critical thinking lesson ks2

Article Post

06 Jul 2023

by   Shahzia Ghafoor

How to Use Big Questions to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in the Primary Classroom

Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) are skills with which children debate a statement. They are specifically taught and include (but are not limited to): asking questions, analysing the statement, reasoning about what it means, communicating with others in a debate and problem-solving to come out in support of one side of the debate. This article will explore the need for teaching CTS in the classroom with examples of things to try.

Why teach critical thinking skills?

Throughout my twenty years as a teacher, I have always found the sharpest students (those with sound argument, not the most intelligent) are those who can hold their own in a debate. Whether that be a classroom debate about why schools should not have a uniform, or a slanging match in the playground about who is the better footballer. Students who have the capacity to hear an argument and formulate a response instantaneously, have all the hallmarks of a leader and now - more commonly - an influencer. 

On a world stage, the leaders with the most influence are those who can persuade others to their way of thinking - think beauty companies, fashion houses, politicians and social media influencers. How do they do it? Critical thinking skills (CTS): a structured way of thinking involving analysis of ideas and constructing a viewpoint.  

As societies move towards a greater need for intellectual intelligence, I can foresee the most successful generations will be those whose students are taught to persuade others of their point of view. So if CTS can empower leaders to have the most influence in decision-making, then we have to teach these skills explicitly to young people, right?

Using big questions to teach critical thinking skills

Why should we reduce our carbon footprint, when the world’s governments are not role-modelling their expectations?  

If we should look after animals, why do we eat them?

These are examples of big questions (BQ). Both children and philosophers share the instinct to question, and kids start to question the world around them at an early age. BQs are those  ‘deeper thinking questions’ , which require students to think above and beyond their everyday experiences to formulate a response. 

A book like   Get To Know: Philosophy encourages and magnifies that natural inquisitiveness. We don’t teach philosophy as part of the UK primary curriculum, but the principles behind the CTS used in philosophy are so valuable and can be easily developed in the primary classroom.

In class, I give my students enough  thinking time  to come up with an answer. They think about the question by talking it through with a peer and then write down some ideas to give feedback to the class. In a debate, the thought process can be streamlined using CTS to formulate and present an argument. 

There are many CTS, but for the sake of application in the classroom, I have whittled them down to five stages: asking questions, analysis, reasoning, communication and problem-solving. There is a little more detail about each stage further on in this article. Training a student to develop CTS is about repetitive practice at each stage. That way, the learner builds a logical way of thinking, which they can rely on when they come upon new questions and new ideas.

As the RE lead, I have made BQ part of the pedagogy of all RE lessons across the school. Now, all children from KS1-KS2 practise CTS at least once a week. I use BQ to start a debate. 

For example, when learning about Hinduism, I asked my students,  ‘What do you think Brahman does?’ After five minutes of chatting with their peers, some said,  ‘He looks after everyone’ . To get them to think a little deeper, I then asked,  ‘Why do you think he would do that?’ This is where students got the chance to build a response. They suggested reasons based on their own experience of faith or no faith as to why an unseen God would want to look after everyone. 

Learners can then continue to use their CTS to justify or disprove each other’s points. It is this logical reasoning that demonstrates the use of CTS in the classroom. RE does not need to be the gatekeeper of BQ; they can be used to develop CTS in all subjects. More about CTS in various curriculum subjects later.

Critical thinking skills and SMSC: a whole school approach

As BQ give rise to discussion, with logical arguments, they can also be useful in non-academic areas of school life as part of a wider SMSC remit. SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Schools are required to demonstrate children’s understanding of British Values, as per DfE guidance. 

Once embedded in the school’s ethos and curriculum, BQ can be a useful tool for debate in all strands of British Values to deliver on SMSC:

Respect for the rule of law – An example might be: UK prisoner reoffending rates stand at 20-30%. So if 1 in 5 prisoners reoffend after they have served their sentence - why is there no respect for the rule of law? Or why is the rule of law not working?

Individual liberty – An example might be: Individual liberty promotes the freedom of speech and free-thinking, so why are there laws against hate crimes such as race?

Democracy – An example might be: Why should I raise my hand in class, when I never get picked? Or I didn’t vote for the Pupil Leader in my class, so why should I support their actions?

Mutual respect for and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs – An example might be: For all children in this country, the most valuable culture to learn about is British. So why is there a need for Cultural Heritage Day, or Black History Month?

A book such as Our World in Pictures: Countries, Cultures, People & Places is perfect for initiating BQ, such as Why do so many places have monuments or statues? What is their purpose and importance? or It’s interesting and important to learn about places and cultures around the world. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

BQ and CTS can even be brought into displays and assemblies. Interactive displays in corridors and classrooms can invite children to think more deeply through carefully-worded questions. Assemblies could regularly start with, end with or feature one or more BQ to encourage CTS to be applied to topics or issues that may not be addressed through curriculum lessons.

