Thinking Culture

Sharron Cramer

Thinking Culture Leader

Mindful Moments

So what’s been happening in the world of Thinking at Kingswood Primary this semester? In a word-HEAPS!

As a staff, we held a conference, we informed our prospective parents about our 'Cultures of Thinking' and the 'Habits of Mind', we observed each other teaching thinking skills, we planned units of work with challenging learning tasks to practice the Habits of Mind. We had collegiate discussions about the cultural forces and shared best practise. Phew! Did I mention actually teaching the students?

As for the students, well they have certainly been immersed in ‘thinking' opportunities judging by the work on display around the school. From Prep to Year 6 we can see how students are generating, recording, analysing and sharing their thinking in a whole range of curriculum contexts.

How about our parents? Yep, they too were thrown into some challenging situations during Open Night. So many Habits of Mind were used to complete the ‘Minute to Win It' challenges, to try and achieve success: Persistence, Thinking Flexibly, Applying Past knowledge to New Situations and Striving for Accuracy to name a few. Finding Humour helped some overcome failure!

Learners as Thinkers Conference

Kingswood Primary School was proud to present the inaugural 'Learners as Thinkers' Conference.

Our international keynote presenters, Karen Boyes from New Zealand and Patricia Leon from Columbia, opened the conference with insightful research findings about the future needs of our students. Both speakers promoted the Habits of Mind and the Cultural Forces that build effective Thinking practices that Kingswood aspires to.

As educators, we were presented with the challenges of providing opportunities for students to develop critical, creative and ethical thinking skills in preparation for a successful future as active, collaborative, global citizens. The theme of the day, ‘Learners as Thinkers’, was addressed throughout the various workshops. Contexts for learning included: Mathematics, Literacy, Inquiry-based investigations, problem solving and reasoning, and critical thinking skills. The message throughout the day was clear: we must strive to continually provide challenging, authentic, engaging and collaborative learning opportunities in our schools to meet the demands of the future.

We were most fortunate to have such great attendance and positive feedback from local and interstate teachers. Visitors to our school were impressed with the conference organisation, quality of the learning and the amazing catering, but it was the numerous comments about our school that made us all stop and recognise how hard we work together to build a positive, collaborative, engaging and challenging learning environment. We will continue to strive to be leaders in education.

We look forward to working with Karen Boyes and the Habits of Mind later in the year when she returns to Kingswood Primary School.

Let us hear from the teachers as learners.

So what have we learned? How have we put our learning into practice?

“I use the strategy ‘Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce” during discussions”.

“I have gained a better understanding of the Maths proficiencies and started to include more opportunities for their development in my lessons”.

“I have to explore deeper discussion questions to build critical thinking skills”.

“I now connect better to the Understanding Framework and the importance of the ‘big ideas’ that are delivered through content”.

“I am including a social and language learning intention as well as content”.

“I am becoming more explicit with questioning techniques”.

“I am applying reasoning strategies used in maths to reading and writing”.

“I have finally realised that planning for thinking is necessary. It is what I do as the teacher that fosters thinking skills, it won’t happen by osmosis”.

“I have a better understanding of when the Habits of Mind are needed-there must be a challenge in the first place”.