Thinking Skills Initiative

The Clackmannanshire Thinking Skills Initiative is one element in translating council’s vision of ‘Learning to Succeed in Clackmannanshire’ into practice. ‘Learning to Succeed’ includes he statement that ‘All learners should achieve a high level of success in a core group of fundamental transferable skills’. These skills include thinking and problem solving skills. An initial paper (see Raising Achievement through Transferable Skills) considered possible ways of promoting such skills in the classroom.

The Clackmannanshire Thinking Skills initiative started in September, 2001, with the involvement of nine primary schools. The initiative focussed on learners in ‘Primary 6’and ‘Primary 7’ classes, i.e. pupils aged 10 to 12 years. The initiative is based on a process of enquiry known as ‘Philosophy for Children’ (see www.sapere.net for more information). This process seeks to develop classroom ‘communities of enquiry’.

The initiative aims to develop a wide range of skills that transfer beyond the actual Philosophy lesson that takes place once each week.

The Clackmannanshire Thinking Skills Initiative is subject to rigorous evaluation involving the Psychology Department of the University of Dundee - please see Evaluation of Clackmannanshire Thinking Skills Initiative in the Publications and documents section below.