Somerset Thinking Skills Course - as a resource for Specific Learning Difficulties

By Dr Nigel Blagg

Introduction

STSC as a cognitive enhancement programme

STSC is designed as a comprehensive cognitive enhancement programme. It does not offer a 'quick fix' solution to learners with specific or general learning difficulties. There are approximately 150 activities which have been structured and carefully sequenced in a modular format to build student confidence and competence. Vocabulary, thinking skills, codes and conventions introduced in earlier modules are developed and used progressively throughout each module and throughout the course. Hence, teachers need to be careful if they use the programme as a resource, rather than a course. Some of the problems can be reduced if teachers study the guidelines carefully and refer back to related activities.

The modular structure

Module 1: Foundations for Problem Solving is different from the rest of the course and for a number of reasons it makes sense to use activities from this module when first introducing STSC. Module 1:

• prepares students for the STSC course
  - introduces logo, design features
  - introduces 3 task types
  - draws on many different resources that become the focus of later modules
• includes more abstract tasks than other modules
  - to build confidence
  - to reduce impulsivity
  - to encourage pupils to think about their thinking
  - to promote a more reflective, cautious approach
  - to promote thinking about transfer
• introduces
  - the importance of looking for implicit and explicit instructions
  - labelling and coding systems eg co-ordinates

Modules 2, 3 and 4 are equivalent in terms of cognitive demand but focus on different resource issues ie analysis and synthesis (Module 2), description, comparison, categorisation and classification (Module 3) and reference points in time and space (Module 4).

Modules 5 and 6 require higher level thinking (beyond the first few activities in each module).

Module 5: Understanding Analogies builds on the systematic work on comparison and classification contained in Module 3. Analogy involves a complex series of comparisons. There are sections within module 5 that map directly into language work on cliché, simile and metaphor.

Module 6: Patterns in Time and Space builds on module 4 and involves the pupils in making predictions about the future on the basis of patterns and relationships given at one point in time.

Module 7: Organising & Memorising is the one module in the course that takes the form of a resource that can be used selectively at any stage. Nevertheless, there are particular links between organising and memorising and the categorising section of module 3.

STSC and verbal mediation

Many individuals with learning difficulties do not use their language skills to mediate their own learning ie they do not ask themselves questions, label what they see etc. Often, they interact with tasks at a very superficial and impulsive level. All of the STSC activities provide the opportunity to encourage appropriate self talk and mediation provided the lesson format recommended for STSC is followed.

STSC Lesson Format

Introduction (5 - 10 minutes)
Cognitive icebreaker linked to the STSC activity. This gains learner attention and provides a meaningful basis for the activity to follow. Sometimes the ice breaker serves to prepare the learner for important vocabulary or other specific demands of the task.

Exploration phase (10 minutes)
This is where students explore the ambiguity posed by the STSC activity and try to make sense of the information. It is vital that students have the chance to work out for themselves what the task is all about. In some ways, this problem posing phase is the most important part of the lesson.

Students are prompted (in an open-ended way) to:

• Explore/clarify the task
• Anticipate difficulties/misunderstandings
• Agree on the problem and issues to be addressed

Group work phase (20 minutes)

• Students work on the problem (in groups)
• Teacher circulates and mediates to prompt:
  - wider and more careful consideration of issues
  - active involvement by all group members

Class Review/Summary phase (10 - 15 minutes)
Class discussion of:

• Content issues - answers & solutions - exploring variation and the justification for different answers
• Process issues - resources & strategies - how pupils worked on the task and what kinds of thinking tactics did they use.

Transfer & Generalisation (5 - 10 minutes)
Class discussion of:

• Wider applications of resources & strategies (with examples from teachers)
• Rules, principles & counter examples

STSC & language development

The oral bias of the sessions (with discussions and groupwork) promotes confidence and competence in oral communication. Throughout the course there is an emphasis on introducing students to the vocabulary of problem solving and thinking which in turn helps them to share and communicate their ideas and self reflections more effectively. Studies have shown that there is a dramatic change (within a year) in the quality of language use in learning environments where STSC is used.

In addition, the open-ended stimulus tasks and the ambiguity posed by many of the other activities promotes hypothesis testing and divergent interpretations.

Examples of specific STSC activities that relate to particular language issues are given in the table below.

