Reasoning and Thinking Skills 2015/16

Autumn Term / Spring Term / Summer Term
Year8 / Case Study: Computer games and links to violence.
Revision of Year 7 work. / January OCR J930 exam: Thinking and Reasoning Skills. Level 2 award. / Study Skills: exam preparation and revision for Common Entrance.
Year7 / Understanding an argument: argument maps,
Reasons, conclusions, unstated assumptions.
Evaluating an argument: common flaws, bias, credibility criteria, irrelevant appeals to external factors.
Presenting and developing arguments: recognising counter-arguments. / Evaluating the credibility of sources: reputation, expertise, statistical validity, selection of evidence.
Seeking and evaluating evidence: credibility, alternative explanations causation, correlation. / Information processing and problem solving: Venn Diagrams, recognising patterns, drawing inferences, logic puzzles.
Creative thinking: Lateral thinking problems, What if? problems, counterfactual thinking.
Year6 / Non Verbal Reasoning: Patterns.
Counting and pointing Shading/lines.
Shapes/odd one out
Order and position. Rotation.
Find the figure like the first.
Verbal Reasoning
Alphabetical order
Hidden word & Missing words
Anagrams
Compound & new words/pairs
Meanings.
Deduction. / Study Skills: What sort of learner am I? Creating the right environment for effective learning.
Interview Techniques: Body language, eye contact, common questions. / Philosophy for Children: Variety of juicy philosophical questions e.g. Would you want to live forever?
Debating: Ground rules, argument tennis, persuasion, not jumping to conclusions.
Year 5 / Verbal Reasoning – strategies and practice.
Lateral Thinking Problems: Variety of online and book resources including
Athey-educational / Non-Verbal Reasoning – strategies and practice.
Problem Solving: Pupils attempt solving puzzle games: emphasis on understanding and following instructions.
Pupils are introduced to a variety of different ways of looking at problems. / Study Skills: Pupils are given strategies for learning. Philosophy for Children: Pupils are introduced to philosophical questions.
Children are made aware of different viewpoints to questions
Year 4 / Verbal Reasoning – strategies and practice.
Puzzle Games and Instructions: Word Games, Sodoku for beginners, Crosswords for beginners, Athey-Educational just for fun games,
variety of Lateral Thinking questions. / Non-Verbal Reasoning – strategies and practice. / Study Skills: Pupils are given strategies for learning
Pupils are given opportunities to explore and enhance their own learning

For further information the 2 key website addresses are: Jason Buckley’s superb site from which we have borrowed heavily.

Years 7 and 8

Contains all the material and past papers for the OCR exam.