Developing Thinkers From Year 1

School: Newtown School

Year Level: Year 1

Teacher: Maria Whiting

Focus area: To investigate ways to improve student capability to manage self including: Student awareness of and ability to use key learning tools for their achievement level. We will be using De Bonos Thinking Hats as a thinking tool.

Research Questions:

Question 1. Implementation: How can the use of a school wide Poutama promote and develop student ability to think?

Question 2.Knowledge: What impact does the use of a school wide Poutama have on student knowledge of traditions and cultures?

Question 3. Engagement: What impact does the use of a school wide Poutama have on student engagement?

Question 4.Competency: What impact does the use of a school wide Poutama have on student competency (ability) to use thinking hats to aid social inquiry?

Success Criteria for Knowledge. The school Knowledge Poutama for this topic was created by teachers. This report shows level one of the school wide poutama .

Expert: To be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses in their knowledge about a tradition in a culture and know that the next step is to explore 2 more traditions.
Practitioner: Be able to say why my tradition is important in my culture.
Apprentice: Be able to describe one or two facts about a tradition in my culture and tell someone else.
Novice: Be able to say one fact about a tradition in my culture / family.

Success Criteria for Competency The Competency Poutama was first introduced by the lead teachersin SWELL but has been further developed to include level four. This part shows Level one of the school wide poutama used.

Expert: Are aware of their strengths and weaknesses in using yellow, black and white hats and are aware that there are other hats to learn about to guide their thinking further.
Practitioner: Can apply yellow, black and white hats when directed to by the teacher (i.e. what are the black hat points).

Apprentice: Can describe what a yellow, black and white hats are used for (when asked).
Novice: Has used each hat in a whole class situation (practised and modelled)

Learning Story:

In the junior area we were learning to use De Bonos thinking hats as a tool to help us develop and to extend our thinking.

The aim for the junior children was to explore our topic of "Communities" and ask questions that reflected their culture, behaviours and values.

The broad aim was to understand how the past is important to people.

The key concepts were how customs of the past are reflected in peoples daily lives through cultural practices such as: behaviours, dress, art and food etc.

We started the research project by introducing the all the new entrant children to De Bonos thinking hats and taught the colours of each hat represented and how they could be used. Each teacher in all classes modelled the use of thinking hats. In the junior area we practised the use of De Bonos thinking hats in other curriculum areas such as maths, writing and art so children could see that the use of DeBonos thinking Hats could be used in variety of situations.

For example in reading we read a shared story called" This Leaf" ( a Ready to Read Reader) and we discussed as a group how a leaf that had been collected could be used in other creative ways. We went outside and wandered about the school and the park collecting different leaves that we found on our walk. We gathered the leaves and put them on a big tarpulin and sorted leaves into categories such as big, small, serated, smooth and rough (using our blue hats) etc. We decided as a class was 'what we wanted to learn was whether we could use the green thinking hat to think of creative ways to use our leaves in a creative collage'. The criteria was that each child had to think of something they could make and talk about and state what leaves they used in their creation?

We put on our green hats and brainstormed things we could do with the leaves that we had collected (new ideas). We wrote down our ideas. All the children were then given paper and were told to choose some leaves to explore and experiment with. They then glued on their leaves.

They made an assortment of things which they then bought back to the group to discuss and share while the teacher wrote up their other new ideas. Later we wrote stories using our pictures to give us inspiration.

We then spent the next 3 to 9 weeks practising up to four thinking hats and engaging in different ways to questioning our parents and grandparents about traditions and practices that they valued and shared with their families. This introduced our school wide topic of "Communities". The children were then to question their families weekly about traditional practices and cultural celebrations they as a family participated in. Then all the children were asked (through homework) to share their findings with the class orally and this lead to further parental involvement such as; parents came in to share some cultural practices that they wanted to share, such as 'Thanks giving', a Pacific Island dance, a talk on Chile and showing children and adults wearing different traditional costumes and how and when they are worn. Children used this information gathering to support their writing and for their reporting.

Big ideas:

Because our children are five years old and have recently started school so we decided our big ideas had to be personalised and realistic, therefore our questions had to reflect what they knew about the thinking hats.... this is what we our big ideas were:

What do I do that reflects my culture?

* That by asking deeper questions we can find out more information about our families cultural traditions and values.

What do we want our learners to understand by the end of this theme?

* That by using Debonos thinking hats we can develop our ideas about what we know about the past and present practices.

* Ideas about society:

* Understand that customs and traditions are part of cultural activities

* Know different cultural practices of other through behaviours and values

Results:

The results of our research project showed that all the junior children except one special needs child engaged and developed their thinking skills through the use DeBonos thinking hats. The children were all engaged in open discussion and were able to state what we used the thinking hats for and could give an example of how a particular hat could be used. The engagement strategy data shows the levels of improvement in the class from beginning to end.

