Students
- Frequently work in teams
- Actively solve meaningful problems
- Publicly exhibit their learning
- Reflect on what they are learning and doing
- Apply quality criteria to their work
- Take responsibility and ownership for
their learning and the classroom community
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Teachers
Mediate, coach and support the learning process
Work
Interconnected
Curriculum, Assessment and Classroom Culture
Guided by specific curriculum targets
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Critical Skills Challenges
A key aspect of the Critical Skills approach is the design and use
complex, open-ended problem-solving activities which enable pupils to:
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- Develop understanding through performance
- Demonstrate their developing skills and attitudes
- Attend to the processes of learning and social interaction
- See the big picture that makes the work worth doing
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Challenges pose a problem for students to solve as individuals, in small groups, or as a full learning community. The choice of work they may produce enhances their creative talents, is not limited by the teacher and allows students of all abilities and learning styles to have a greater chance of success.
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Tool for thinking
Many of the skills and attitudes that we want pupils to develop need to be taught explicitly. Critical Skills training provides teachers with many tools for this purpose. Four tools of particular importance are:
Brainstorming and Distillation - to develop creative and critical thinking skills
Quality Conversation / Discussion - so that all pupils can contribute their ideas
Quality Audience - how to listen effectively
Full Value Contract - working and playing hard, safe and fair
More detail and examples can be found on the resources page.
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