Critical thinking strands

There are many viewpoints on the different elements of CTS. As previously mentioned, I find these five strands, or steps, to be the most useful to develop in the classroom:

• Asking questions
• Communication
• Problem-Solving

1) Asking questions

This is the most important part of structuring a debate to develop CTS. John Coleman at the Harvard Business Review suggests, ‘at the heart of critical thinking is the ability to formulate deep, different, and effective questions’.

I have found that the best questions should be open and provide students with the opportunity to come to more than one conclusion and to change their views upon persuasion.

When training teachers on how to use CTS, there are two simple steps:

• Set the context. It is useful for students to be able to rely on pictures as a visual stimulus, videos with a moral lesson to set the tone, a story or storyboard to show a sequence of events, tables or charts that show data or a text that can be referred to.
• KS1 - Provide a simple statement and let children give a reason for their answer. For example, Easter is a time for Christians to remember God. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Explain your reasons. KS2 - Students play devil’s advocate, by supporting an unpopular position, to get their defences going. For example, Rama killed the demon king to save Sita - was this the right thing to do?

2) Analysis

The analysis stage involves students interpreting the question in context. They work out what is being asked and begin to formulate a viewpoint using their knowledge and experiences.

3) Reasoning

At the reasoning stage, students need ample thinking time to develop their arguments. They need to write down different arguments for one point of view , working collaboratively in pairs or groups. Give students time to brainstorm their arguments and then ask each other if the ideas hold up.

4) Communication

This is the debate stage. Students get a chance to express their arguments and listen to others’ viewpoints in a debate. They build on or challenge each other’s ideas based on their own logic and reasoning. During a debate, oral learning interventions can help to structure an argument. 

5) Problem-solving

The last strand of the CTS structure is when students come to a final conclusion or choose a side, having set out their position. In the real world, this skill is most useful when leading and maximising influence over others. 

Useful strategies for developing critical thinking skills with pupils

Teachers can use a range of strategies to teach BQ in class to ensure their students develop CTS. Below are some strategies I have used in class to develop CTS, with their impact evidenced by Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

1) Oral language interventions allow children time to practise their language skills in structured speaking and listening activities. In my school, we call it Oracy. It can involve reading aloud, active listening, providing speaking frames to structure thoughts, providing vocabulary to use in discussion or providing sentence starters to begin arguments. Oral language interventions become key in arming children with the tools to voice their views when answering BQ. When I have worked with students from an EAL background, scaffolds are essential to express a point of view. The EEF states that oral language interventions have a high impact on students for a very low cost to the school, based on  extensive evidence .

2) Collaborative learning, aka peer or small group work, ensures all students participate in a task. This kind of activity encourages discussion of ideas and problem-solving. Ultimately, everyone in the group has to contribute to complete the task. The approach allows students to: create arguments for and against a big question, choose one viewpoint to persuade others and work through counter-arguments in debate. The  EEF report on collaborative learning suggests there is a high impact for students with a low cost to the school, although evidence is limited.

Applying critical thinking skills in curriculum subjects

CTS can be developed in all subjects. Below are some ways teachers can give them a go in lessons. 

• Reading comprehension - ‘Simone sighed and slumped her back against the gnarled trunk of the old chestnut tree.’  KS1 question:  Simone is a moody character. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
• English Writing - “Mum, I’m off, can you put some money in my account? Thanks, Fam!” Ali shouted from the doorway. KS3 question: When a character uses slang, we create a perception of who they are and where they come from. This reduces our expectations of them. Why?
• Maths - using reasoning in word problems for children to explain their mathematical understanding.
• Science - formulating scientific enquiry questions.
• PE  - exploring the impact of technical movement before or after an action.
• RE - exploring the aspects of celebrations that are similar and different in religions.
• Art - debating the use of art in a specific context.
• Design - reasoning about the use of sustainable materials in poor countries.
• Computing  – debating the use of AI to support learning.
• Music - debating the use of music for more advantaged people vs less advantaged people.
• Humanities - mitigating the impact of natural hazards.
• PSHE, Relationships and Health Education – the  Children’s Book of Philosophy asks,  What is happiness? and,  Is my mind different from my body?
• Citizenship – discussing notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and how societies agree on laws.

High-quality non-fiction books are often a great tool to prompt BQs in various subjects. A book like Knowledge Encyclopedia: Earth! can spark BQs about topics like the importance of forests and why the glaciers are melting. In fact, I’m thinking that when it comes to the environment and climate change, future generations of critical thinkers are exactly what our planet needs!

I firmly believe that if we teach CTS from a young age, we prepare our children to express themselves, listen to others, reason their point of view, challenge ideas, innovate and influence others. But most of all, we give them the tools to be confident and courageous when facing the world.

Shahzia Ghafoor is a primary teacher with a passion for all things education. She leads RE at her school and is the Year 3 lead. Shahzia is currently completing an NPQSL course and hopes to coach and mentor new teachers in the future. Her hobbies are cooking and fitness, and she likes a siesta in the afternoon!

