Welcome to ACTS
Activating Children's Thinking Skills What is ACTS?ACTS - Activating Children's Thinking Skills. An activity to develop and trial a methodology for improving thinking skills. What is its purpose?ACTS is based on the idea that if we want pupils: - to learn meaningfully,
- to think flexibly
- and to make reasoned judgements
then we cannot leave these important learning outcomes to chance. We must make clear what we mean by these types of thinking and then set out to teach them explicitly. ACTS makes the process of thinking explicit. The work was originally developed in Northern Ireland by Professor Carol McGuinness of Queen's University, Belfast, a leading researcher who teaches Thinking Skills through 'infusion' methods.
Teachers' evaluation of the impact of ACTS on children and themselves are very positive. For example, all teachers identified benefits for pupils' thinking. |  |
They referred to:
- children's greater reasoning powers and increased creativity
- their ability to clarify their thinking processes, to see links between different subject areas
- and to be more structured and focused in their approach to thinking
Teachers commented positively on their continuing professional development.
What you can do to help
If you have any resources linked to ACTS, we would be delighted to include them on the site. Please contact us using the email addresses below.
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