'Skills of the Mind- Effective Learning'

Program Overview

Welcome to the 'Skills of the Mind-Effective Learning' Whole School Program at Cosmos Primary. We believe that critical thinking skills form the foundation of all learning, and they are necessary for academic success and beyond. The program is divided into two main stages: 'Learning to Think' and 'Thinking to Learn'. These stages represent a progression in the cognitive skills students acquire and refine during their time at Cosmos Primary.

Stage: 'Learning to Think'

Designed for students in Kindergarten through Grade 2, the 'Learning to Think' stage focuses on building the foundational cognitive skills necessary for students to become active learners.

During this stage, students begin their learning adventure by engaging with cognition verbs like listen, observe, recognize, identify, discover, and understand. They learn to pay close attention to instructions, carefully examine their surroundings, recognize familiar sights and sounds, identify different objects, discover new knowledge, and understand concepts and processes.

Students then learn to organize their thoughts. They group and sort items, arrange them in a specific order, compare them to find similarities and differences, and categorize them into defined classes.

They then progress to understanding what they know. This involves describing, explaining, demonstrating, showing, and interpreting different pieces of knowledge.

In the next part of this stage, they focus on sharing their learning. Students share, express, communicate, present, discuss, and illustrate their ideas and findings with others.

The final part of this stage involves using the new knowledge they have acquired. They apply their learning in different contexts, solve problems, implement plans, create new things, and extend their knowledge.

Stage: 'Thinking to Learn'

This stage is designed for students in grades 3-6. In the 'Thinking to Learn' stage, students leverage the cognitive skills acquired in the first stage to delve deeper into their learning, synthesize information from different subjects, and drive their own inquiries.

Analyzing information forms the foundation of this stage. Students analyze, investigate, examine, differentiate, and critique information and resources to gain deeper understanding.

Next, students learn to formulate arguments. They argue, support their views with evidence, reason logically, and prove their ideas using concrete examples and evidence.

The stage then progresses to evaluating sources. Here, students evaluate the reliability of different sources, validate the information they receive, assess the quality of their work, and apply critical thinking.

In the synthesis of ideas, students integrate and connect different ideas, synthesizing them into a coherent whole. This enables them to see how different pieces of knowledge relate to and influence one another.

In the final part of this stage, designing inquiries, students become active agents of their own learning. They hypothesize, predict, experiment, research, and question as they seek to expand their knowledge.

The 'Skills of the Mind- Effective Learning' Whole School Program at Cosmos Primary is designed to equip our students with the cognitive tools they need for a lifetime of learning. We believe that by teaching them how to think and learn effectively, we set them up for success in the classroom and beyond.