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Developing Critical Thinking Skills At KS2 Using Same Surface Different Depth Problems: How I Wish I’d Taught Maths (5)

Clare Sealy

Clare Sealy looks at the struggles primary school pupils can have when implementing critical thinking skills when subject knowledge is lacking, and the effect this can have on their attempts at problem solving activities in KS2.

This article is part of a series published to help primary school teachers and leaders implement some of the insights and teaching techniques derived from Craig Barton’s bestselling book How I Wish I’d Taught Maths . Links to the other 5 articles appear at the end.

In the introduction to this series, I outlined how Craig Barton, in his book How I wish I’d taught maths,  described how he had changed his teaching as the result of reading research around learning and memory , in particular cognitive load theory in the classroom . In the latter part of his book, the focus turns to helping pupils use what they know.

Whatever the age of the children we teach, many find it hard to transfer what they know how to do in one context to another. This is most evident when it comes to maths problem solving , or in the SATs reasoning papers. They know the maths, they just can’t work out which bit of maths they need in this specific circumstance.

What are critical thinking skills?

At the basic level, critical thinking is the ability to analyse facts presented to us to form a judgement about a topic. It is an incredibly important skill to have at higher education and beyond, and is one of the key factors in astute decision making. 

Most of us explicitly encounter critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills such as metacognition in the classroom at either GCSE or A-Level, but laying their foundations at primary school is becoming more and more common and valued. 

However, “critical thinking and the ability to solve problems is not a generic skill that can be taught and that children can transfer from one problem to another. While there are some metacognitive strategies that can help a bit, what is really crucial is having a very secure understanding of the actual maths – the domain specific knowledge – that lies at the heart of the problem.” Daniel Willingham (2006)

Critical thinking (as well as scientific thinking and other domain-based types of thinking) is not a skill. There is not a set of critical thinking skills that can be acquired and deployed regardless of context. There are, however, metacognitive strategies that (once learned) make the critical thinking process more likely, and make up a key part of many quality first teaching methods .

The ability to think critically (to actually do what the metacognitive strategies call for) depends on domain knowledge and practice. For teachers, the situation is not hopeless, but no one should underestimate the difficulty of teaching pupils to think critically.

This said, metacognition is an incredibly valuable skill for pupils to have for any number of reasons, from helping low-ability students catch up to their peers to helping the whole class minimise the impact of the summer slide .

The metacognitive strategies mentioned involve reflecting on what you are doing during problem solving activities in KS2, asking yourself questions such as:

‘What am I doing?’

‘Why am I doing this?’

‘How does it help me?’

This is all very well if you have secure domain knowledge and can answer these questions. However, if you lack this knowledge, the questions are just frustrating.

Crib Sheet for How I Wish I'd Taught Primary Maths

Download the key findings from research; share with your staff, your SLT, and at your next job interview!

How to help your pupils develop critical thinking skills for problem solving activities throughout KS2

There are of course  problem solving strategies  we can give pupils to help them become better critical thinkers. For example, underlining the important words. However, this relies on pupils understanding what the important word are in the first place.

Often, irrelevant surface features seem important to pupils whereas we experts can see they are completely irrelevant, because our domain knowledge and experience of answering many, many questions means we can spot the deep underlying structure a mile off.

It’s the same with other strategies such as setting work out systematically (you have to know what system is likely to be helpful), working backwards (you have to know whether this is likely to be useful in this situation) or even using a bar model. Bar models can be so helpful, but you have to know whether or not this kind of question is suitable for the bar model treatment.

‘Same surface, different deep’ or SSDD Problems

Problem solving maths questions usually have an arbitrary surface structure and a deep structure. The surface structure involves the context in which the problem is set and has nothing to do with the actual maths; for example, in a question about buying tickets to a funfair, the funfair and ticket are part of the surface structure.

They are but the wrapper in which the real maths is wrapped. Pupils can get fixated on this ‘wrapper’, rather than the underlying deep mathematical structure held within it.

I recall a SATs question about paving inside a greenhouse. The child thought that they couldn’t do it because they didn’t know what a greenhouse was! Whereas I immediately knew that this was going to be an area question. The surface structure was transparent to me whereas, it was thoroughly opaque to the pupil.

All the underlining, systematic working or bar modelling in the world wouldn’t get past this erroneous latching onto surface features.

How to get past the surface features 

To overcome this hurdle, Craig recommends teaching children to recognise the deep structure of maths problems and how to identify and then disregard surface features.

It should go without saying that children need to be thoroughly secure in the underlying maths before attempting problem solving.

It is a mistake to think that maths problem solving is a good way of consolidating learning, let alone using it in the initial knowledge acquisition phase. Problem solving is about transferring learning from one context to another.

Problem solving at KS2 is about using your critical thinking skills to generalise

It therefore comes at the end of learning to do something, not mid- way and definitely not at the beginning.

But what is more, if at the end of a unit on, say division, we give children a load of division problems, this will not help them work out what the deep structure is. They already know; it’s division! This is fine, but it won’t help children learn to decide whether or not a particular problem requires division or not.

