WELCOME Why thinking skills trainingfor children aged 10 to 14?
Children's performance in all subject areas is highly influenced by the quality of their thinking skills. Poorly developed skills impede learning; properly developed ones help them excel in all learning activities.
In high school, children will be confronted with highly complex thinking skills. It is critical that any under-developed skills they may have, are corrected before they approach high school.
Under-developed thinking skills can be corrected. Children become brighter and more successful when they are functioning at their highest potential. Their motivation increases, they handle learning tasks with more independence, more mastery, and more intelligence.
The best way to improve under-developed thinking skills is to isolate them, make them explicit to the child, and strategically train them to ignite the dormant skills.
The best time to provide this opportunity is from the ages of 10 to 14.
Give your child the gift of a better chance at high school and equip them well as they approach the teenage years ahead. Thinking skills training improves every area of life.
When children lack proper development of their thinking skills, they suffer from many learning and behavioural issues. ASK YOURSELF
Are they falling behind in any subject area? Are they producing the results that they seem capable of? Have they formed a healthy attitude towards learning? Do they approach approach learning with a sense of adventure, ease and excitement? Do they approach learning with confidence and motivation? Do they handle learning tasks with mastery and ease? Have they mastered the core skills that underpin ALL subjects areas? Do they have transferable skills? Do they show structure and organisation in planning out a learning task? Are they in control of the process of learning that gives them a taste of success?
MORE IMPORTANTLY: Do they understand howthey are learning? Are they self reflective? Can they discriminate between good learning behaviours and poor ones? Can they isolate, describe and choose the most effective learning habits? Are they in control of their own process of learning?
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SMARTQ THINKING SKILLS PROGRAMME AND REGULAR SCHOOL WORK
All subjects in school have thinking skills infused in them. Our school curriculum also exposes children to learning activities that engage them in higher order thinking skills. The difference, however, is that in regular lessons these skills are largely implicit in the content. If a child has failed to extract the skills from the subject content then those skills remain dormant or impared.
SmartQ programme teaches the thinking skills (the process by which we learn) in an explicit and strategic manner. The skills are isolated, described, labelled and practised on a continuum of increasing complexity. To consolidate them we use children's everyday experience at home and school to bridge those skills. Our focus is on skills development and their transferability. We equip children with mastery over their own learning by teaching them the mechanisms of learning. Children become better learners because they understand how the brain investigates information; processes information; and finally how the brain produces outcomes that are effective and outstanding.
By isolating the thinking skills from content children go well beyond the normal stages of thinking that they usually do at school or at home. They start to become thinkers of a much higher degree. They start to think about their own thinking.
HOW DO WE TEACH CHILDREN THINKING SKILLS?
We use the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme.
FIE has a history of success and continues to grow in popularity. FIE is now used in over 80 countries and translated into 17 languages. Developed by a psychologist some 50 years ago, it has been put through 1000's of scientific studies to prove its effectiveness. Such intense scrutiny has only added to its validity and ongoing success.
FIE offers the best programme for strategically developing the complete range of thinking skills in children. It takes children progressively from the simple operations to higher order thinking skills.
This programme is powerful and has been used for a variety of situations. The tutor or mediator delivering this programme mediates the skills according to the identified purpose. Here at SmartQ we use FIE as a learning improvement programme for regular children facing some learning difficulties, AND for children who want to perform at a higher level using their full potential.
FIE can only be delievered by trained professionals and the material is only accessible to approved tutors. This has ensured the quality and effectiveness of this programme.
INTRODUCING YOUR QUALIFIED, APPROVED AND FRIENDLY TUTOR
Hi, my name is Urmila and I am a qualified and approved tutor of the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme.
QUICK BIO DATA Classroom Teacher, Tutor, Teacher Librarian, Library Manager, Adviser to Schools (NZ), Lifeline Counsellor (CHCH, NZ), Library Systems Specialist (CHCH,NZ)
After 3 decades in various educational roles, I now pledge to help children in the area that matters most in today's climate of learning: self empowerment and independent learning skills. I hope I can make a difference in your child's learning journey.
We start by delving deeper into the issue of thinking skills: what they are and why they are important.
Dormant Skills Dormant skills cause many learning, attitudinal, and behavioural difficulties in children. This page discusses these in more detail.
Igniting Skills We discuss our classroom programme on this page
Class Times Check this page for information on available times and costs
Noticeboard On this page you will find additional information such as a brief background on SmartQ, interesting articles and research on Brain Science, and many other issues of relevance in our pursuit to create life-long, independent and motivated learners.
