The CASE and CAME and other projects

CASE and CAME

Since 1984, researchers at King’s College London have been investigating the process of ‘cognitive acceleration’ – the promotion of higher-level thinking. The first main project was Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (1984-87). The project was set in a science context and aimed at 10- to 14-year-olds. Cognitive Acceleration through Mathematics Education (CAME), which focused first on 10- to 14-year-olds, and then on the upper primary years, was developed during the period 1993-97

Although related to particular subject areas and taught (in secondary schools) by the relevant subject teachers, neither CASE nor CAME made any attempt to cover the content of any particular science or mathematics curriculum. They were squarely aimed at the development of general thinking, using the subject areas as convenient contexts for this purpose.

CATE and the ARTS Project

Since then, at secondary school level, there has been research conducted in a technology context: Cognitive Acceleration Techniques in Technology Education (CATE) by Tony Hamaker. The Arts Reasoning and Thinking Skills (ARTS) Project was a three-year action research project set up by Wigan local education authority.

CASE@KS1 (Let’s Think!)

In 1998, the research team started working with five- and six-year-olds on a project originally called CASE@KS1, later published by nferNelson as Let’s Think! (Adey, Robertson and Venville, 2001). This name reflects the principal aim of the materials – to promote thinking skills: their connections with science are not direct.

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