We decided as a class that ' What we wanted to learn was whether we could use the green thinking hat to think of creative ways to use our leaves in a creative collage'. The criteria was that each child had to think of something they could make and talk about why they made and what leaves they used?

This is just an example of how the thinking hats was used in the class. There were opportunities every day to practice thinking hats but not all curriculum areas could be used all the time. In the junior area we focused on using De Bonos Thinking Hats or revising what we had used and practised, 3 or 4 times a week. the two New Entrant to year one classes worked together but the results shown today are only of one class.

Outcome 1. Engagement:

SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always

Offered ideas - 2.8
Asked questions - 3.1
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully -3.4
Used positive body language related to task - 3.2
Persevered in order to enact related task - 3.2
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - 3.2
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 2.8
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 2.4
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - 2.9

Overall mean level of engagement of students = 3.1

Outcome 2. Knowledge:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start 0; at end 0
7. Beginning experts - at start 0; at end 0
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0; at end 0
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0; at end 0
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0; at end 3
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 0; at end 3
2. Proficient novices - at start 0; at end 6
1. Beginning novices - at start 13; at end 1

Knowledge effect size = 0.81
Standard error = 0.13

Outcome 3. Competency:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start 0; at end 0
7. Beginning experts - at start 0; at end 0
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0; at end 2
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0; at end 2
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0; at end 1
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 0; at end 4
2. Proficient novices - at start 5; at end 3
1. Beginning novices - at start 8; at end 1

Competency effect size = 1.04
Standard error = 0.16

Conclusion

The use of DeBonos thinking hats opened a lot of new ideas to the children in room 14 as the children were able to state...

Why customs and traditions matter to them (in their own words)
eg; My family has a hangi on Xmas day. It's because we are Maori and that is how we have shared kai(food). We cook it in the ground.

Know that my cultural values are reflected in the way I behave.

eg; I wear this special top and pants when I pray on Fridays. This is because in our religion we all wear this special costume and only men and boys can wear it.

Know how people follow customs and traditions when they participate in cultural activities eg; Powhiri, Waiata a ringa etc

All the children were able to use at least two thinking hats appropriately and were able to answer how" I participate in my cultural practices" by being able to make statements about what they had learnt eg:

• the way I dress : "At weddings we dress up and wear our good clothes because a wedding is special and you have to be smart"!(Kawhena)
"At fancy dress parties you have to dress up. I will dress as batman because you won't be able to win a prize if you don't dress up. Kids that don't have special clothes can come in fancy stuff, like their going out clothes". (Beau)


• the food we eat: "We have boil up with pork bones and watercress because its yummy and because lots of Maori people eat it".( Angel)
" We eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving because its a tradition. My mum is from America and we have 'Thanksgiving". Pumpkin pie is nice.( Clemente)


• the way we celebrate occasions:" We get dressed up for halloween in costumes like spiderman so we can go trick or treating. Only some people do this. Not everybody".(Zac)
" My family have a umu at parties.We have lots of food. It's got yummy food and then we have dessert. (written as stated) (Ian)


• the way my family likes to do things:" My family always has Sunday roast and Grandma and Poppa come because it's family day and we get to see Grandma and Poppa".(Rae)
"My family always go to church. We dress up and we have a big feed after church. We always have to go because that's what we do together.
(Roxanne)

• the way my family spend their leisure time: "We always play soccer together when we are at the park. My family likes to spend time together doing family things" (Matt)

"We go out together to the shops. we go to the warehouse and we all get something. We always go together. I like going out with my family.(Julian)

All the children except one could answer all the questions posed to them as they had taken home the questions to share with their families and had answers to bring back to school to share. This is because all the children participated in the thinking up of questions we could ask our families and extended whanau and because all the children could talk about their personal experiences and they felt comfortable about answering questions.

Giving children the tool to explore their own choices and to develop their thinking strategies has helped some of the children open up and be less resistant to sharing cultural experiences. It has given Esol students something to share even though language is a barrier all the children have had some new experiences and have have had the time to research their questions. All the children have accepted each others answers and have had no problem accepting differences in one another.

The use of thinking hats has promoted cultural acceptance and made children question things they normally would just accept and has helped us to answer our school wide research questions ( see questions at the bottom of page).

The data collected proves that De Bonos Thinking Hats is a very useful learning tool and it has given Newtown School a Competency Poutama that we can use in all curriculum areas. This research project is just the beginning of what the school could continue to achieve if we practise skills and strategies.

With practice the children have the potential to progress up the skills (Competency Poutama) rapidly and will be able help make and decide a Knowledge Poutama that helps them to assess where they are and make goals for future understanding.

NB: Photos shown include photos taken of other classes as well as the junior year one class.