Activities can be included that enable pupils to reflect on their own thinking processes and to clarify and reflect on their problem-solving strategies when working collaboratively or alone. DMAs require pupils to use the full range of thinking skills:

information-processing skills
the ability to locate and collect relevant information; sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast; and analyse part/whole relationships

reasoning skills
the ability to give reasons for opinions and actions; draw inferences and make judgements; use precise language to explain what they think; and make judgements and decisions informed by reasons or evidence

enquiry skills
the ability to ask relevant questions; pose and define problems; plan what to do and how to research; predict outcomes and anticipate consequences; and test conclusions and improve ideas

creative-thinking skills
the ability to generate and extend ideas; suggest hypotheses; apply imagination; and look for alternative, innovative outcomes

evaluation skills
the ability to evaluate information; judge the value of what they read, hear or do; develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others' work or ideas; and have confidence in their judgements

Undertaking tasks to develop thinking skills

Research has identified three major phases in undertaking tasks that offer significant opportunities for developing pupils' understanding of, and skills in, thinking:

framing

doing a challenging task

plenary or debriefing.

In design and technology these can be interpreted as follows.

Phase

Aims

Examples

Framing

getting pupils interested

indicating purposes

giving confidence

clarifying procedures

launching the brief for a DMA enthusiastically and thoroughly

including why the task is worth doing

showing how prior experience and focused practical tasks will help them

looking ahead to the stages a DMA will go through

Doing a challenging task

increasing challenge for talented pupils

giving open-ended briefs

questioning pupils' intentions

providing conflicting information

reducing instructions and making pupils sort out difficulties themselves

using extension tasks

Plenary or debriefing

reviewing with individuals, in groups or as a whole class

evaluating pupils' approaches to their designing and making

using their products to reveal the weaknesses in their designing and making processes

revealing equally worthwhile alternatives

preparing them for future DMAs

Matching teaching to pupils' needs in the general guidance

Transfer and transition in the general guidance

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