...and Skills for Life Core Curriculum.

8way Thinking

Government Strategies have made the delivery and development of Functional Skills, and/or Skills for Life Core Curriculum, a key priority.

While browsing/using this resource, it is worth while remembering that...

"Functional skills are essentially concerned with developing and recognising the ability of learners to apply and transfer skills in ways that are appropriate to their situation."

It might be worth while, now or after browsing this resource, taking a look at an idea from Ian Gilbert; via the Independent Thinking website.

8 Way thinking takes Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory and creates a thinking Functional Skills scaffolding based around...

1. Numbers
2. Words
3. People
4. Feelings
5. Nature
6. Actions
7. Sounds
8. Sights

So, in the example quoted on the website, if the topic being studied was beer, functional skills practitioners might come up with...

1. How much beer is drunk in the UK each Friday night? (numbers)
   
2. Where does the word ‘beer’ come from? (words)
   
3. Who invented beer and why? (people)
   
4. What sort of emotions do advertisers try and associate with beer in their marketing? (feelings)
   
5. What are the natural ingredients of beer and where are they grown? (nature)
   
6. What are the various stages in the beer-making process? (actions)
   
7. What songs have been written about beer and its effects? (sounds)
   
8. In TV and magazine advertising, how is beer portrayed? sights)
   

The full article can be read at http://www.independentthinking.co.uk/Cool+Stuff/8Way+Thinking/default.aspx.

Note: The web page also includes an ‘8 way thinking planning wheel’.

Will/would this approach help practitioners to embed Functional Skills?