At Charnwood Primary Academy we recognise the importance of supporting our children to understand not only what they learn but also the process of how they learn.
Our decision to use the Thinking Moves as a method for teaching pupils about metacognition was based on its accessibility. It takes something deep and makes it amazingly simple.
Pupils are taught and use the Thinking Moves from Nursery to Year 6. It supports children in recognising the ways they are processing, evaluating and committing their learning to memory. The Thinking Moves can be seen throughout school and throughout all subjects and pupils are more aware of their part in the learning journey as a result.
The EEF states:
Self-regulated learners are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and can motivate themselves to engage in, and improve, their learning.
Developing pupils’ metacognitive knowledge of how they learn—their knowledge of themselves as a learner, of strategies, and of tasks—is an effective way of improving pupil outcomes.
Teachers should support pupils to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.
Metacognition is about a pupils’ ability to monitor, direct, and review their learning.
Effective metacognitive strategies allow learners to think about their own learning more explicitly. It teaches them to set goals, monitor and evaluate their own academic and non-academic progress. Recognising how their brain is working and when this is most successful provides pupils with the tools they need to become reflective, autonomous and lifelong learners.
For more information about the Thinking Moves works watch one of the creators Roger Sutcliffe explain more here or visit the Dialogue Works website.
Thinking Moves A-Z is a set of 26 words and actions (along with accompanying synonyms) which are used to name and represent ways of thinking and processing information. Teachers identify where they are using these different skills in their planning and lessons. They explicity refer to them during lessons, teach pupils what they mean and suggest using different moves in different contexts. Pupils are encouraged to recognise how they are working and to evaluate and choose the best methods for approaching a task.
The 26 Moves are seen here.
After introducing the Thinking Moves in Science we moved to using the moves throughout the curriculum. Here are some examples of them in use. Monitoring has shown that pupils are now more able to discuss ideas with each other. They have more confidence to disagree or defend their ideas and they are able to consider their approaches for solving problems with more clarity.
