In a tiny village school, children as young as six are being encouraged to solve their own problemsI and to reflect on their thinking. Innovation might not be the first thing you expect to find at 48-pupil Llangynfelin primary in Taleisin. But here being small is no barrier to thinking big, as will become apparent to a wider audience when one of the school’s three teachers, Nia Vaughan, addresses a seminar on developing thinking skills at next week’s conference in Cardiff.
Mrs Vaughan is working with Catherine Woodward, a Ceredigion adviser, on a project directed by Professor Carol McGuinness of Queen’s University, Belfast. The Activating Children’s Thinking Skills programme, which is run in 20 primaries in Ceredigion and a further 20 in neighbouring Carmarthenshire, aims to give pupils more confidence to think for themselves, make decisions and solve problems.
“One of the most striking things is that the children do not accept that just saying something is good or nice is enough,” says Mrs Vaughan. “They have to justify their comments and there is not a right or wrong answer.
“They have become used to doing more group work, and through that democratic process they have become much better at working together.”
One of her favourite approaches is to wait until a turning point has been reached in a story then encourage pupils to consider a character’s options. Pupils use a decision-making diagram to weigh up their choices before coming to a reasoned decision.
Another diagram, which encourages pupils to compare and contrast characters, was used for work on the Celtic warrior Caradog and the leader of the invading Roman legion, Ostorius. Both characters were brave warriors and leaders, but the Romans wore helmets,carried shields and had armour, while the Celts painted their faces to look fierce. The pupils decided it was hardly surprising that the Romans had conquered.
Other staff commented that the programme encourages children to be less reliant on the teacher. “Children were forced to trust their own answers,” said one, although others found that lessons had to be “more thought-out” and the work was more “time-consuming”.
Anne Horner
