At the heart of everything we do is the development of authentic critical thinking (ACT). This means giving students the tools to identify and challenge – rather than confirm – their biases and assumptions about the world.
ACT is most effectively deployed as a continuum of learning, rather than in the last two years of school. Below we outline how this works both in principle and practice.
The ACT & TOK teaching and learning pathway
Placing ACT at the heart of what we do creates a learning pathway represented by the diagram below. We begin with resources for primary learners (now being introduced), move onto the middle years resources which we update each month, and culminate in either our resources for the TOK course, or if your students are following a different educational programme (such as A-Levels or the AP), the senior ACT resources.
All our resources are incredibly flexible, and can be plugged into any educational programme. Deliver our full-length ACT courses in timetabled lessons, run our mini-lessons in PSE classes, use our extension resources such as Investigating Issues to fill your EPQ or HPQ slots, or offer your students our ‘Knowledge Journeys’ in optional extension classes outside of the usual timetabled day – it’s entirely up to you.
Cognitive aims of the ACT continuum
The infographic below shows our cognitive aims for primary, middle, and senior learners, and the outcomes to aspire to by the end of each stage of their academic journey. We use the 8 comparative concepts as a scaffold to develop ACT skills.
For students taking TOK (rather than senior ACT), the comparative concepts become the 12 key concepts. The infographic also indicates resources that members have access to in order to achieve these learning aims. Click here to download a PDF of the infographic.
Join us to deploy the ACT continuum
Members have access to a huge range of ACT & TOK resources, including classroom-ready courses, TOK and ACT newsletters, TOK and ACT mini-lessons, Investigating Issues, TOK Padlets, 12 Key Concepts, and many more engaging, innovative resources!
Join in seconds via this page, and set up your whole school with a resource that will help you to become a hub of authentic critical thinking.