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.
CAME COurses 2011-12
Find out about CAME courses running in London this year for Foundation Stage, primary and secondary practitioners.
national curriculum review
Read the Cognitive Acceleration group's submission to the National Curriculum Review and let us know what you think.
see some lessons
Watch a range of experienced CA practitioners delivering CA lessons in the video clips on this new page.
Previous updates:
Find out about a range of INSET sessions now available for schools, that will motivate and engage staff and draw on the best practice from the CA approach. (March 2011)
Inspections and observations: Find out what Ofsted inspectors say about CA, what to look for when observing a thinking lesson, how to survive a lesson observation, and how to write CA into your SEF. (March 2011)
Find out what teachers think: Read articles, dissertations and lesson studies (published and unpublished) written about CA lessons, the professional development approach and classroom impact. (March 2011)
Arrange a visit to a CA school to observe good thinking lessons and talk about embedding the approach at whole school level. (November 2010)
Try out some of these new lessons for Year 4 and KS3 which have been developed and trialled by expert CA practitioners. (June 2010)
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. (June 2010)
Latest 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 What is CA? 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)