Researching thinking skills strategies in a primary school: challenging technical-rationalist orthodoxies of learning?

Abstract

Relatively few studies have attempted to understand the beliefs young pupils have about the mind and learning. This collaborative action research study set out to explore the impact of a thinking skills pedagogy upon a sample of primary school children's learning and beliefs about learning over a period of 18 months. It was found that young children were capable of substantiating beliefs with evidence and reasonable argument – one indicator of intellectual autonomy. Furthermore, over time, children were able to articulate an increasingly constructivist model of mind and learning. However, the findings also suggest that, for some children, intellectual autonomy may have been hindered by current United Kingdom curriculum and assessment policy; a technical-rationalist, competitive, transmission model of education still persisted in the perceptions of some children with regard to perceived classroom expectations. Throughout the discussion, the author grounds the action research project in philosophical theory to explore the extent to which a philosophical schism is creating this tension and impeding revision in education. As a means of resolving this tension, the potential of constructivist and sociocultural views of learning is also discussed.