More information on the grade 10 Thinking Tools course for learners

All subjects are covered including languages where your child will learn how to write an essay to 80+% and complete a comprehension test with understanding and insight.

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There is a huge backlog in schools' mathematics that cannot be caught up by the exact same system that created it. The reasons for the backlog are the overenthusiastic focus on assessment and that teachers are totally overloaded with administration tasks. Even if it were to change today, it would take decades to catch up. Meanwhile, your child needs to learn to think mathematically and reason creatively which will not happen within the school system because children are being explained steps and recipes instead of learning to think mathematically. Extra classes using the same explanatory methods could not bring about a change after all these years. Thinking Tools complements the shortcomings of schools with a creative paradigm shifting approach that builds children's self-esteem as they progress step-by-step with maths and improve their grades.

At the beginning Thinking Tools became renown because of learners'' marks that went up. After establishing a math's research unit, learners' maths marks also started to increase.

What are the reasons why learners' potential is not developed

Traditionally it is believed that knowledge is power. This is not true, problem solving is power. In school, information is put first and your child's brain is seen as a photocopier. Your child's brain does not have the ability or capacity to absorb and process all the pages of a textbook. To overcome this deficiency, your child is taught to make summaries that work roughly like this:

The content of a chapter is summarized on a few pages and then further reduced to an A4 page.

The A4 page is reduced to an A5 page and the A5 becomes a quarter page which is again reduced to keywords.

Because study methods reduce information, exam results based on this method can never reflect the brain's full potential.

What is the truth about the brain?

The brain is wired to be a bigger maker. If the brain hears a word, for example, 'tree', the brain immediately starts making connections and connects it to other concepts such as leaves, roots, shade, water, rain, vacation, etc. Study methods to the contrary, let learners make summaries while the exam requires the brain to expand information for more marks - CRISIS!

The question that arises is: Is it fair to expect a summary-fit brain to be able to expand knowledge during the exam? This is like preparing an athlete for a 100-meter race and then expecting the athlete to jump over a crossbar on the day of the competition. In this was it seems as if learners are cheated, and therefore they don't like learning.

Because study methods reduce information, exam results based on this method can never reflect the brain's full potential.

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The sooner your child starts with the Thinking Tools course the better!

Our children's maths backlog is bigger than is generally accepted. Schools are unable to catch up. Because our children are not empowered to think they fall further behind.

Your child should start accumulating THINKING hours as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the brain has innate Thinking Tools. This is why in general life your child can classify information into logical categories, determine cause and effect, compare, order and discover patterns.

We use the same Thinking Tools sets to get your child master all the subjects and figuring out maths rather than just following steps.

The Thinking Tools course equips your child (and you) with Thinking Tools that enable your child to take ownership of his or her own thinking.

When empowered to use Thinking Tools your child will be able to analyze a theme or a sum by him or herself. During the thinking processes your child will discover relationships and patterns that will lead to AHA moments. Such insight experiences are then cemented into your child's long-term memory and is never forgotten.

These problem-solving activities will not only your child academic achievements, but they are also competencies need for life after school.

A subsequent spinoff is that relationship between parents/caregivers and their children improves because both can observe the child's progress and it is open for discussion

This is why I assist your child with math and math literacy up to grade 12.

Frequently Questions Asked

It takes time, will my child still be able to master all the work?

It takes about 3 hours to empower your child to become productive with the first set of Thinking Tools. You child may revert back to making summaries which may be a challenge. To overcome this, all work, at the beginning, must be submitted to me and other Thinking Tools teachers on the WhatsApp group for approval or guidance.

From the onset, your child will use Thinking Tools to master the work at hand. This means that Thinking Tools in not an extra burden on your child’s time schedule.

As your child uses Thinking Tools more and more, new neural pathways are established resulting in learning faster and more efficient.

What is learned in this way is stored in the long-term memory which means less time is needed for revision before tests and exams.

Thinking Tools and maths

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Thinking Tools has unique maths approaches.

From the onset we see developing your child’s self-confidence and mathematical skills as one process. Research revealed that maths can be compared with a tapestry. The schools focus on the neat frontend steps and recipes. This makes the subject more home economics than maths.

Thinking Tools focus on the backend where real maths is. The purpose is to empower your child to tie the loose ends. Each type of sum has its own tapestry backend,

even multiplication tables of which the frontend is traditionally exhausted with repetitions without bearing mathematical insights.

One of our most unique recent discoveries to build children's math self-confidence is the PILOT CHUTE concept. This analogy, empowers us to enable your child to first understand what the sum is about, be able to list the operations, to spot pitfalls in advance and to pin down the method that

will provide the solution and final answer.

Thinking Tools teachers also compares earning maths to learning how to ride a bicycle. There is no manual to learn ow to ride a bicycle. The child needs to get on the bicycle and experience the accompanied failures and successes, albeit in a safe setting. The teacher cannot learn to ride a bicycle on behalf of the child. Likewise with parachute jumping as with the pilot chute analogy. It is the child that needs to jump and make a safe landing.

The challenge with the traditional explain approach that the teacher does all the jumping and then expect from the learners to do solo jumps during the exam. This is an unfair assessment practice.

Thinking Tool teachers leverage the various Think Tools in such a way that it allows your child to discover the following maths concepts in visual ways:

Spatial relations and patterns.
Geomatical relations and patterns.
Computational relations and patterns.
Logical reasoning.
Sequential reasoning.
Analogy reasoning.
Comparative and contrasting thinking.
Abductive reasoning (taking your best shot) and alike.

Because the above are represented in visual modes it makes easier to comprehend and workout-able.

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How does the course work?

This is a unique interactive online course. This means you do not sit, as with most online courses and those developed by schools and other institutions during COVID, where

you passively view explanations. With Thinking Tools courses your child is engaged in the course discussions. The engagements

are recorded at the back end of the Marvelous Minds learning platform. All progresses are monitored. Your child will be able to learn at his or her own time and pace.

It is recommended that primary school parents sit with their children throughout the whole 5 x 3-hour pre-recorded sessions. It is recommended that high school parents MUST at least join in with the first session understand the paradigm shift.

The aim of the course is not only to teach your child to think, but also to identify and solve new problems. In this way, your child not only becomes empowered to pass the grade, but to achieve life skills. The course consists of 5 x 3-hour sessions. The purpose of session 1 is to introduce you child to Thinking Tools to the extent that your child will be able to start applying the first sets of Thinking Tools when learning new chapters or themes according to your specific curriculum. Thinking Tools is applicable to CAPS, Cambridge and any other curriculum.

During sessions 2 to 4 they put their noses to the grindstone and tackle all their subjects including languages. During the three sessions we attend to writing an essay to

80%+ and successfully completing a comprehension test the Thinking Tools way. The last session is spent on maths which is the beginning of a journey of mathematical thinking.

As from January/February we are starting live Zoom extra classes per grade as Eskom’s load shedding allows.

I need 5 to 10 learners to schedule an extra class on a weekly basis. It is a common fact that time does not allow every enrolled child to attend the classes according

to schedule.

All new extra classes will be recorded an availed on the course platform where each enrolled learner can attend to at own time and pace.

On the WhatsApp group you can ask questions, share experiences and it is also here where we fix dates and times for extra classes.

Guaranteed, if your child uses and applies the Thinking Tools as prescribed, your child's marks will increase.

After you registered for the course, you will immediately gain access to a WhatsApp group where there are maths and other teachers available to assist if your child needs

help.

https://learn.marvelousminds.online/course/view.php?id=315

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