Collaborative Strategies

Collaborative strategies are group thinking tools with clear roles, steps and outcomes. The 2009 Innovative Teachers’ Companion offers a range  of different collaborative strategies, such as the Round Robin (a very effective brainstorming activity that involves students working collaboratively to generate new ideas, lists or new data in a short period of time) explains at which level of Blooms these strategies can be used and then provides practical examples of the strategies use in a subject context e.g. in Mathematics.

By regularly employing the many collaborative strategies throughout the Companion students (guided by their teachers) will be empowered and motivated as challenging tasks are broken down into manageable parts enabling all students to experience positive outcomes.

Cognitive Strategies

Cognitive relates to the processing of information at different levels. How do we encourage our students to effectively process the information presented in the curriculum? Based on the ITC Framework for thinking at different levels (which provides a rationale for the use of learning tools and different levels of thinking) the 2009 Innovative Teachers’ Companion offers over 20 different cognitive strategies, such as the SWOT analysis, explains at which level of Blooms these strategies can be used and then provides practical examples of the strategies use in a subject context e.g. in English.

By regularly employing the many cognitive tools throughout the Companion students (guided by their teachers) will be empowered and motivated as challenging tasks are broken down into manageable parts enabling all students to experience positive outcomes.

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Math and higher-order thinking

Higher order thinking best happens in the uncertain contexts of more open investigations and often requires students to rethink progress as the investigation unfolds. Too often, maths classes involve exercises where the procedure is obvious from the examples and the answer is in the back of the book. The best opportunities for higher order thinking require the teacher to think ‘outside the box’ and persist as students learn to work in open and challenging environments. Some of the best examples of higher order thinking pose powerful questions using simple contexts. There are uncertainties, revisions, dead ends and frustrations to be dealt with, but the thinking rewards are worth the effort. 

The 2009 Innovative Teachers’ Companion provides a series of innovative examples to help Mathematics teachers provide their students with opportunities to engage in Higher Order Thinking.

Brain Compatible Learning

Modern Science, through the use of Magnetic Resonance Technology, for example, has made significant breakthroughs in understanding how the Brain works and how it learns. It is beholden to the modern teaching professional to obtain a general understanding of the brain and its properties. The 2009 Innovative Teachers’ Companion provides an overview of Brain Compatible Learning as well as a framework for teachers and students to create classrooms that take into account how the brain learns and operates.

The Companion contains stimulating tips on ‘Emotional Rooms’ (different types of thinking generate action in various localised areas of the brain and this impacts on the way we feel at any point in time) and ’Using Emotions to Engage Learners’.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

ITC Publications has developed a thinking framework based on Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of thinking to better assist teachers and students categorise the level of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in the classroom.

The Innovative Teachers’ Companion is based on the ITC Thinking Skills Framework and is an easy and practical tool by which teachers can create lessons based on critical and creative thinking.