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Here's some background information
Scientific thinking is a life skill that empowers your students to navigate the world.
The four-step Improvement Kata helps make scientific thinking a teachable skill, because you can add its simple but practical scientific striving pattern to almost any activity. The KiC exercises on this website help you introduce the Improvement Kata pattern to your classroom, including the vital reflection after each experiment.
In repeatedly practicing the Improvement Kata pattern in different activities (contexts) there are two goals. One is to reach a challenging target. The second is to learn as a habit how to work toward targets – any target – in a scientific-thinking way. The second goal brings the long-term benefit.
The way we traditionally teach science with the "scientific method" does not transfer well into normal everyday life. KiC helps you turn students into everyday scientists! The first two videos below explain the rationale behind Kata in the Classroom.
You can read a KiC concept overview here.
I maintain this website as a free, not-for-revenue offshoot of my research on organizational behavior, which you can read about on the Toyota Kata Website.
- Mike Rother
Learning new skills through practice (2 min)
Memory aid for the Improvement Kata (1 min)
Why teach metacognitive skills (2 min)
Excerpt from Smithsonian Science Education Center
For more background on the Improvement Kata, read the Toyota Kata Practice Guide
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