To handle information effectively, pupils need to develop a range of thinking skills that enable them to gather, organise, store, retrieve, modify and present information. These skills include:

information-processing skills
the ability to use a variety of approaches to sort, search (including conventional approaches, such as contents lists and indexes, as well as more complex search techniques requiring Boolean logic), organise and present data, to understand a variety of classification systems and to identify patterns and relationships in data

reasoning skills
the ability to make inferences from information in a reasoned and logical way, and to interpret and identify patterns in information

enquiry skills
the ability to ask sensible and pertinent questions that probe the data and lead to meaningful answers, to decide what data is needed for the enquiry and what sources are appropriate

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

evaluation skills
the ability to apply existing knowledge, to draw conclusions about what has been discovered, and to put forward a reasoned case to help explain new findings

Managing provision in the general guidance

Matching teaching to pupils' needs in the general guidance

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