Features
- Activities are planned and used that promote higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
- 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 or Rosenshine’s Principles for questions so that all students are engaged in thinking
- 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
- Lessons are planned with a knowledge-engaged focus within the knowledge-engaged curriculum and all students are supported with the highest demands appropriately
- 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 engaged
- 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 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
- Teacher makes it clear that all are expected to think for themselves and has expectations for all to participate in all the lesson objectives
- 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
- Teacher uses group work to allow the most able learners to work with less able so that those less able benefit from students’ coaching and those most able from explaining the learning to others
