
Think Pack - Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities
Introducing Thinking Cards
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Thinking Cards support pupils and teachers to acquire and develop Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities.
Using the cards stimulated imagination, generated discussion and lots of ideas. I think they are a valuable resource for structuring thinking and making the skill explicit.
Thinking Cards support pupils and teachers to acquire and develop Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities.
Thinking Cards are a cross-phase resource. Learners and teachers can use them at any key stage at primary or post-primary level. Teachers should select the set of cards most appropriate to the stage that their learners have reached in developing higher order thinking skills.
The resources in this Thinking Cards section will help you to understand and use the Thinking Cards.
Quotes from teachers
Teachers at the 2011 Regional Training Unit (RTU) Summer School took part in a one-day workshop which introduced them to the Thinking Cards. Here are some of their comments:
I think they are a valuable resource for structuring thinking and making the skill explicit.
- Key Stage 1 teacher, Belfast
I think the cards will be a really useful resource in structuring activities to promote TSPC in my classroom. They will be very useful prompts for teacher, classroom assistant and pupils.
- Key Stage 1 teacher, Derry
Using the cards really made you think!
- Key Stage 2 teacher, Derry
I am looking forward to using the cards in the classroom.
- Key Stage 2 teacher, Belfast
Using the cards stimulated imagination, generated discussion and lots of ideas.
- Key Stage 3 teacher, Lisburn
Fantastic resource - good as a teacher for getting you to think about what you want the pupils to learn/know and can feed into your learning objectives. They help you to be specific in your questioning.
- Primary School teacher, Bangor
I now have the confidence to use the cards and can’t wait to try using these ideas in my classroom … I really see a place for them in helping children mould their own learning and really think critically about what/why etc.
- Key Stage 2 teacher, Bangor
I will definitely use the cards in school this year as I had no idea how to implement thinking skills last year. The cards are tactile and suit all learning styles.
- Key Stage 2 teacher, Dunmurry