Integrating personal, learning and thinking skills into the curriculum
The personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) framework has been designed
to enhance curriculum coherence. The skills are an integral part of all
the contexts in which learning takes place in schools. As well as subject
lessons, these learning contexts include:
- daily or regular school routines
- school events and productions
- out-of-hours activities
- school clubs
- voluntary and community work
- day trips and residential stays.
To enable young people to develop effective PLTS, curriculum planners should
consider:
- ensuring the development of PLTS is integral to the teaching
and learning policy
To have a real impact on learners, the skills need to underpin the ways
learners work and learn across the whole curriculum. Learners are expected
to develop knowledge and understanding of PLTS and be provided with regular
and frequent experiences across all subjects to enable their development
- mapping opportunities for the development of PLTS across subjects
and other aspects of the curriculum
Mapping is needed to ensure that PLTS are built into subjects effectively
and that there are sufficient opportunities for learners to develop. Mapping
also helps pinpoint opportunities for links between PLTS in different
subjects and identify where there are gaps. These gaps can then be addressed
by providing additional opportunities for learners to use PLTS, either
within subjects or through provision such as out-of-hours activities,
school productions and trips and visits
- how to value progress and encourage independence in PLTS
Planning for PLTS can contribute to this by recognising and evaluating
learners' skills in each of the aspects, and how they use the skills in
new contexts.
Developing learners' personal, learning and thinking skills
To become an independent enquirer learners need:
- time to think and reflect on what they are doing and what they want
to find out
- opportunities to be questioned about hypotheses and processes
- help and support to make their own decisions
- the equipment and resources needed to carry out research and challenge
their thinking
- opportunities to evaluate each other's work and question the assumptions
behind particular ideas
- opportunities to see their problem or task in a real setting or environment
- encouragement to think differently
- support to be logical and systematic
- to have their ideas and findings valued.
To become a creative thinker learners need:
- opportunities to express their own ideas and explore them further
- resources, such as the internet and a well-equipped school library,
to enable them to investigate their ideas
- encouragement to make new connections between ideas and concepts
- opportunities to work in unfamiliar contexts
- opportunities to work in groups so that they can share and refine ideas.
To become a reflective learner young people need:
- guidance on setting goals for their learning
- guidance on how to evaluate their progress over time and take action
on the outcomes
- opportunities to invite and receive feedback from others, including
learners and teachers
- resources to help them understand the process of evaluation and review,
and how it can inform their future progress
- opportunities to communicate in a variety of ways and present their
learning to a range of others, for example their class, teachers, a school
assembly, people outside the school.
To become a team worker learners need:
- opportunities to work in groups
- help and support on adapting their behaviour in different roles and
situations when working in teams
- encouragement to make their own contributions with confidence and to
take responsibility for them in pursuit of common goals
- guidance on how to participate constructively in discussions and appreciate
the contribution of others
- opportunities to work with others in situations out of the classroom,
such as school events and productions.
To become a self-manager learners need:
- the freedom to organise their time and resources in relation to their
work
- opportunities to take on new responsibilities and work flexibly as situations
change
- help and support to manage competing pressures on their time
- advice and support from teachers and others to help them in their work
- opportunities to identify, take and manage risks in the work they undertake
- encouragement to evaluate their commitment and perseverance in carrying
out their work and participating in activities.
To become an effective participator learners need:
- opportunities to participate fully in the daily life of the school and
discuss issues of concern
- opportunities to develop proposals for action to address issues in their
school and wider community
- information about current affairs in their community and the wider world
- guidance on how to negotiate successfully and influence others' thinking,
for example by taking part in debates
- encouragement to appreciate that people are different and share a range
of diverse views
- opportunities to speak on behalf of others who may hold views different
from their own.
Case study: integrating personal, learning and thinking skills into the
curriculum
This case study illustrates how PLTS were addressed through the preparation
for, participation in and review of a residential trip for year 7. The activity
involved work in subject lessons and an out-of-school residential trip.
Different elements of the activity required the use of skills and qualities
drawn from several of the PLTS groups at once.
Preparation
Six months before the trip learners were given a broad set of criteria
for preparing for the activity. These were:
- to identify a location in England that would enable them to carry out
a combined geographical and scientific study
- to include an opportunity to express their experiences of the location
creatively (in addition to writing up their findings)
- to identify transport and a place for the year group to stay, with the
costs falling within a specified total sum per pupil.
Learners organised themselves into 12 teams (four per class) to research
options. In doing so they drew heavily on skills from team workers, self-managers,
creative thinkers and independent enquirers in the PLTS framework. They
collaborated with each other and identified responsibilities in researching
the necessary information (team workers). They organised their time within
the allotted periods for the preparation work, which took place over three
weeks, and sought advice and support from their teachers and others when
needed (self-managers).