As well as problem solving activities at the end of units, teachers also need to allocate separate times where children have to work out what the deep structure of a problem actually is, regardless of surface features.  

This means setting a range of SSDD problems sharing the same surface features – for example a shopping problem involving apples and pears – but which each have a different deep structure .

Read more: KS2 Problem Solving and KS3 Maths Problem Solving

Translating this to a primary school context.

Let’s return to the question about stickers from the 2017 KS2 SATs paper we considered when considering goal free problems:

The surface feature here is stickers.

As experts, we know straightaway that we could substitute packs of stickers with boxes of apples or packets of balloons or even a family ticket to the cinema.

In fact, in a variation of Craig’s SSDD technique for a primary context, I’d suggest also doing DSSD problems (different surface, same deep) problems too, asking children to cross out the words ‘pack of stickers’ and replace with suitable alternative, and then repeat the problem to understand that the surface features do not change the underlying maths at all.

Then I’d suggest moving on to SSDD problems, with appropriate differentiation in the classroom . Let’s stick with stickers as our ‘same surface’.  

The deep structure of our original question involved knowing that you had to multiply to find the price of 12 separate stickers and then subtracting to find the difference. But we could ask mathematically different questions while keeping the context and visual look of the problem the same.

For example:

• How much does one sticker cost? (though I’d adapt the price so the division came out as a whole number of pence)
• Stickers are 8cm wide and 6cm high. Ally sticks 3 stickers in a row, without any gaps. What is the perimeter of the shape she has now made?
• Ally buys 7 packs of stickers a month, Jack buys 3 packs of stickers a month and Chen buys 5 packets a month. What is the average number of packets bought by the 3 children in one month?
• Ally buys a pack of 12 stickers. She has spent 15% of her birthday money. How much birthday money has Ally got left? (again, I would adjust the price into something more workable)

Another great way to translate problem solving into a primary context is through topical maths investigations.

Extension ideas for problem solving activities in KS2

Extending both ideas, we could make a grid where the rows contained questions with a different surface structure and the columns contained questions with the same deep structure. This grid could be cut into individual boxes with pupils having to sort each box accordingly, to reconstruct the grid.

Tigers, Cake or Money? A unique approach to critical thinking

One questioning in the classroom strategy for helping children understand the deep structure of division problems, is to ask children if this is a tiger, cake or money sort of division question.

What this means is, could we swap the surface features of the problem we are given to one involving tigers, or cake or money?

Why these three I hear you ask?

This is because, where division problems do not divide exactly, it is really useful to:

• Be able to decide if you need to round up or down (These are the tiger questions. If you haven’t got enough cages for your tigers you might get eaten)
• Have a remainder that’s a fraction (These are the cake questions as we can each have 1 and a half cakes)
• Or have a remainder expressed as a decimal (These are the money questions as we can have £2.47 each)

An example of a Tiger question

This is a great example of a tiger question. With 4 spare tigers, you need to have an extra box! Having 2/3 of a box wouldn’t work, neither would having 0.666 of a box. Rewriting this as a tiger question helps understand the deep structure.

A cage holds 6 tigers

How many cages are needed to hold 52 tigers?

How to make a trickier Tiger question

Here is a slightly harder ‘tiger’ problem:

Let’s rewrite this:

A zookeeper has 7,600 tigers (!)

Cages can contain 500 tigers.

How many cages does the zookeeper need?

The answer:

15.2 cages is obviously not enough to stop the keeper from being eaten.

Answers requiring a decimal answer are usually money questions already, or calculations rather than word problems. Hence they are easy to categorise.

Some children find ‘tiger’ type questions particularly hard, and give answers that don’t make sense because they haven’t rounded up or down. So in the brick example above, they give the answer as 15.2 because they haven’t recognised that doesn’t make sense.

By naming certain deep structures, children are more able to identify them when they arise, and this is a fantastic way to help children with problem solving activities throughout KS2.

Sources of Inspiration

• Willingham, D.T. (2006) ‘How knowledge helps: it speeds and strengthens reading comprehension, learning and thinking’. American Educator 30 (1) p.30

This is the fifth blog in a series of 6 adapting the book How I Wish I’d Taught Maths for a primary audience. Some have already been mentioned in this post, but if you wish to read the remaining blogs in the series, check them out below:

• Direct Instruction: How I Wish I’d Taught Maths (2)
• Deliberate Practice In Education: How I Wish I’d Taught Maths (4)
• How Retrieval Practice Helps Long-Term Maths Skills: How I Wish I’d Taught Maths (6)

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Five Critical Thinking Activities for Children

Our partners at Role Models share five ways you can help teach your child to think critically.

Critical thinking is a skill that is fundamental in all areas of life. It is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. Simple acts such as good decision-making are based on our ability to think critically. It is a skill that is important at all stages of life.

