ABSTRACT
The rationale for developing young children’s thinking is underpinned by ideas arising from the different theories of cognition considered in Chapter 2, alongside other aspects such as metacognitive development and self-regulation in Chapter 5. McGuinness (1999), like others, suggests that a focus on the development of ‘thinking skills’ is valuable because it supports active cognitive processes which make for better learning. A fundamental question, however, is what we might mean by ‘better’ here, and what ‘good’ thinking looks like. Fisher suggests that an important role for those supporting young children’s thinking is to focus attention on ‘knowing how’ (procedural knowledge) rather than ‘knowing that’ (declarative knowledge). He also makes the following point:
If it is by thinking that we learn, then improving pupils’ thinking skills will help them make more sense of their learning and their lives.
