Introduction
The Thinking Frames Approach - Continued
Science is all about promoting curiosity and seeking explanations. To make progress in their understanding of Science, children need regular opportunities to use scientific vocabulary and apply scientific ideas/theories to justify their own explanations of HOW or WHY something occurs. As adults we know that these are not easy processes.
To form their own scientific explanations, children need to learn how to perform two complex thinking skills at once; (a) Visualizing (applying an appropriate scientific model to the situation) and (b) Communicating (applying literacy skills to form either a verbal or a written explanation). The Thinking Frames Approach offers teachers and children a practical method of scaffolding these process and so raising attainment and improve progression.
There are 5 key sections to the Thinking Frames Approach; Setting the Question, Brainwave, See, Think/Sequence, Paragraph.
The Thinking Frames Approach is far more than just set of resources or worksheets, it is a specific sequence of teaching and learning interactions.
The aim of the approach is to improve individual pupils' confidence and ability to form their own scientific explanations. However, to be effective, each of the 5 sections requires specific interactions between pupils or between pupils and teacher to support and challenge thinking whilst scaffolding literacy skills.