Each group identified the questions they needed to ask in order to find
out about the options available, and planned their research and carried
out the work using available information. They used resources such as the
internet, the school library and information from transport operators and
companies providing residential accommodation for large study groups (independent
enquirers). Learners contributed ideas as the research progressed, discussed
them in their groups and tried them out and adapted them as new information
came in (creative thinkers). To support an opportunity to express themselves
creatively, groups collectively decided they would write poems about their
experiences, working with a writer who would accompany them on the trip.
In drawing the results of their research to a conclusion and presenting
their findings, the groups used skills from independent enquirers and reflective
learners. Each group supported their conclusions with evidence and arguments
(independent enquirers), and communicated their findings through a short
written report and a presentation to their class (reflective learners).
Finally, learners drew on skills from team workers and effective participators
when each class chose a team to participate in a year group session to narrow
options for the trip down to three, setting out facilities available, ease
of transport, broad features of the area to be studied, and a comparison
of overall costs. This involved negotiating and influencing to balance differing
views and reaching an agreed set of final options. Learners then organised
a voting system of first, second, third preference for learners and teachers.
A small group, chosen by one representative being elected from each of the
research teams and one teacher, analysed the results and reported back with
the chosen location, residence and means of transport.
The residential activity
During the daytime the residential activity centred around the learners
working in teams to carry out a combined geographical and scientific enquiry
of the local area. The activity was to identify the main geographical features
and land use within a given area, and to research the composition of the
soil in the different areas of land. Learners developed skills from across
the PLTS framework, but focused most closely on independent enquirers, reflective
learners, team workers and self-managers.
In response to questions set by their teachers, learners collaborated in
their teams and worked constructively to identify a number of subordinate
questions and tasks to enable them to address the overall questions (team
workers and independent enquirers). They planned and carried out their investigations
and evaluated their results as they went along to inform the further progress
of the work (independent enquirers and reflective learners). Learners had
to decide how they would organise their time and actions within specified
periods, using the resources available to them and seeking advice from their
teachers when needed (self-managers).
In the evenings, in a session before dinner and recreation, learners worked
on writing up their individual findings for the day, supporting their conclusions
with the evidence they and their group had collected (independent enquirers).
Part of the evening sessions also involved learners working together in
their teams and with the writer-in-residence to write a team poem expressing
their experiences of the trip. The poems were presented on the last evening
to the whole group and judged, with learners voting for an overall favourite.
This presented lots of opportunities for learners to express and share creative
ideas and develop them further in a collective enterprise. All of the poems
were later submitted for publishing in the termly school journal (creative
thinkers).
The conclusion of the project
Back at school, teachers provided the opportunity for each learner to complete
a report of their geographical and scientific findings on the trip and an
evaluative account of the whole project from the preparation stage through
to the residential trip itself. This helped pupils develop further the skills
from reflective learners as they were asked to review their experiences
and learning, evaluate them and suggest how they might help them in their
future learning of geography, science and English.
Overall, the activity enabled pupils to learn new personal, learning and
thinking skills and to build on those they had already started to develop.
Teachers in other subjects across key stage 3 were made aware of the skills
that learners had developed through the activity. This enabled curriculum
planners to build this progress into the work in other subjects and the
range of other learning contexts for the year 7 learners.
Questions for senior managers and curriculum planners when developing
a PLTS curriculum
The following questions are intended to help senior managers and curriculum
planners as they develop the whole school curriculum for key stage 3.
Being clear about the outcomes
- What will we see our young people doing and hear them saying in and
around school when they demonstrate the characteristics of PLTS?
- Which skills drawn from the framework do we expect our learners to be
confident with by the end of key stage 3 in preparation for learning at
key stage 4?
Making sure the range of skills is learnt and used
- What do our young people need to know, do and experience in order to
develop effective PLTS?
- How can PLTS be developed and used as a central part of the school's
teaching and learning policy?
- What are the opportunities our school currently provides, over and above
subject lessons, in which PLTS can be learnt, used and developed, for
example in school events, out-of-hours activities, voluntary and community
work, school trips and other contexts?
- What other learning opportunities and experiences could our school provide
that will give learners opportunities to learn and develop PLTS?
- What impact could PLTS have on the way we structure our whole-school
curriculum at key stage 3? Are there, for example, individual or groups
of PLTS that provide linking themes for connections between different
subjects in the curriculum?
- What resources do we have in place to support the learning and development
of PLTS?
Knowing how effectively the range of skills is learnt and applied
- How might we use the PLTS framework to provide learners with a more
explicit understanding of the skills they are learning and developing?
- How do we assess and evaluate the extent to which our learners are using
PLTS effectively?
- How do we evaluate the impact that developing PLTS in our learners has
on achievement across the curriculum?
Knowing where to start and what needs developing
- What PLTS have pupils already learnt on entering our school at the beginning
of key stage 3? When and how do we judge this for the cohort as a whole,
for groups of learners, and for individual learners?
- Are there areas of the PLTS framework where learners starting key stage
3 in our school are more confident than others?
- How are we going to promote and ensure learning and development of PLTS
in those areas where learners are less confident on entering key stage
3?
