Well known author and teacher developer Jim Scrivener spoke to me in an interview a couple of years ago about focusing on where learning is happening. He claims that we devote lot of time as teachers to almost ritualistic teaching acts to engage and entertain students. In this article I go on to explore this idea further.
A book offering Primary School language teachers a new and practical methodology based on the importance, now universally recognised in curricula around the world, of teaching children how to learn. Much like the books we make reference to about teaching higher order thinking skills and “Fat Questions”, we need to support and build awareness of what learning actually is. In many ways, these skills need to be addressed with adults too.
Coetzer (IHJournal June 2017) calls them “chubby questions”. Questions that get people, and importantly our learners, drilling down deep for answers. If you’re aware of HOTS and LOTS, you’ll know they refer to “Higher Order Thinking Skills” and “Lower Order Thinking Skills”. We want learners to move beyond LOTS, that include activities like memorising, applying and answering short Yes/No answers into the challenges of HOTS: investigation, interpretation, analysis, manipulation, critique and creation.