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Daniel Bottom

Thinking time

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Elizabeth Kirton
Last
Alongside teaching A-Level and iGCSE, I am also an IB Coordinator. Many of our IB students embody the kind of attributes and values that we strive to imbue in through HPL; they work relentlessly, are genuinely interested in learning things and will give anything a go. 

Watching them tackle their final exams, it’s striking how they approach things, partly because of their focus, but also, because of the way IB format the papers. Before students can write, highlight, or make notes, there is five-minutes of reading the questions and going through the paper. They use this time well, often pausing to think and staring out of a window or flicking back and forth so they know the what’s ahead. 

I suspect all students would do better with this breathing space before the writing begins, but as exam boards don’t change, maybe we could train pupils to pause, to read, to consider what’s involved, before they let loose their ideas?


4 replies
  1. Post by MEENA KUMAR MEHROTRA
    Humanities and MSCS

    I am a Humanities teacher as well as the coordinator for Moral Social Studies in Cambridge International School Dubai.  Providing students with thinking time is an essential element in each lesson apart from highlighting its role in external exams.

    When students are given thinking time during questioning sessions, before asking them to provide an answer, pupils are able to generate well formed and suitable responses which show that they have analysed the information deeply, they have chosen their words carefully so the they are able to yield  appropriate and qualitative responses.

  2. Post by Daniel Bottom
    Thinking time
    Hi Meena, 

    In my department, recently, we have been discussing how to make thinking time become an habitual part of students' approach to assessments. We are thinking of introducing IB-style 5-minute reading time at the start of all assessments and mock examinations from Y7 upwards...

    Daniel

    1 reply
  3. Parent of this post↑ Reply to Daniel Bottom from MEENA KUMAR MEHROTRA
    Humanities and MSCS
    Think time is certainly beneficial to students during exams, also it helps students in normal class lessons. Think time and research collectively allow pupils  to ponder , compose their thoughts and present  well-composed responses..


  4. Post by Elizabeth Kirton
    English
    Reading through this made me realise I miss teaching IB. The approach to exams, and the variety of assessments put more emphasis on active learning. It has been so frustrating to get Year 10 exam papers back this week with little to no annotation on the texts - despite me scaffolding this numerous times. They don't seem to realise how important this is - and I need to think of ways to develop this before their mocks in Year 11! 
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