Activating children's thinking skills (ACTS): Theeffects of an infusion approach to teachingthinking in primary schools

The inftision approach was selected as it embeds thinking skills within theexisting currictilum which uses teacher time optimally as it does not require additionallessons to be taught. Teachers are taught the different types of thinking skills based onthe taxonomy of thinking from Swartz and Parks (1994). They are then trained toidentify lessons in which these specific thinking skills can be tattght explicitly. Initiallyteachers were expected to teach 1 or 2 lessons a week but over time, as the principles ofthe approach became more embedded in their teaching practice, this would increaseaccorditigly. The theory underpinning the ACTS approach is based on the principles of infusionfrom Swartz and Parks (1994), which emphasizes the explicit teaching of thinkingwithin the current curriculum. This aims to raise children s awareness of their thinkingso that they can more readily apply it to their learning.

Method.

The study involved 404 children, 206 males and 198 females, aged between 7 years6 months and 9 years 8 months (mean age = 8 years 8 months; SD = 4) who were inYear 4 at the projects commencement (September 2002). These were divided into awaiting list control and experimental group with 244 in the waiting list control groupand 160 in the experimental group.

26 teachers were involved in delivering Ehe ACFS intervention. This included 24 females and 2 maleswith a range of years of teaching experience.

Design

The research was a between- and within-groups design in which a range of measureswere obtained from two groups of participants from tbe experimental and waiting listcontrol.

The study was a 2 year intervention evaluation which was considered appropriategiven the previous research indicating at least 2 years is necessary in order to generatecognitive change in children

measures gained at three points during the study; a pre-, post-, and delayed post-test on arange of learner outcomes.

In this manner tbe experimental íín)up received tbe ACTSintervention for a 2 year academic period (October 2()O2-|iily 200Í) whicb allowedcomparison witb the waiting list control who would receive ACTS for a 1 year academicperiod (October 2003-July 2004).

Measures were administered to cbildren on a group level as follows.

1.Cognitive abilities test - Third edition (CAT 3)

assess general reasoning abilities and a pupil's capacity to apply tbese toverbal, quantitative, and non-verbal cognitive tasks.

2.Myself- as - a - learner scale(MALS)

Examine children s self-perceptions of themselves as learners.

3.Taxonomy of problematic social situations for children (TOPS)

It is a questionnaire that teachers complete to identifythe specific social situations or tasks a particular pupil finds difficult.

Results

The ACTS intervention (condition) was examined in relation to its impact on thequantitative measures utilized with children namely the CATs, MAI,S, and TOPS usingniultivariate analysis of variance (MANOWA)

Children's cognitive ability development(CAT)

Children s scores on the CATs increased over time. This would be expected givenpupil's maturation and cognitive development over the 2 year time period. Feedback from teachers idcntitied that children think in a more structured tvay' . Likewise, it improves children's thinking andtheir ability to tackle different problems

Children's self-perceptions (MALS)

both groups saw a small decline in scores over time reflecting more negative selfperceptionsof themselves as learners. This may represent the general developmentaldecrease in self-perceptions in the elementary years. Alternatively it could be that the ACTS inter\'ention made children more aware of what they hud yet to know.

Children's behavioural change in social situations(TOPS)

It was found that over time the experimental intert>ention group obtainedincreasingly higher scores which marks deterioration in managing behaviour in difficultsocial situations. In contrast the waiting list control group had a decrease in scoresrevealing an improvement in bebaviour in complex social situations.