RQTs, CoRT and CAF

During today's CPD sessions we had a visit from some RQTs. They fed back on the projects they have each been working on this year.


Project 1 - Questioning
This project originally looked at Bloom's taxonomy but ended looking at different styles of questions.

• Fat/Skinny Questions - Using the words Fat and Skinny to distinguish between answering a question with several sentences (fat) or with very few words (Skinny).
• Hot seating  - Where a pupil is chosen to answer other pupils' questions on a particular subject. (I can see this working really well in Business particularly as a revision technique.)
• Pair rehearsal - Allowing pupils to do Hot Seating but in pairs and allowing them time to discuss the topic first so they can back each other up. (This is something my colleague Pam and I did before our AfG interview. I think it helps with confidence as well as developing team work skills.)

Project 2 - CoRT
The second project looked at Edward de Bono's CoRT Thinking Tools. Pupils are introduced and familiarised with the symbols below and then carry out the appropriate action when ever they see them in class work. The purpose of CoRT is to develop pupils ways of thinking and the way they approach answering questions or solving problems. 

The example shown to us was:
"a bank manager has reported seeing a man steal £5000 in £1 coins from the bank and walking out the branch with it. Is the bank manager lying?"


This at first appeared impossible to me but when encouraged to think about it and how much space those coins actually take up (roughly a shoe box) and how much they would weigh (roughly 8 stone) it seems much more possible.


Project 3 - CAF 
CAF stands for Consider All Factors. Again from Edward de Bono, it involves exhausting every avenue. The example we heard was using the phrase "Really? How?" The drama teacher who carried out the project, used it with his Year 11 pupils when he told them their final assessment was coming up and that they needed to start rehearsing. They responded with the phrase "really? How?" and so the teacher created a detailed mind map with the class that explained every way they could approach rehearsing. It exhausted all avenues.


This one seemed to me the hardest to approach. I'm not sure how I would fit it in to either Business or ICT but can see the benefits of using it. May be for revision sessions?


Conclusion
Although I can see benefits to all of these approaches, the CoRT Thinking Tools are the most interesting to me. I would like to look in to them more and possibly trial some of them in the class room. This, I think, would work especially well in Computer Science next year where pupils will be doing a lot of problem solving.