“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” Lao Tzu I love questions that send my thinking in circles. One such dilemma is the question: Which happens first […]

Being aware of your own thoughts, strategies, feelings and actions and their effects on others is what metacognition is about. It’s about knowing what you know and don’t know. The ability to take the balcony view, to look down upon yourself and reflect on your behaviour, ask internal questions and develop mental maps and plans […]

Visit any great classroom and you will see a series of routines in action. These routines may be procedural, instructional and/or focused on getting the best thinking from the students. Routines help to minimise distractions, add to the positive classroom flow, encourage responsibility, and can boost moral in a learning environment. They also provide a […]

If great thinking & learning is a part of your agenda for your students, it seems obvious, you need to give them opportunities to think & learn. Ron Ritchhart describes this as ‘Crafting the Vehicles for Learning’. He goes on to say, “Without the right vehicles, learning slows down, loses momentum and in some cases […]

According to Ron Ritchhart, seeing ourselves through our students’ eyes is the key to being a great model for thinking. He describes two types of modelling in the classroom. The first is explicit modelling. This is when you are demonstrating and showing a process or procedure that you want the student to adopt. The second […]

Creating an environment within your classroom where every student actively participates in their education is a major goal, and key challenge for educators. An effective way to promoting active participation is through classroom dialogue. Unfortunately many of our students have been educated out of actively being engaged in their education with the fear of making mistakes, […]