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CAME is having a profound impact upon teachers and their pupils across Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
This page will use CAME stories from individuals around the country to illustrate the richness and variety that typifies the approach.
"What's going on here then?" CAME trainer Alan Edmiston asks a group of children during a filmed lesson in a South Lanarkshire primary school. The local authority views the development of thinking as a way of raising attainment. All primary schools have been given resources to implement Let's Think, Let's Think Through Science and Thinking Science lessons 1 to 8, the expectation being that secondaries will pick up the initiative with lesson 9. A core group of teachers was trained in cognitive acceleration methods. They subsequently delivered inset to other teachers in the authority, supplementing training given by CASE developers.
Now CASE and its partners have been joined by the Cognitive Acceleration through Maths Education programme. At present, CAME is still an "opt-in" for South Lanarkshire schools, though full training has been provided for staff who want to make use of the scheme. The in-service has involved learning about the underlying theory - Piaget's model of levels of development and the five pillars of cognitive acceleration. Teachers have also been able to sit in on demonstration lessons, many of which were video recorded to make a training DVD.
Why bother? There is strong evidence that children's thinking is developed when they are challenged, when they work collaboratively, articulating their ideas and building on those of their peers, when they reflect upon their thinking and when they see how it can be applied to different situations. Along with thorough preparation to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the language and tasks in the lesson, this structure of challenge, collaboration and reflection is at the heart of CAME and CASE lessons and indeed many other learning strategies now recognised as having great value.
And when a primary 7 pupil, a huge smile on his face, remarks that "that is so cool!" during a maths lesson, it seems that whatever is going on here, it is certainly motivating and engaging the children.
"I like adapting the approach to others lessons and can see the enjoyment the pupils get from thinking about the maths. I particularly enjoy the 'magic moments' when a usually quiet pupil explains their thinking.
CAME has provided the time for us to reflect upon our teaching strategies and putting thinking at the heart of the agenda rather than judging performance on how much a child can recall."
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