"Thinking can be transformed from being a private, abstract and invisible act, to one that is public, concrete and visible.
Visual Thinking templates facilitate this by enabling students to produce structured graphic organisers which can be seen, edited and commented upon. They also stimulate thinking by ‘leading’ students through particular ‘thought-processes.
Caviglioli, O., Harris, I. & Tindall, B;
Thinking Skills & Eye-Q; Stafford:NEP; (2002), p.9
The objective of the toolbox is to support students in their independent use of appropriate tools to complete tasks. Therefore, students should be made aware of the toolbox and the rationale for its use, know the range of tools they have at their disposal and be able to use them, design and plan lessons and tasks which require the use of the tools and receive regular feedback on their use of the tools.
Ideally, the tools should be introduced with an initial practice, not necessarily related to their lesson content. Thereafter, they should be encouraged to use the tools regularly throughout their programmes of study which means that teachers need to build these opportunities into their lesson plans.
The documents in this resource work well when uploaded to the Microsoft Learning Gateway running over Sharepoint, allowing the students to edit them collaboratively online. |