• As a toddler, it is the ability to evaluate risks in play and development. Most children instinctively evaluate situations, calling on their innate 'fight or flight' response to determine whether something is safe or not.
• In education, it is the ability to reason - to be an active learner rather than passive. It enables us to be able to interpret and integrate new information and apply it appropriately. Thinking critically enables learners to access and absorb the National Curriculum on a deeper level.
• For adults, critical thinking enables us to form healthy relationships, solve complex problems and communicate our needs whilst understanding the needs of others, impacting all areas of both personal and professional life.

So, if being able to think critically is such a vital life skill, we need to be not only modelling it to our children but teaching them how to think critically, giving them the opportunity to practise, develop, and embed it from an early age. Critical thinking activities and tasks are a great place to start.

Five Ways to Encourage Critical Thinking

• Thinking About Thinking

Metacognition is an awareness of one's own thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. It can take many forms, such as reflecting on one's own ways of thinking, and knowing when and how to use strategies for problem-solving. Psychologist and philosopher,  Edward De Bono  identifies metacognition as one of his six modes of thinking.

Encourage your child to start thinking about their thinking. Ask them about their game/painting/creation. For example: "I would love to know how you chose that? How did you decide on this colour?" Becoming skilled at understanding our own thinking is an important step in becoming a critical thinker.

• Ask Open Questions

Not 'what' but 'how'. Asking open questions provides an opportunity for children to understand their thought processes. It encourages them to think laterally and consider the process, rather than focusing on a correct or incorrect answer.

• If You Were in Their Shoes...

Encourage your child to think about other perspectives. This can be done during conflict resolution between friends and siblings, or when reading books and thinking about how characters feel and act. For example: "You might feel this way, how do you think the other person feels?"

• Encourage Problem-Solving

As parents, we can be tempted to try and solve our children's problems. It may be because we don't want to see them suffer, or it may simply be quicker to help them work something out, than letting them struggle through it. Practicing problem-solving, from an early age, is hugely beneficial to not only building children's emotional resilience to challenge but their ability to critically evaluate and resolve problems.

• What Happens Next...

Reading is not only fantastic for the imagination, but it can also foster creativity and the ability to think critically. When reading with your child, ask them to create an alternative ending to the story. For example, Goldilocks decides to make the bears more porridge and they come home to find her cooking. Then what happens? Encourage children to think through their scenarios. How do all the characters feel and respond? Support them in thinking of solutions to problems that arise and discuss ways in which the characters might respond in certain situations.

Role Models are dedicated to providing the next generation with all the skills they need to enable them to truly thrive.

Visit the  Role Models website  for more information.

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How to teach Critical Thinking: Lesson plans for teachers

Knowing how to teach critical thinking is not always clear. These critical thinking lesson plans will help teachers build the critical thinking skills that their students need to become better engaged and informed global citizens.

The plans were developed in collaboration with psychology and brain researchers at Indiana University and with teachers across the country. All of our lesson plans are free to download, use and share. Primarily for middle schools, the topics range from cognitive biases to common logical fallacies, to subject-specific lessons in math, sciences, and social studies. 

We invite you to check out our library of lessons, to share any thoughts and feedback that you might have

Teaching about control groups

Teaching about the confirmation bias

Teaching about the cognitive bias called overgeneralization

Using Unit Rates and Math to teach critical thinking

Critical Thinking and Statistics

Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

Social Media and the Confirmation Bias

Experimenter Bias in Science

Critical Thinking About Science News

Common Logical Fallacies in Science (Grades 6-8)

Common Logical Fallacies in Math (Grades 6-8)

Using Questions to Foster Critical Thinking in Science (Grades 6-8)

Teaching About Common Biases & Fallacies Using Social Studies (Grade 6)

TEACHING ABOUT COMMON BIASES & FALLACIES USING MATH (Grade 6)

TEACHING ABOUT COMMON BIASES & FALLACIES USING MATH (Grade 5)

Teaching About Common Biases & Fallacies Using Social Studies (Grade 4)

Teaching About Common Biases & Fallacies Using Math (Grade 4)

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10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

Begin a story that incorporates whatever happens to be on your assigned photo. The next student continues the story, incorporating their photo, and so on.

What Are The Best Team-Building Games For Promoting Critical Thinking?

by TeachThought Staff

One of education’s primary goals is to groom the next generation of little humans to succeed in the ‘real world.’

Yes, there are mounds of curricula they must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test.

Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed posters.

Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. The following team-building games can promote cooperation and communication, help establish a positive classroom environment and — most importantly — provide a fun, much-needed reprieve from routine.

See also Team-Building Games For The First Day Of School

10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking

You can purchase a classroom-ready version of team-building games that promote critical thinking here .

1. If You Build it…

This team-building game is flexible. First, divide students into teams and give them equal amounts of a certain material, like pipe cleaners, blocks, or even dried spaghetti and marshmallows.

Then, give them something to construct. The challenge can be variable (think: Which team can build the tallest, structurally-sound castle? Which team can build a castle the fastest?). You can recycle this activity throughout the year by adapting the challenge or materials to specific content areas.

