creative and critical thinking through your classroom teaching. Key coverage includes: · Classroom-ready ideas to stimulate high-order thinking · How to think critically and creatively across all areas of the curriculum · Case studies from primary, secondary and special schools · Philosophical approaches that give pupils the space to think and enquire This is essential reading for anyone on university-led and schools-based primary and secondary initial teacher education courses including undergraduate (BEd, BA QTS), postgraduate (PGCE, SCITT), School Direct, Teach First and employment-based routes and also anyone training to work in early years settings.

Contains standards-based activities for the physical sciences that help students learn the scientific method and develop analysis skills that can be applied to science and other subjects.