Promoting children's thinking through investigative learning

Participating in a workshop with participants from ten other European countries is always a truly educational experience.

Such an opportunity was offered to us when we attended a Council of Europe workshop held recently in Malta with the aim of discussing ways of how to promote children's thinking in Europe through investigative learning at school. The workshop held by the Training and Staff Development Branch of the Department for Curriculum Management of the Education Division within the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment, formed part of the Pestalozzi Training Programme for Education Professionals which is coordinated by the Council of Europe.

As primary science peripatetic teachers in democratic Malta, this seminar was interesting to us in more ways than one. As the discussions during these three days progressed we realised how relevant the methods used in the classroom have to be if they are to provide children with effective tools with which they are to face the challenges that life would throw in their way.

This has bolstered our confidence as the approaches we are encouraging during Science lessons held in our primary schools do not focus on facts but rather on making the children familiar with the scientific method of looking at problems. Thus as the children become more confident in using these tools, they are being helped to become more discerning thinkers. Most of the situations created in the classroom have no one solution but they tend to lean more towards the "it depends on..." scenario.

The consistency of this approach with real life situations was highlighted by the speakers who took the floor and it soon emerged that there are no absolute truths or methods even in subjects such as history and mathematics which traditionally have stood out for the gathering and stating of facts.

How exciting school life would be if these methods which promote thinking in different subjects taught were more widely used!

That children are tomorrow's citizens is a cliché which has often been stated but maybe not enough thought is put in the implications of such a statement. Children attending our primary schools were born in 1995 or later. This means that the process by which Malta has become a republic is becoming as remote to them as World War II, the Middle Ages or even Prehistory.

Democracy is taken for granted by these children and they have to be equipped with thinking skills which will enable them to sift the vast amount of conflicting messages with which they are being constantly bombarded. This will enable the children to deal effectively with the information received and be in a position to act and make decisions in a responsible manner.

This concern is shared by various European countries like Spain and Portugal who have experienced dictatorships in the latter half of the twentieth century and in countries like Albania and Hungary who have more recently emerged from under totalitarian regimes.

In the face of all this we must ensure that our classrooms are truly democratic and one way of doing this is by adopting methods discussed above which provide the children with opportunities to air and discuss different views and opinions about any given topic. We feel that there has to be a shift from the heavy emphasis being placed on the summative formal assessment being carried out in the primary schools to more task orientated assessment which encourage the children to develop their thinking skills.

Miriam Teuma writes on behalf of Anthony Caruana, Frida Grima and John W. Mangion, who attended the seminar. The teachers would like to thank all those who were involved in the organisation of this seminar, especially Theodore Salafia, Education Officer within the Education Division, and Dr Joseph Giordmania for the wonderful opportunity afforded to them.