Skills: Communication; problem-solving

2.  Save the Egg

This activity can get messy and may be suitable for older children who can follow safety guidelines when working with raw eggs. Teams must work together to find a way to ‘save’ the egg (Humpty Dumpty for elementary school students?) — in this case, an egg dropped from a specific height. That could involve finding the perfect soft landing, or creating a device that guides the egg safely to the ground.

Let their creativity work here.

Skills: Problem-solving, creative collaboration

Zoom is a classic classroom cooperative game that never seems to go out of style. Simply form students into a circle and give each a unique picture of an object, animal, or whatever else suits your fancy. You begin a story that incorporates whatever happens to be on your assigned photo. The next student continues the story, incorporating their photo, and so on.

Skills: Communication; creative collaboration

4. Minefield

Another classic team-building game. Arrange some sort of obstacle course and divide students into teams. Students take turns navigating the ‘minefield’ while blindfolded, with only their teammates to guide them. You can also require students to only use certain words or clues to make it challenging or content-area specific.

Skills: Communication; trust

See also 10 Team-Building Games For A Friendlier Classroom

5. The Worst-Case Scenario

Fabricate a scenario in which students would need to work together and solve problems to succeed, like being stranded on a deserted island or getting lost at sea. Ask them to work together to concoct a solution that ensures everyone arrives safely. You might ask them to come up with a list of 10 must-have items that would help them most, or a creative passage to safety. Encourage them to vote — everyone must agree to the final solution.

Skills: Communication, problem-solving

6. A Shrinking Vessel

This game requires a good deal of strategy in addition to teamwork. Its rules are deceptively simple: The entire group must find a way to occupy a space that shrinks over time until they are packed creatively like sardines. You can form the boundary with a rope, a tarp or blanket being folded over, or small traffic cones. (Skills: Problem-solving; teamwork)

7. Go for Gold

This game is similar to the ‘If you build it’ game: Teams have a common objective but instead of each one having the same materials, they have access to a whole cache of materials. For instance, the goal might be to create a contraption with pipes, rubber tubing, and pieces of cardboard that can carry a marble from point A to point B in a certain number of steps, using only gravity.

Creative collaboration; communication; problem-solving

8. It’s a Mystery

Many children (and grown-ups) enjoy a good mystery, so why not design one that must be solved cooperatively? Give each student a numbered clue. In order to solve the mystery — say, the case of the missing mascot — children must work together to solve the clues in order. The ‘case’ might require them to move from one area of the room to the next, uncovering more clues.

Skills: Problem-solving, communication

9.  4-Way Tug-of-War 

That playground classic is still a hit — not to mention inexpensive and simple to execute. For a unique variation, set up a multi-directional game by tying ropes in such a way that three or four teams tug at once. Some teams might choose to work together to eliminate the other groups before going head-to-head.

Skills: Teamwork; sportsmanship

10. Keep it Real

This open-ended concept is simple and serves as an excellent segue into problem-based learning. Challenge students to identify and cooperatively solve a real problem in their schools or communities. You may set the parameters, including a time limit, materials, and physical boundaries.

Skills: Problem-solving; communication

While education technology is a basic and crucial component of the 21st-century classroom, educators must still ensure that students are engaging with each other in meaningful ways. Team-building exercises are a great way to do this, and because of this, they will never go out of style.

Aimee Hosler is a writer and mother of two living in Virginia. She specializes in a number of topics, but is particularly passionate about education and workplace news and trends. She holds a B.S. in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and is a contributor to several websites including OnlineSchools.com; 10 Team-Building Games For Kids, Teenagers, or Adults

TeachThought is an organization dedicated to innovation in education through the growth of outstanding teachers.

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Paris Summer Olympics 2024: Sprint into the Fun – Reading Comprehension Passages (Texts), Questions!

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

25 June 2024

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Paris Summer Olympics 2024:

• Reading Comprehension Passages (Texts), Questions!****

The Paris Summer Olympics 2024 promises to be an unforgettable event, bringing together athletes from around the world to compete in a vibrant and historic city. As we approach this international celebration of sports, excitement is building for the myriad of Olympic events set to take place in the iconic venues of Paris. From the dazzling opening ceremony to the thrilling competitions in athletics, swimming, gymnastics, and more, the Summer Games in Paris 2024 are set to captivate audiences globally.

In the spirit of these Olympic Games, we invite you to Sprint into the Fun! The Paris Summer Olympics will not only be a spectacle of athletic prowess but also a hub of engaging events and fun-filled activities for spectators of all ages. Whether you’re a sports enthusiast or a casual viewer, there will be plenty of opportunities to immerse yourself in the exciting atmosphere of the Games, enjoy the lively cultural showcases, and cheer on your favorite athletes as they strive for gold.

To enhance your literacy skills and deepen your understanding of the Olympics, we have curated a collection of Reading Comprehension Passages (Texts) designed to inform and entertain. These informative texts cover various aspects of the Olympic Games, from historical highlights and athlete profiles to detailed descriptions of different sports disciplines. The passages are crafted to not only provide knowledge but also to engage readers with captivating stories and fascinating facts.

