Features
- Activities and questions are planned and used that promote higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
- Inclusive questioning that requires all students to think is evident throughout
- There is no opting out of thinking for any student
- Student start points are considered when planning challenge
- Scaffolding up rather than dumbing down is used for all to access the highest challenge in lessons
- All students have to think carefully and deeply throughout the lesson
- Probing questions and answering a question with a question or using strategies such as Bloom’s stems is used well
- Activities that allow students to be creative and evaluate work are modelled/used
- Activities that promote metacognition and self-regulation are used such as dual coding, thinking aloud, assessment wrappers, exit tickets , MAD time, modelling
- A growth mind-set is promoted – making mistakes is ok
- Taking risks is expected
- Learning is moved on appropriately
- Questions that require analysis are posed and addressed/modelled
- Synoptic questions feature
- Learning outcomes have been considered
- High level vocabulary with subject specificity is used for students of all abilities
- Students of all abilities are expected to engage with the knowledge and skills necessary for life-long learning
- Strategies to develop critical thinking are used when appropriate
- Expectations are clear for participation by all
- Problem solving is not unusual or seen as something to be feared
- Students books show challenging work has been completed
- Shortcuts are avoided which remove the need for students to think carefully and understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’
Examples for students
- Students are thinking for themselves throughout
- Students question each other and the teacher
- Students are involved in active learning
- Students are all involved in higher order thinking
- If given choices students choose to take risks and step out of their comfort zone
- Students understand the high-level vocabulary, knowledge and skills that are key to life-long learning in the subject
- Students can act on their own initiative
- Students show resilience and want to work things out for themselves
- Students are connecting ideas and making their own links
- Students use strategies such as think, pair, share to develop ideas
- Students are not afraid to tackle unfamiliar problems
- Students have strategies for solving problems independently and can cooperate well in doing so
- Students can compare their work with others accurately
- Students can evaluate what they have done
- Students are creative in their work
- Students working independently in terms of their learning not just doing a task on their own
- Students can explain what they are learning and what they understand to others
- Students of all abilities will be accessing high level vocabulary
Examples for teacher
- Questioning that allows students thinking time
- Questioning that ensure all students participate and have to think
- The teacher answers a question with a question
- The teacher asks why, explain, what do you think? etc.
- Teacher directs students to appropriate tasks , particularly if students have chosen inappropriately
- Teacher uses higher level subject specific vocabulary for all students irrespective of ability
- Teachers foster a growth mindset towards mistakes
- Teachers encourage and provide opportunities for students to take risks
- Teacher promotes metacognition and self-regulation explicitly
- Teacher is more of a facilitator than the person with the answers and does not do the thinking for the students
- Teacher provides scaffolds for students to enable access to highest levels of challenge and removes them appropriately
- Teacher constructs group work to facilitate challenging discussions
- Teacher gives students time to develop ideas
- Teacher is willing to take risks and models this for students
- Teacher uses strategies to promote HOTS
- Teacher uses effective questioning strategies such as pose, pause, pounce, bounce and think pair share
- Teacher makes it clear that all are expected to think for themselves and has expectations for all to participate in all the lesson
- Teacher provides problem solving opportunities
- Teacher steers/ gives clues but doesn’t give the ‘answer’ when students are working on a question/problem
- Teacher builds in opportunities to revisit key knowledge and skills to embed them and assess understanding from recent work and work done in the past
