The assessment tools and illustrations you can find on this site have been developed in the framework of an ACTS (Assessment Companion for Thinking Skills) project -  a transnational strategic partnership between 7 institutions in the UK, Finland and Latvia supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. Detailed information about the project and the materials developed by partners can be found at the project website maintained by the University of Lincoln. 

The tools presented at this website stem from the Thinking Approach tradition that puts forward a system of educational technologies for an integrated development of subject matter and thinking skills. Recently the importance of teaching thinking has been emphasized in many curricula around the world. One of the questions it poses for a classroom teacher is that of assessment. How do we know that our learners are becoming better thinkers?

Teachers need reliable instruments that can help us monitor the quality of learners' thinking, diagnose potential problems and make necessary adjustments to our syllabi to ensure that we do our best in helping learners become more effective thinkers. The tools offered below are a possible starting point. All of them have been tested with several groups of teachers and improved as a result of their feedback. We continue working on developing these instruments, so please let us know about your exprience of using them as well.