David Moseley

Thinking Skills frameworks for use in education and training

This article details findings from a systematic review and evaluation of frameworks and taxonomies for understanding thinking, with particular reference to learning in post-16 contexts. It describes the means used to identify and evaluate 35 frameworks and identifies three that appear to be particularly useful in the context of lifelong learning. In the light of this analysis, a schematic integrated model of thinking is outlined and discussed.

School‐based indicated prevention: a randomised trial of group therapy

BACKGROUND One hundred and twenty-two children identified by teachers as at risk for behavioural or emotional problems were randomly allocated to drama-group therapy or to a curriculum-studies control, based in school. METHODS One hundred and seventeen completed the intervention phase of the trial, which comprised 12 hour-long sessions. Post-intervention self-reports showed significant effects associated with both interventions. RESULTS However, there was a clear advantage of group therapy over both a waiting list control and curriculum studies, according to teacher reports. This was true also of categorical analyses focusing on those with the most severe symptoms. CONCLUSIONS These analyses confirmed sustained teacher-reported improvement over a year-long follow-up period.

Patient information leaflets: producing understandable PILs

The concept of the informed health-care ‘consumer’ rests on the availability of comprehensible information. While various bodies have made information available, its quality is mixed. Information is sometimes untrustworthy, incomprehensible, or simply forgotten by patients. An understandable record of advice is more likely to bring about compliance with treatment and lessen the need to revisit the surgery. This is a report of the revision of health-care information leaflets and their testing on 59 volunteers (61-81 years old). Presentation, reading ease and understanding were considered. The goal of making health-care information comprehensible was achieved. Guidelines for revising such material are described and illustrated. The informed consumer goal may be achievable if writers of health-care information attend to communication as much as to the adequacy of their medical advice.

Early intervention for at risk children: 3-year follow-up

Childhood behavioral and emotional symptoms are linked with distress and dysfunction that may persist into adulthood. Effective and practical early prevention could make a significant contribution to the well-being of individuals and the functioning of communities. School-based targeted interventions are relatively easy and inexpensive to deliver and have been shown to reduce symptoms in the short term. The current study evaluates the 2- and 3-year outcome of targeted school-based drama group therapy (DGT) as compared to teaching maths and English. It shows a rapid decline in teacher-observed behavioral symptoms following DGT. By a year post intervention, symptom rates following both interventions converged and remained low throughout follow-up. Drama group therapy is rapidly effective in reducing symptoms. However, the findings also suggest that despite differing content, school-based small-group interventions are likely to share some effective components.

The Advantages of Rime-Prompting: A Comparative Study of Prompting Methods when Hearing Children Read.

Goswami (1999) summarised the evidence supporting the teaching of onset and rime in early reading development. In the present study onset-rime theory was applied in a randomised controlled trial to the authentic reading task of reading aloud to an adult. Helpers heard Year-2 children read and responded to miscues and hesitations using one of two prompting procedures. Half of the subjects were prompted using a rime-prompt approach whereas the other half were told the correct word after five seconds. Progress was measured using word and text-level tests and the rime-prompt group performed significantly better than the word-prompt group at the 5% level. The rime-prompt method has potential for helping children recognise one- and two-syllable words. It is suitable for use by parents, teachers and other helpers.

An Integrated Framework for Thinking About Learning

Recent theories and definitions of giftedness and talent take a broad view of cognition, as well as taking account of the conative, affective, and situational aspects of learning. There is also a growing body of research which suggests that thinking skills approaches can be effective in helping to create powerful learning environments and in helping individuals to maximise their potential. We believe that broad-based taxonomies, models and frameworks for understanding the processes involved in thinking and learning should inform both the identification of gifted and talented individuals and the planning of appropriate educational experiences. In this paper we put forward an integrated framework which draws on educational, psychological, philosophical and sociological work over the last half-century and helps provide for course designers, teachers and learners a ‘language for thinking about learning’. We illustrate how this framework can be used to deepen understanding and improve management of the multi-dimensional aspects of successful learning.

Frameworks for Thinking: Frameworks dealing with productive thinking

Introduction The second family group consists of frameworks for understanding critical and creative thinking, which we subsume under the more general term productive thinking . By productive thinking (a term used by Romiszowski, 1981), we understand what Bloom refers to as analysis , synthesis and evaluation and various combinations of these and other processes, when they lead to deeper understanding, a defensible judgment or valued product. It may involve planning what to do and say, imagining situations, reasoning, solving problems, considering opinions, making decisions and judgments, or generating new perspectives. The phrase captures the idea that this kind of thinking is not confined to the analysis of existing arguments, but is also concerned with generating ideas and has consequences for action. It makes little sense to separate critical thinking from creative thinking, since in many situations they overlap and are interdependent. Thinking as conceptualised within the frameworks included in this family is considered to involve more than cognition, since most theorists also specify dispositions which they believe to be extremely important in the development of productive thinking. Allen and colleagues who limit themselves to argument analysis (Allen, Feezel, and Kauffie, 1967) are exceptions to this generalisation. It should be noted that the role of dispositions was one of the issues which divided the American Philosophical Associations expert panel on critical thinking, although the majority (61%) did regard specific dispositions to be integral to the conceptualisation of critical thinking and 83% thought that good critical thinkers would have certain key dispositions (Facione, 1990).

Notes on authors

Emanuela Prandelli is Associate Professor of Management at Università Bocconi and Senior Lecturer at the SDA Bocconi School of Management. She holds a PhD in Management and served as a research assistant at St. Gallen University in 1998, and at the Research Center on Technology, Innovation, and eCommerce of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in 1999, where she was also Visiting Professor in 2001. Her research focuses on collaborative marketing, virtual communities of consumption, the study of e-business and the process of innovation. She has published several articles in leading international journals such as California Management Review, Organization Studies, the Journal of Interactive Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review and the European Management Journal. She won the 2001 Accenture Award for the best paper published in California Management Review in 2000.