Developing Thinking Skills: a Pedagogy Based on the Notion of Explanation

Abstract

Courses in ‘thinking skills’ are being greeted with the same level of enthusiasm that once heralded the introduction of Nuffield Science, programmed learning, modem maths, Initial Teaching Alphabet, calculators, cooperative group work, real books, SMP maths, investigations, ‘advance organisers’ and much else. All of these have several things in common. They were accepted on the evidence of work with experimental groups that recorded better results than ‘control’ groups; the experimental studies were all conducted with enthusiasts doing the teaching: when the methods and materials were disseminated the de-facto programme differed markedly from the intended programme (it was in each case simplified). And they all fell into obscurity. The following article offers an explanation of why this could have happened.