Activities within this website incorporate elements of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Multiple Intelligences and Six Hats Thinking to encourage a culture of metacognition.

Self-reflection is an essential aspect of higher order thinking. A self-reflection evaluation sheet is included for teachers to use for lower primary group work and middle-upper primary group work where deemed appropriate, as well as a student self-reflection evaluation form for individual tasks.

Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy is one of the most commonly used models for the development of higher order thinking. The following skills are applicable to any content and phase of learning:

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

Multiple Intelligences
Research by Howard Gardner proposed that there are many forms of intelligence – ways in which we know, understand and learn – not just one. Most of these ways of knowing go beyond those that dominate Western culture and education, and they definitely go beyond what current IQ tests can measure. He proposed a schema of eight intelligences, and suggests that there are probably many others that we have not yet been able to test!

Briefly summarised are the eight intelligences that Gardner identified:

Verbal/Linguistic: This intelligence is related to words and language, both written and spoken, and dominates most Western educational systems.

Logical/Mathematical: Often called scientific thinking, this intelligence deals with inductive and deductive thinking/reasoning, numbers and the recognition of abstract patterns.

Visual/Spatial: This intelligence, which relies on the sense of sight and being able to visualise an object, includes the ability to create internal mental images and pictures.

Body/Kinesthetic: This intelligence is related to physical movement and the knowings and wisdom of the body, including the brain’s motor cortex, which controls body motion.

Musical/Rhythmic: This intelligence is based on the recognition of tonal patterns, including various environmental sounds and sensitivity to rhythm and beats.

Naturalist: This intelligence deals with the recognition, appreciation and understanding of the flora and fauna of the natural world.

Interpersonal: This intelligence operates primarily through person to person relationships and communication.

Intrapersonal: This intelligence relates to inner states of being, self-reflection, metacognition (thinking about thinking) and awareness of spiritual realities.

(David Lazear, Eight Ways of teaching: the artistry of Teaching with Multiple Intelligences, 1999)

The above icons will be used to identify the dominant intelligence in each teaching and learning opportunity within this website.

Six Hats Thinking
Edward De Bono is a pioneer in the field of teaching and thinking in education. The Six Hats Thinking method, devised by De Bono, is applicable to many of the activities within this website. A Six Hats Thinking proforma sheet for students is included in the self-reflection resource as an evaluation tool.

In the Six Hats Thinking method, thinking is divided into six different modes, with each mode represented by a colour. A brief description of each hat is provided below.

Red Hat: Emotions. Intuition, feelings and hunches. How do I feel about this right now?

Yellow Hat: Good points. Why is this worth doing? How will it help us? Why can it be done? Why will it work?

Black Hat: Bad points. Caution. Judgement. Assessment. Is this true? Will it work? What are the weaknesses? What is wrong with it?

Green Hat: Creativity. Different ideas. New ideas. Suggestions and proposals. What are some possible ways to work this out? What are some other ways to solve the problem?

White Hat: Information. Questions. What information do we have? What information do we need to get?

Blue Hat: Organisation of thinking. Thinking about thinking. What have we done so far? What do we do next?

(Six Thinking Hats for Schools Resource Book written by Edward De Bono, 1992, Hawker Brownlow Education.)