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Dundela Infants' School and Nursery Unit, Belfast

Thinking Skill and Personal Capabilities / Metacognition

 

Thinking Skills & Personal Capabilities include: 

  • Working with others
  • Being creative
  • Managing information
  • Problem solving 
  • Decision making & self management 

Thinking Skills are mental, cognitive and strategic processes we utilise when solving problems and making decisions. 

Thinking skills include:

  • theorising 
  • predicting 
  • memory recall 
  • thought organisation 

These are what we use when we solve problems, make decisions, organise events or process information. We all have these skills, but not everyone knows how to use them effectively. Developing effective thinking comes with time and at Dundela, we strive to encourage independent thinkers, who take risks within a safe, stimulating learning environment. 


Problem Solving

A process used to assess a problem and identify solutions.”

When you solve a problem you have a desired outcome in mind, but you are also faced with a challenge that could prevent that outcome being achieved. 
e.g. In the playground, a group of friends wish to play a different game. How are the children going to solve this issue?

Maths provides us with great opportunities to problem solve. 

Decision Making

”Decision making is about making choices” 

When making a decision, you will have multiple options to choose from. Decision making will not always include a problem. 
e.g. deciding on which fruit to bring for Fruity Friday break 

Keep an eye out here on how we are developing our Thinking Skills throughout all areas of the curriculum. 

 
8th May 2025
We always have fun learning with Miss McMaster. We love to word build using the...
 
 
 
 
7th May 2025
In P1 we have been reading traditional tales and fairytales, one of which being...
 
 
 
 
30th Apr 2025
In our Talk for Writing topic in P3 we became STEM investigators 👨‍🔬...