Challenge and creativity for students and teachers
Welcome to the Cognitive Acceleration Associates website. The CA project draws on over 25 years of research by academics and teacher practitioners. It offers a fresh approach to teaching English, Mathematics, Science (and other subjects) that has a proven impact on students' development as thinkers. Cognitive Acceleration has several published resources from Foundation Stage to KS3 in a range of curriculum areas.
courses for 2010-11
Dates for and information on courses running this year are now available. These include courses for experienced CA teachers and Teaching Assistants.
new lessons
Try out some of these new lessons for Year 4 and KS3 which have been developed and trialled by expert CA practitioners.
linking CA to the national Curriculum
See how best to map Let's Think and CAME lessons into the Numeracy Strategy frameworks for KS1, 2 and 3 and how to use Let's Think and CAME lessons for Assessing Pupil Progress.
Previous updates:
New research by Shayer and Adhami looks at the use of Let's Think materials in Years 1 and 2 and shows proven impact on children's ability in mathematics and English, as well as discussing the impact of the associated professional development programme on teachers. (January 2010)
Graded Assessment in Mathematics is a resource for KS2 to 4 that offers a range of open ended investigations for students and guidance on assessing student outcomes. The resource is currently being revised and updated by the Nuffield Foundation. (January 2010)
How does the CA approach fit with Assessment for Learning? This page explores the relationship and explains how the two approaches complement each other. (January 2010)
Far from getting cleverer, our 11-year-olds are, in fact, less “intelligent” than their counterparts of 30 years ago. After studying 25,000 children across both state and private schools Philip Adey, a professor of education at King’s College London confidently declares: “The intelligence of 11-year-olds has fallen by three years’ worth in the past two decades.” Read more... (September 2009)