Rolling the Stone Uphill: Teacher development and the implementation of Thinking Skills programmes

Thinking Skills programmes enjoy a periodic popularity and seem to provide an antidote for teachers to the instrumentalism of prescribed curricula as they address more general aims of education. However, along with most other curriculum innovations they usually fail to make a lasting impact or become established within school systems, despite promising evidence of their effects. The article explores the reasons why classrooms are so resistant to the kind of change that Thinking Skills programmes demand through the consideration of a number of constructs of teacher development and the voices of teachers who have been involved in Teaching Thinking interventions. This analysis shows that curriculum development needs to give much closer attention to teacher development if it is to be successful.