I became interested in ChatGPT because it has become such an issue in pre-sessional courses. There are great, valid, concerns about ChatGPT in education but, when used appropriately, it can offer some interesting benefits. Read more
This is a good activity for critical thinking, it helps when practicing or reviewing discussion language. You will need cards with discussion expressions on them. In a previous activity you could get students to classify these according to function (see below). Read more
This is a good exercise in looking at things from a different perspective. Give the students an example such as the one below, which is a common saying in England.
This is another activity which encourages random association. It is also another activity for which you can use the same picture cards or board as you did in the other ‘Forced Connections’ games (see previous blog posts). You will also need cards with abstract nouns (happiness, peace, sadness, love, anger etc.) written on them. Read more
Another game to encourage remote connections is the Boasting game. You can use the picture cards or board you used for the last game (‘Forced Connections Similes – see last blog post). Read more
This is one game to encourage remote connections, an important process in creative thinking (see the ‘Teaching Effective Thinking Introduction’. Read more
This is probably the most well-known ‘creative thinking’ activity. You may know it as ‘The Alternative Uses Test’. Show the class a brick and ask them to think of ways in which it can be used. They need to come up with as many ideas as they can in, say, 5 minutes. There are no bad ideas. You could brainstorm in a tradition, whole class way, or use a brainwriting technique (see last blog post). Read more