 

Themes	Tasks	STSC Module	Activity Number
Hypothesis Testing	The Living Room Thinking Keys The Bedroom Parts & Wholes The Dustbin/Record Page The Body in the Garden The Skeleton/Museum Display Destination unknown Mealtime The Hospital Rush Hour The Looking Glass Television Celluloid Image Needs and Wants Holiday Memories	1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 7 7	1 3 19 1 2, 3 5 25, 26 18 1 14 15 1 19 26 1 3
Language registers	The Burglary/Record Page Fogbound	2 3	4 17
Deep versus surface learning	Read with Care	7	13
Description	Street Scene/Descriptions	3	3, 4
Comparison	Robo Girl A and B Street Scene Cameos Similar/Different/Identical A, B & C Compare and Draw Bicycle Shop/Choosing a bicycle	3 3 3 3 3	1, 2 5 6-8 9, 10 12, 13
Building Categories	Holiday Checklist Creating categories Compare and Categorise Shopper's Dilemma Sorting tools	3 3 3 3 3	19 20 21, 22 23 24
Classification	Reference Points Classification chart The Organiser Muddle Mugs Shoes Please! Zoo Poster/Zoo Plan Cross Reference	1 3 3 3 3 3 5	15 25 26 27 28 29, 30 11
Transformations	Pictorial Transformations Cartoon Transformations	5 5	3 7
Relationships	Signal Systems A and B	5	9, 10
Analogies	Pictorial/Verbal analogies Verbal Analogies A and B	5 5	16 17, 18
Similes	Introducing Similes Understanding Similes Developing Simile	5 5 5	21 22 23
Cliche	Coded conversation	5	25
Metaphor	Simile and Metaphor Green Goliaths/Elegy	5 5	24 27, 28

 

STSC as a resource for other specific learning requirements

Although STSC has been designed as a programme, it can be used as a resource to broaden and support teaching to address a number of specific learning requirements. The following tables provide some examples.

Visual spatial development

Themes	Tasks	STSC Module	Activity Number
Visual motor difficulties, Impulsivity, dyspraxia	Abstract Search Tasks A - L Abstract Error Tasks A & B Patchwork Pieces Nets and Solids Symmetry Models Figural Transformations A, B & C Teaching Figural Analogies A and B The Organiser A and B Cloud Patterns A and B	1 1 2 2 2 2 5 5 6 6	4-6, 10-12, 16-18 27-29 21-22 6 8, 9 10 11 4-6 12, 13 13-16
Spatial referents (left, right, front, back)	Orientation A, B and C The Classroom/Where are they?/Who am I?	4 4	2-4 5-7
Instructions	Find the Party A and B Instructions & Drawings A and B Errors in Instructions A and B	4 4 4	8, 9 10, 11 12, 13

Temporal development

Themes	Tasks	STSC Module	Activity Number
Temporal Sequencing	Operations 1 and 2 Cartoons A and B Words in Time and Space A and B The Photograph Album A and B Personal Time Fantasy	2 4 4 4 4 4	12, 13 16, 17 19, 20 21, 22 23 29
Instruction Sequences	Instructions 1, 2 and 3 Flowchart Car Assembly Services	2 2 2 5	14-16 17 18, 19 8
Planning and prioritising	Lost Car Breakdown Lost Key Shopper's Dilemma	1 1 1 3	9 20 24 23
Schedules & Time Management	Timetable Patterns Birthday Plans A, B and C Delivery Schedules A and B Time and Motion A and B Restaurant C: Reservations and Schedules	6 6 6 6 6	8 9-11 17, 18 19, 20 23
Time lines	Biography A and B	6	24, 25

 

Organising & memorising

Themes	Tasks	STSC Module	Activity Number
Systems for . . .	Categorisation & Classification (see above) Mnemonics and rhymes The Learner Approaches to Learning The Memory Room	7 7 7 7 7	5 11 12 14 14
Visual Memory	Memory Grids A and B Visual Images	7 7	7-9 10

 

Social & emotional development

Themes	Tasks	STSC Module	Activity Number
Understanding other people's points of viewand needs	The Lost Key/Blank Activity Page The Hospital Rush Hour Communication Breakdown A and B Accident Analysis The Looking Glass	1 4 4 4 4 5	24, 25 14 15 26, 27 28 1
Rules	The Workshop/Record Page/Kitchen	2	22, 23

 

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