Thinking and learning skills project

Aim of the project is the professionalisation of teachers and innovating education through small-scale classroom experiments conducted by teachers themselves, alongside their pupils and students, in learning to learn and thinking about learning. The project started in May 2011.

Project description

The project operates via a network of teachers, lecturers and students who collectively investigate the didactics of thinking and learning skills. The ambition is to develop a shared concept of thinking and learning classrooms.

Joining the project and the network requires that schools agree to the following objectives:

• conduct action research into thinking and learning skills, with the intention of professionalising teachers and innovate education;
• formulate relevant research questions, gather and analyse research data;
• report findings and conclusions, so that the results are available to other schools;
• and finally a shared objective, namely to develop and promote better understanding of thinking and learning skills in education.

The Department of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences supports the various projects involved, where necessary, with educational expertise and suitable research methods and instruments. Many of the projects are carried out through teachers collaborating with Master students in Educational Science and in Orthopedagogiek (Special Needs Education), who contribute to the project through their final dissertation research projects.

Collaboration with TNO

Since the start of 2013 the project collaborates with the Dutch national technology institute TNO, so that the project can make use of TNO's innovative iSelf, an online tool for the self-evaluation of learner feedback, suitable for learners aged 10 and over and adults (such as teaching staff).

More information

Mail to secr.ortho@rug.nl.