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Thinking skills are rapidly becoming a key feature of today's curriculum. Our
approach has been to show the importance of thinking skills in tapping multiple
intelligences. We also believe that children need a range of these skills to
develop their ability to think creatively and critically.
As an example, here is a summary of Chapter 4 from Team
Brainstorming.
Use your BRAINS
This chapter introduces thinking strategies that will
increase fluency with having ideas. Each of the strategies can be easily taught
and are applicable to all aspects of thinking and problem solving. We suggest
that you take each one separately and:
- use it a few times,
- reflect on how it helps to stimulate fluency of ideas,
- reflect on how it encourages creativity and humour,
- consider when it might be useful in other school or life situations.
Only then will it be time to move on to the teaching of the
next strategy. The order in which you address the strategies is one of personal
choice although we have arranged them to create an easy-to-remember acronym. The
acronym is designed to help children recall the possible strategies that they
can draw on and to select the one best suited to the task at hand.
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B |
BAR - B for bigger, A for add, R
for replace or re-arrange. |
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R |
Rhyming Words - find words that rhyme with ideas
you have had |
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A |
ABC - use the alphabet to help you think of
words that begin with different letters |
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I |
Identify properties - notice your object's size,
weight, texture |
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N |
Nearby Objects - look for nearby things that can be
linked with your topic |
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S |
Six Hat Thinking - de
Bono's technique for creative thinking |
We go on to explain each strategy and offer some example
ideas to show how they work. You might like to use the same examples as a way of
introducing the strategies to your class.
B Give uses for a baked bean.
R List things that are red.
A What could you do with an empty can?
I Give possible uses for a brick.
N What could you use a school hat for?
S What's special about the number 9?
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