Thinking Skills through
Games and I.T
Deborah Smith : Specialist Teacher and Mediator
Achieve Specialist Teaching and Therapy Services
www.achieve-st.co.uk
‘I can do English but I don’t get Maths.’
‘I’m good at Maths but I’m rubbish at History.’
‘I can’t do any of the work at school – the only thing I’m good at is
play station.’
‘I’m the Connect 4 champion in our house but I can’t tell the
time.’
‘I can only do work on my ipad.’
‘I don’t get comprehension, I just like playing with all my friends at
break times.’
WHICH SKILLS
ARE YOU USING?
COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS
(Adapted from Feuerstein’s list of Deficient Cognitive Functions)
Cognitive Functions are essential thinking skills that are needed for most
tasks of thinking and problem solving. They include both “pure” thinking skills
as well as emotional, motivational and behavioural aspects of learning
FEUERSTEIN : COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS
•Teacher and Educational Psychologist – involved with ‘Youth Aliyah’ and
worked with refugees in Morocco and Algeria in the 1950’s
•Realised that patterns of poor thinking led to failure in conventional tests
(I.Q) and inaccurate labelling of people
•Developed idea that ‘intelligence’ is not fixed or innate but can be
modified through dynamic and mediated interaction and that intelligence is
not just knowing facts and information but about ‘tools for learning’
•Developed a list of ‘deficient cognitive functions’ which could be identified
through Dynamic Assessment (LPAD) and remediated through
‘Instrumental Enrichment’ (IE) programmes
•Highlighted the importance of ‘bridging’ : the transfer and generalisation
of skills and the need for Metacognition to be able to do this
What do teachers expect pupils to be able to
do?
What do pupils expect teachers to do?
When students say ‘I can’t do
it’ what might they mean?
What assumptions might we
be making?
VIDEO 1 : JG – Chocolate Fix, Infer, Multi-flow map
GAME
TASK
PUZZLE
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•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
CURRICULUM
LIFE SKILL
SOCIAL SKILL
How did you do that?
How do you know that?
Why did you start there?
How did you win?
Is that the only way to do it?
How do you know you are right?
What can we learn from this game/ task?
What will it help us to do? How?
Is there a Thinking Map or tool we can use?
Next time?
Use the skill grid
to Identify the
main three or
four cognitive
functions/
thinking skills
you just used to
play your game
or complete your
activity.
Match these
skills to a
curriculum task –
what thinking
skills tool might
you use to
‘bridge’ or
transfer the skill?
Tell us
Which skills do you need to:
• Play connect 4 ?
• Get dressed?
• Play football?
• Paint a picture?
• Set the table?
THE TRI-PARTITE MODEL
TASK: What thinking
skills are needed?
MEDIATOR : What do
we do to reduce the
gap between the task
and the student?
STUDENT: What are
their learning needs?
© Copyright: Ruth M Deutsch
VIDEO 2 : SP – Noughts and Crosses, maths strats
How do we target intervention so that it is purposeful, meaningful and efficient?
Long Term Outcomes
Short Term Outcomes
Resources / Strategies
STRATEGIC THINKING AND
METACOGNITION
To generate a list of criteria to compare
pictures, words and ideas and choose the
most relevant
Instrumental Enrichment Level 1 ‘Comparisons’
Circle Map - encourage xxxx to record anything
he knows or thinks about the subject in the
middle of the circle map. Prompt careful
comparison of each note in relation to the task
so that he can choose most relevant aspects.
Thinking Skills games/ apps : Safari Rush Hour,
ipad : main idea, analogies
Selecting what is relevant to
the task
To identify the most relevant
information or aspect of an
item, task or situation and
modify responses accordingly
Systematic planning
behaviour
To use a step by step
approach, consciously
applying a range of strategies
to problem solve in any given
situation
Transfer and Generalisation
To know and consciously use
the same set of thinking skills
across all subject and real life
areas
To highlight key words in essay questions
and multi step maths word problems.
To achieve 80% of marks available in GCSE
longer written answer questions
To identify similarities between a ‘Maths’
and an ‘English’ task
After completing tasks, to identify 1 other
curriculum area and 1 real life situation
where the same problem solving process
could be applied
Instrumental Enrichment Level 1 ‘Organisation
of Dots’
English, History, Religious Education longer
essay questions
Flow Map
Thinking Skills games/ apps : Airport, Pizza
maths
Double Bubble Map
List of Feuerstein’s cognitive functions
Review
SUMMARY
Fragmented understanding of
own skills e.g. good at maths
but not English.
Underperformance in
curriculum area, life skills or
social skill
Emotional or non-intellective
factors (self-esteem, fear of
failure, response to challenge,
passivity) also affecting
learning
Develop metacognitive insight
into own learning
Identify:
Cognitive profile : Existing
areas of strength and interest
Preferred modality
Task Analysis:
Skills required by task
Target intervention with
explicit bridging - transfer of
skills
Generalise skills and apply to
all tasks
Active, confident, flexible and
creative thinkers