What is it?

Thinking Science is a special program that is

designed to improve your thinking skills.
It is based around Science, but will improve your
general thinking skills, this means that it will
benefit you in other subjects as well.

What's involved

You will participate in 30 lessons spaced over

Year 7 and 8.
This works out to be about one lesson every two
weeks.

How is it supposed to work?

Have you ever seen a picture of a sportsperson

doing bicep curls?

How is it supposed to work?

There are very few sports where a sportsperson

has to lift a heavy weight while remaining still!
Why do they do these sort of exercises then?

How is it supposed to work?

The reason is, that exercising this muscle in

such a way will help them do their sport.

How is it supposed to work?

Bicep curls strengthen the muscle.

The strengthened muscle can then be used to
participate in the sport.

Brain exercise?

Thinking Science lessons exercise your brain.

Your brain will get fitter and you will be better at
thinking!

The evidence

Thinking Science has been taught in England for

many years. (It is called CASE).

CASE research shows is that students who

completed the program in Years 7 and 8
achieved higher grades in their Year 11 GCSE
(Year 12 WACE in WA).

The evidence

What the researchers did was split a number of

schools into two groups.
Each group did a test at the start of Year 7 to give
them a starting level in Science.
In half the schools, the Year 7s did the normal
Science course plus Thinking Science in Years 7
and 8.
In the other half, students just did their normal
Science course.
For the rest of high school eg Years 9, 10, 11 &
12, all students just did the normal science
course.

The evidence

Five years later, when the students finished

school, the researchers recorded what their final
grade in Science was.
They then compared the starting level with the
final grade.
The graph on the following page shows a
comparison between the grades for the students
who didnt do Thinking Science.

Mean
GCSE

Grade
Year 11

7.5

1999 GCSE science

A
6.5

5.5

4.5

D
3.5

E
2.5

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

F
20

30

40

Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

50

60

70

The evidence

Each green marker represents the average

final Science GSCE grade for a particular
school.
Mean
1999 GCSE science
GCSE
A
Grade
What it shows is Year 11
that on average, B
the grade at the
end of Year 11
C
matched the

7.5

6.5

5.5

4.5

students Year 7
entry level.

3.5

E
2.5

20

30

40

50

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

60

Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

70

Mean
GCSE

Grade
Year 11

7.5

1999 GCSE science

A
6.5

5.5

4.5

D
3.5

E
2.5

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

F
20

30

40

Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

50

60

70

The evidence

The graph on the following page shows a

comparison between the grades for the students
who did do Thinking Science.

Mean
GCSE

Grade
Year 11

7.5

1999 GCSE science

St. Albans

6.5

Chatham Girls

George Abbott

Sharnbrook

5.5

Downend
Downham Market
Sion Manning

4.5

Clapton

Rokeby

3.5

St. Edmunds

South Camden

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

2.5

F
20

30

40

50

Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

60

70

The evidence

Each red marker represents the average final

Science GSCE grade for a particular school.
What it shows is Mean
1999 GCSE science
GCSE A
Grade
that on average,
Year 11
students achieved
B
about a grade
higher at theC end
of year 11,
D
compared to
E
their year 7
entry
score.

7.5

St. Albans

6.5

Chatham Girls

George
Abbott

Sharnbrook

5.5

Sion Manning

Clapton

Rokeby

South Camden

St. Edmunds

4.5

3.5

Downend
Downham Market

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

2.5

70
20
40
50
60
30
Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

Mean
GCSE

Grade
Year 11

7.5

1999 GCSE science

St. Albans

6.5

Chatham Girls

George Abbott

Sharnbrook

5.5

Downend
Downham Market

4.5

Clapton

St. Edmunds

Rokeby

South Camden

3.5

Sion Manning

CASE Schools

Control Schools

National average

E
2.5

20
40
50
30
Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

60

70

The transfer effect

The researchers were also able to show that the

Thinking Science program also improved the
students grades in other subjects as well.
The following graphs illustrate this transfer
effect.

The transfer effect

7.5

Mean GCSE
Grade

Maths 1999

St. Albans

7.5

GCSE English 1999

Mean
Grade

St. Albans
Chatham Girls

6.5

6.5

Chatham Girls

George Abbott

George Abbott

Sharnbrook

4.5

Sion Manning

St. Edmunds Downend

30

40

50

Control Schools

CASE Schools

National Average
60

Mean Year 7 School Intake (Percentile)

70

3.5

South Camden

E
2.5

Rokeby

Downend
Downham Market

20

Clapton

4.5

Rokeby
South Camden

St. Edmunds

Sion Manning

Downham Market

Clapton

2.5

5.5

Sharnbrook

5.5

3.5

20

30

40

50

60

Mean Year 7 School Intake (percentile)

70

The transfer effect

This transfer effect shows that the Thinking

Science program is developing general brain
fitness that helps in all areas of education, not
just in Science.

It sounds great, what do I have to do!

The thinking Science program is a participation

program, that is for it to be of benefit you have to
be an active participant.

Active participation

Imagine going to a gym exercise class to help

get fit. If you just sat in the corner and watched
everybody else, you wouldnt get fitter.

Active participation

The Thinking Science program wont benefit you,

unless you put the effort in.
Just being in the room and listening to the
lesson wont exercise your brain and wont result
in you getting better grades in future years.
You need to be
actively involved.

What will I have to do in a typical

Thinking Science lesson?

Thinking Science lessons have a number

of components.
Concrete

preparation
Cognitive conflict
Social construction
Metacognition
Bridging (Applying)

Concrete preparation

Firstly lessons start with

something called
Concrete preparation.
You will have to do an activity or
observe a demonstration that is
designed to get your brain into
gear and start thinking.
If all things go well it will also
cause some Cognitive Conflict.

Cognitive conflict

Have you ever seen something and thought

hang on a second, that cant be right.
This is cognitive conflict, it is when you
experience something that doesnt match with
what you thought
would happen or
should be.
It gets your brain out of
its comfort zone
and ready for more
exercise or learning.

Social construction

Have you ever had something in your head but

when you tried to tell/explain it to someone you
couldnt quite get the right words?
The Thinking Science lessons involve you
explaining to your group members what you
think is happening in the lesson and why.

Social construction

You will find that you will have to try really hard
to explain what you are thinking and why you
think these things.

Social construction

This is the whole idea, to get better at something,

you have to learn to do it and practise this skill.
The benefit is that over time you will get better at
passing on your understanding to others.
If you talk to older
students or adults
they will tell you
how important a
skill this is.

Social construction

Being able to explain your understanding to

another person is an important skill you will
need, both in further education and employment.
It just doesnt come naturally it is a skill that you
can develop.

Metacognition

Have you ever thought about everything you

have to do while riding a bike?
Most likely not, your brain and body work
together automatically and you are generally
not consciously aware of all the things you are
doing to ride the bike.
You dont really Think
about what are doing!

Metacognition

Metacognition is becoming conscious of your own

thinking.
The Thinking Science lessons
will require you to not only
work out answers to
questions but
also to
consider what
was involved
in your thinking process
ie Thinking about your thinking.

Metacognition

Once you can work out how your brain worked

to solve a problem/come up with an answer, you
will be able to use this method again in the
future.
Thinking Science lessons
give you the opportunity to
practice these types
of Thinking.

Bridging (Applying)

Many Thinking Science lessons will end with you

answering questions that involve you using the
thinking skills from the lesson and transferring
these skills to another context.
The most useful skills are those that can be
used in more
than one area.