Why develop thinking skills and assessment for the classroom?
Welsh Assembly Government, 2010
The ability to learn and apply new skills effectively throughout our lives is a fundamental requirement for today’s generation living in an increasingly technological driven world. Successful lifelong learners need the ability to learn, whether in school, the workplace or at home. The information revolution and the restructuring of jobs and working lives continues to make an evergrowing impact on the relevance of traditional knowledge, subject content and skills currently taught in schools today. It is imperative, therefore, that teaching pedagogy is reviewed and updated, alongside the current National Curriculum Review, in order that learners have experience of, engage in and master the skills demanded of today’s citizens.
Teaching learners to become motivated and effective learners is a primary role of teachers. It could be argued that until now, the process of learning as a skill in its own right has generally been of secondary importance to the learning of subject knowledge and key facts. As evidence from scientific research and classroom practice have been increasingly aligned and interwoven, a number of barriers have been overcome. The most notable advances have been in the fields of developing thinking skills and assessment for learning.
The development programme for thinking skills and assessment for learning aims to focus on addressing these issues and ultimately support more effective learning.