45 of Notre Dame’s Enhancing Excellence students took part in an engaging and interactive metacognition workshop on Wednesday June 16.
Mrs. Grace Lockrobin, founder and MD of Thinking Space - an organisation that stimulates, supports and sustains public philosophy projects - came into college to deliver this first session in a critical thinking skills programme for our students. As it states on the Thinking Space website, “Our philosophers support children and adults from diverse backgrounds to explore the issues that matter most to them, in partnership with the organisations that know them best. Our participants and partners develop their critical and creative thinking alongside the confidence needed to communicate more clearly.”
Wednesday’s Thinking Moves A-Z workshop aimed to provide our students with a vocabulary for thinking, providing a powerful way for them to communicate using metacognitive language, and improve the effectiveness of their thinking. Lower sixth student Isabel Itoe said, "It really helped me think about the different methods we use to make a point and how I might make them in the future."
Philosophy, Ethics and Religious Studies teacher Mrs. Maria Coyle, who coordinated the event, added, "Our students got stuck into the ethical dilemmas posed by Mrs. Lockrobin and, with her guidance, have already started use 'thinking moves' to be better critical thinkers. Working in small groups using concrete examples made it a really worthwhile event."
We look forward to Mrs. Lockrobin returning to Notre Dame next week.
You can read more about Thinking Space here, and Thinking Moves A-Z here.