Internet Links

Website addresses change regularly. If the any of the addresses below are no longer valid try a search for the name of the organisation or the resource.

Interest in the UK in thinking skills has increased as a result of its inclusion in the National Curriculum. The following web site (on the National Curriculum site) lets you do a search for thinking skills objectives in the national curriculum by type of thinking, subject and key stage.

http://www.nc.uk.net/LACcs_thinkskill.html .

You can download a Word version of the DfEE report by Carol McGuinness "From Thinking Skills to Thinking Classrooms" (www.dfee.gov.uk/research/re_brief/RB115.doc) which was part of the thinking behind this revision it is also available on this CD. The DfEE Standards site has a section on thinking skills (http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/) currently under development.

Sites and Information about Specific Thinking Skills Programmes
There are a growing number of sites about Philosophy for Children (P4C) and the Community of Enquiry such as Matthew Lipman's site the Institute For The Advancement of Philosophy For Children based at Montclair State University- Matthew Lipman's site (http://chss.montclair.edu/iapc/homepage.html) with links to the Institute for Critical Thinking (http://www.chss.montclair.edu/ict/homepage.html).

The Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education (http://www.sapere.net/) is a UK based educational charity offering resources, conferences, and training in philosophy for children. A good starting point for further P4C links is Terry Godfrey's W3P4C site (http://www.p4c.net/). For an international flavour of the movement have a look at some of the links to work across the globe such as the Federation of Australian Philosophy for Children Associations (http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/philosophy/postgrads/FAPCA.html) and the Argentinian branch of Philosophy for Children (http://www.izar.net/fpn-argentina/).

Reuven Feuerstein's International Centre for the Enhancement of Learning Potential (ICELP) has its own website (http://icelp.org/Pages/What_is_IE.htm). There are links to examples of the 'instruments'. A good overview of his programme of Instrumental Enrichment can be found on North West Regional Educational Laboratory's web site which evaluates a range of school improvement programmes (http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/feuerstein.htm) used in the US.

Edward de Bono's catalogue of resources (such as CoRT and the Thinking Hats) is on-line and colour-coded like his thinking hats (http://www.edwdebono.co.uk/debono/home.htm).

Top Ten Thinking Tactics - has brief information from the publisher (http://www.education-quest.com/catalogue/- click on the 'Thinking Skills' link) about this programme, together with other thinking skills books and resources.

Alistair Smith's Accelerated Learning has its own web site (http://www.alite.co.uk/) as does Robert Fisher (http://www.teachingthinking.net/).

Kings College London have developed two thinking skills programmes CASE (Cognitive Acceleration Through Science Education) and CAME (Cognitive Acceleration Through Maths Education). These are aimed at secondary schools, though being developed for younger pupils. Information about CASE can be found at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/teaching/CASE.html. And CAME similarly at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/teaching/CAME.html.

Readings and Research about Teaching Thinking

Teaching Thinking: an Introduction to the Research Literature is a paper by John Nisbet originally published in 1988 available on the web (http://www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight26.html). It is part of the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) Spotlights series - worth checking out in its own right. Other relevant Spotlights are number 79 "Can thinking skills be taught", by Valerie Wilson (http://www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight79.html) and number 82 "Peer and Parent Assisted Learning in Reading, Writing, Spelling and Thinking Skills" by Keith Topping (http://www.scre.ac.uk/spotlight/spotlight82.html).

Teaching Thinking magazine (http://www.teachthinking.com/ ), from Questions publishing, has a research section and accessible articles. You have to subscribe to get full access.

An ERIC digest about teaching thinking is also available, though a little dated now (http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed385606.html).

Teaching Thinking Skills by Kathleen Cotton, (http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/6/cu11.html) is another entry in School Improvement Research Series at Northwestern University with information on a number of approaches.

Web resources for teachers and pupils

Northumberland LEA's Thinking for Learning (http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/) site has teaching thinking resources developed by teachers using many of the strategies in this book.

The Thinking Together site (http://www.thinkingtogether.org.uk/) has resources linked to the articles in this focus pack and the book of the same name by Lyn Dawes, Neil Mercer and Rupert Wegerif.

Dialogue Works (http://www.dialogueworks.co.uk/) produce Newswise, an on-line resource to promote thinking through news stories and Storywise a handbook by Karen Murris and Joanna Haynes for developing Community of Enquiry with young children. This is the updated version of 'Teaching Philosophy with Picture Books' which inspired us to try out the community of enquiry with younger pupils in schools.

There are many other sources of information if you search on the Internet. Try terms like 'critical thinking' (which is often used in the US) as well as 'thinking skills'. There is no guarantee you will find what you want, but a search can provide useful results.