| Summary: | The promotion of thinking skills and collaborative learning fits well with the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland. Thinking skills has a growing research base with positive outcomes predominating. Research shows strong relationships between assessment and learning, and between thinking and dialogue. This thesis aimed to uncover some of the “hidden harmony” in primary school children’s complex integration of thinking and communication. As a first step, a questionnaire survey sought teachers’ views regarding formative assessment and the teaching of thinking skills, within one Scottish education authority. About half of all authority schools responded. A very high proportion of respondents had received training in assessment for learning practices, and requested training in teaching thinking skills. The majority view was that thinking skills should be infused across the curriculum rather than taught separately. The importance of group work for delivery of thinking skills programmes was highlighted. A second study gathered empirical evidence over time of changes in pupil attitudes, peer interaction, thinking skills and problem solving behaviours in four primary classrooms where thinking skills and group activities were being delivered. Cognitive gains in verbal reasoning skills were sought as well as positive shifts in pupils’ perceptions of themselves as learners and problem solvers. Whilst girls showed some gains in verbal reasoning skills, there was no significant change for the overall sample. There was, on the other hand, a consistently and significant positive shift in pupils’ views of themselves as learners, irrespective of gender, age, school and class. The next project aimed to show how Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) could contribute to pupil peer assessment processes, as well as impact on pupils’ self-esteem and skills as problem solving learners. Fifteen whole classes in four primary schools across an education authority were involved, with experimental and control groups. All classes committed to regular collaborative group work activities over a school year. Nine experimental classes received three cycles of video of activities with edited positive feedback. Pre-test and post-test measures were taken of pupils’ self-esteem in relation to learning and problem solving. Measures were also taken of peer assessment of group working behaviours and through gathering experimental pupils’ and teachers’ views of the process. Analysis of a random sample of video clips was also carried out. The general level of self-esteem in relation to learning, of pupils across experimental and control classes remained high from start to finish. The self-esteem results decreased a little for both the experimental and control groups, however the control group scores decreased by statistically significantly more – so the video intervention was shown to favour the experimental group. Whilst there was no difference in self-esteem by gender, there was a significant difference by age. The intervention had more impact on increasing the self-esteem of younger children. Videoed pupils’ retrospective ratings of their group work showed a significant increase over the year. The majority pupil perception was that their group work had greatly improved over the year. Again, the youngest pupils showed the biggest increase. Group work and communication skills were well established and maintained in all classes. Pupil-pupil talk showed a range of talking techniques which reflected pupils’ thinking skills: asking questions; making comments; making suggestions; giving opinions; exchanging, exploring and building upon ideas; acknowledging and reaching agreement. With its emphasis on positive reinforcement, teacher training in the use of video in class can contribute to developing practice in promoting good group work and thinking skills. Further implications for practice and future research are discussed.
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