Reflective and analytical thinking can be regarded as an essential part of the national curriculum. Getting children to think like a scientist, an historian, or a mathematician can really accelerate their development. Professor Philip Adey from King's College, London has been researching this area since the 1970s. He explains how his findings can be applied in schools through cognitive conflict: creating challenges for children, social construction, encouraging children to talk to each other, and meta cognition: learning to learn. Encouraging children to question what they know at every opportunity, and make them aware of how they think, can also help them do better in exams. Teaching has traditionally been based on the theory that children develop in stages at a set rate, but research suggests these stages can be speeded up. Children can think in new ways earlier in their lives and learn new concepts at earlier stages.

Video Series: Hot Research
Release Date 2005