Accompanying these passages are Comprehension Questions aimed at testing your understanding and encouraging critical thinking. These questions are designed to be both challenging and enjoyable, making them an excellent tool for interactive learning. Whether you are a student, educator, or simply a curious reader, these assessment tools will help you delve deeper into the world of the Olympics and enhance your reading comprehension skills.

Get ready to Sprint into the Fun with the Paris Summer Olympics 2024 by exploring our comprehensive reading passages and engaging with our thought-provoking questions. Embrace the excitement of the Games, expand your knowledge, and enjoy the unique blend of sports and education that these resources offer.

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Paris 2024 Summer Les Jeux Olympiques -The Olympics & Paralympics Summer Games, Paris 2024 :Sprint into the Fun - Reading Comprehension Passages and Literacy Activities (Texts), Questions!

Paris 2024 Summer Les Jeux Olympiques -The Olympics & Paralympics Summer Games, Paris 2024 :Sprint into the Fun - Reading Comprehension Passages and Literacy Activities (Texts), Questions! Experience the thrill and excitement of Les Jeux Olympiques, also known as The Olympics & Paralympics Summer Games, held in the magnificent city of Paris in 2024. This grand international sporting event showcases global participation, celebrates cultural diversity, and epitomizes athletic excellence. It also emphasizes inclusivity, bringing together athletes from all over the world in a spirit of unity and competition. Our program, "Sprint into the Fun," brings the excitement of the Olympics into the educational realm, offering a series of high-energy and engaging activities. These are designed to make learning enjoyable and to capture the lively spirit of the Games. Dive into our reading comprehension passages, which are meticulously crafted to aid literacy development. These educational texts span various genres and reading levels, ensuring that all students can find stories that captivate their interest and enhance their reading skills. Accompanying these passages are a range of literacy activities that are both interactive and thought-provoking. These exercises aim to build critical thinking skills, stimulate creativity, and support comprehensive literacy development, suitable for both classroom and home environments. To ensure a thorough understanding of the material, our program includes a variety of questions. These range from multiple-choice queries to open-ended prompts, designed to check comprehension, provoke thoughtful discussion, and encourage deeper engagement with the texts. Join us in this educational journey, where the fun and excitement of the Paris 2024 Olympics & Paralympics fuel a vibrant and dynamic learning experience.

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Teaching Connections

Advancing discussions about teaching, interdisciplinary collaboration: its role in encouraging critical and creative thinking.

Vinod Vasnani 1 , Ameek Kaur 2 , and Randall SIE 1

1 Institute for Engineering Leadership (IEL), College of Design and Engineering (CDE) 2 NUS Business School

Editor’s Note: Vinod and his co-authors document the interdisciplinary collaboration which is a key component of their course. This follows from their presentation at HECC 2023 under the sub-theme “Interdisciplinarity and Education”.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is at the heart of the course MT5920 “Enterprise Development” offered at the College of Design and Engineering (CDE). MT5920 offers students an industry-relevant experiential learning opportunity. In collaboration with real technology companies, course participants experience working in diverse teams of four to five students to find new and relevant market opportunities for an existing technology (tech) or company competence. The companies that participate range from multinational companies (MNCs), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to growth startups.

The class setting for MT5920 emulates a real industry environment, including the process of conceptualising, developing, as well as validating a new product/solution design. The diverse composition of the teams in terms of disciplines and cultures provides the environment and fuel for interdisciplinary collaboration. It encourages students to apply and develop their critical and creative thinking further. Over the years, these teams have produced interesting work, even discovering market opportunities that the participating companies did not envision!

In this post, we share details of MT5920’s course structure and the processes that make the learning environment of the course conducive for such collaborations and innovative ideas to surface.

Class and Team Composition

Figure 1 .  Each class in MT5920 is run as a workshop with the teams presenting and collaborating to apply what is learnt.

A typical class comprises students from various disciplines within CDE and the other Colleges and Faculties in NUS 1 . The team compositions are based on the student’s personal interest in the tech or company, as well as their respective (work) experience and backgrounds, i.e. their nationalities, whether they are full- or part-time students and other factors.

Course Structure and Process: Enabling Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The course structure, tasks and situations presented in MT5920 necessitate interdisciplinary collaboration and critical thinking to succeed. The course is run as a weekly workshop where students learn and apply frameworks to identify, analyse, and evaluate opportunities that are validated primarily through customer interviews.

Initially, students brainstorm potential market opportunities individually across the various companies. Students also fill out a survey ranking their choices for the companies as well as relevant background information about themselves. They are then assigned based on diversity of the team, affinity with the technology, skillset, background and choice ranking. Typically, most students are assigned to their top two choices. Once formed, each team will have a wealth of creative ideas which reflect the diverse interdisciplinary composition of the entire class, making it conducive for each team to shortlist four to five ideas for validation. The teams identify potential customer pain points they believe the technology can address, which they then validate through interviews. Students are instructed in interviewing techniques, including in-class roleplays and methods for identifying potential interview candidates. These candidates should be selected based on their alignment with the assumed customer pain points. Students are encouraged to connect with relevant individuals through the Institute for Engineering Leadership’s E-Magna alumni (via LinkedIn) 2 , as well as through their own personal networks.

