Cognitive acceleration or the ability to think or higher order thinking skills is a strategy based on the philosophy of Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, whose methods were first adopted in the UK in the 1960’s. Higher-order thinking skills include the ability to analyse and make connections, to reason, solve problems and think creatively. Now, more than any other time it is the combination of these skills which will promote self-determination, self motivation, self advocacy and lead to Enterprise and Innovation in all that the individual wishes for their future life.
In more recent times these theories have not figured in our Teacher Training curriculum or in Further or Higher Education or in our community programmes.
Maybe these will be used and should be used more?
Piaget identified two periods of rapid brain development that need to be utilised if people are to attain higher-order thinking skills.
The first ‘critical window’ occurs when a child is at the age of 5, when children are able to understand such concepts as ratio and time sequence.
The second, commences around the age of 11 years and continues to be perfected until the age of 15, taking children from the concrete to the abstract.
The bad news is that unless you take advantage of Piaget’s critical windows, your ability to engage in higher-order thinking is irretrievably lost.
After the age of 19, the agility of your intellect goes into inexorable decline.
So, the most important thing to do is to train the mind to process information and tackle concepts while it can. You can continue to acquire knowledge, but unless you have developed higher-order thinking skills, it will not be able to apply it as effectively.
What do we do to enhance our clients and students progress in these areas?
There are number of stages which we can address:
- Introduce the higher-order thinking skills as early as possible in our programmes such as those for School Leavers, Modern Apprentices, those with multi-barriers to employability and Job Seekers
- Learning to Learn must feature prominently in all introductory sessions
- Motivational programmes such as the Pacific Institute programmes, PX2 and Steps enforce the concepts of higher-order thinking
- Use of the Bridges to Employability Soft Skills Assessment Framework can facilitate the embedding of higher-order thinking and promote the use with employers, clients and tutors
Once the client has recognised the importance of higher-order thinking skills we witness accelerated progress in all areas of their life, from career progression to personal development.
I cannot believe this is true!
Based on the research by Piaget –try checking this on his work history and publications
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