The teams meet weekly to evaluate and analyse the data gathered 3 synthesise the findings, present a 3- to 4-minute update the following week in class, and propose the next steps. With the information gained each week and the internal discussions, the teams must make decisions on whether to continue or give up on identified market opportunities. Ultimately, the teams select a final opportunity to present to the participating companies. The final pitch is based on the data collected and analysis, integrating frameworks with insights gathered from the customer interviews. These frameworks include the Market Opportunity Navigator (Gruber & Tal, 2017), Jobs to Be Done (Ulwick, 2005; Christensen, 2016), Customer Discovery (Blank, 2013) and Business Model Generation (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010).

Each week, we encourage different members within the teams to take on the team leadership role. The diversity of leadership styles (based on experiences, cultures, and language) creates an added challenge and learning opportunity for the students to manage, communicate, and push their teams forward creatively and effectively.

The course also promotes psychological safety by having a process for students to understand and appreciate the role of managing team dynamics in the team’s success (Vasnani et al., 2023). This process lets ideas flow relatively freely and provides the environment for innovation and creativity.

Critical and Creative Team Outcomes

What becomes apparent is the Medici Effect 4 owing to the interdisciplinary composition of the teams (Johansson, 2006). As such, we have often seen teams develop creative ideas for products and business plans that the companies did not envision. As a result, the participating companies in MT5920 are excited by the outcomes and are motivated to continue participating in the course in subsequent semesters. We are fortunate to have one participating company participate for the past eight years!

Some of the companies participating over the years are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 . Participating companies in MT5920 over the years, many of whom continue to do so over several semesters.

We highlight examples of teams pitching their ideas to participating companies, and the positive outcomes that follow:

These are just two of several examples. The teams have developed many creative and out-of-the-box ideas over the years. The interdisciplinary nature of the teams, we believe, is a vital factor in encouraging critical thinking and creativity in coming up with these solutions.

Looking Ahead: University-wide Interdisciplinary Collaborations

MT5920 is open to all graduate students at NUS, regardless of their enrolled faculty. The interdisciplinary nature inherent in MT5920 is critical to the learning and development of the students and our future.

If you would like to add an experiential course (elective) to your graduate programme, please reach out to [email protected] for further information or view all the experiential learning courses by the Institute for Engineering Leadership (IEL) at CDE that are open to graduate students across NUS.

• Students taking MT5920 come from Faculties and Schools across NUS, including the NUS Business School, the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science (FOS), and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine).
• The Institute for Engineering Leadership’s (IEL) alumni group is called E-Magna and currently has more than 850 members. All our students and companies become alumni upon graduation by requesting to join the Linkedin group. IEL actively engages the alumni for speaking engagements, pitch judging and career sharing opportunities.
• Each week, the data collected primarily focuses on primary research, specifically in-person interviews, to validate or invalidate the assumptions the teams develop weekly or from prior weeks, based on the methodologies and frameworks taught in class. This is supplemented by secondary research when appropriate. For instance, if a team assumes that current water quality monitoring solutions for aquaculture do not adequately meet the needs of farmers, they would interview farmers in the region to validate this and understand their requirements. This primary research is supplemented by secondary sources, such as library resources, to determine the potential market size for aquaculture in the region. With each team working to validate four to five ideas, they gather a substantial amount of data each week to analyse and present updates.
• “The Medici Effect” by Johansson (2006) explores how breakthrough ideas and innovations occur at the intersection of diverse fields, cultures, and disciplines. Johansson argues that by combining distinct concepts from various domains, individuals and organisations can achieve groundbreaking results and foster creativity. The book emphasises the importance of embracing diversity, taking risks, and leveraging the unique perspectives that arise when different ideas collide.

Christensen, C. (2016, October 3). Clayton Christensen: The theory of jobs to be done. HBS Working Knowledge. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/clay-christensen-the-theory-of-jobs-to-be-done

Blank, S. (2013). The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful strategies for products that win . Wiley.

Gruber, M., & Tal, S. (2017). Where to Play: 3 steps for discovering your most valuable market opportunities . Pearson Education Limited.

Johansson, F. (2006). The Medici Effect: What elephants and epidemics can teach us about innovation . Harvard Business School Press.

Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation . John Wiley and Sons

Ulwick, A. (2005). What Customers Want: Using outcome-driven innovation to create breakthrough products and services . McGraw-Hill.

Vasnani, V., Kaur, A., & Sie, R. (2023). Scaffolding team dynamics for team effectiveness in project based learning courses [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore . https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/scaffolding-team-dynamics-for-team-effectiveness-in-project-based-learning-courses/