The value of classroom activities depends on what students are practicing when they engage in them. You can easily add the simple, 4-step Improvement Kata framework to many activities and turn them into effective practice of scientific thinking skills.

This website gives you free materials & instructions for adding the Improvement Kata pattern to your classroom. All it takes to get started is the two fun, 50-minute  hands-on exercises described in this website. Please help yourself.

The Improvement Kata is a scientific working pattern that stems from research into successful adaptive organizations, and is practiced in many business organizations.

Kata in the Classroom (KiC) helps you and your students practice the following life skills:

  • Scientific/Creative Thinking. Generate & refine solutions to obstacles through experimentation.

  • Collaboration. Work in a team to accomplish a next goal on the way to a larger challenge.

  • Communication. Organize thoughts, data and findings, and share them effectively.

NO NEW CONTENT IS NEEDED. After you run the KiC-1 exercise to introduce the Improvement Kata pattern, you can apply its 4-step framework to nearly any content or activity. See the "Applications" page for examples.

Students may be unaware of the importance of metacognition, unless it is explicitly emphasized by their teachers. With the Improvement Kata, educators are integrating deliberate practice of metacognitive skill across all subjects and age levels.

Start by watching this 2-minute video:
Click through this short SlideShare:

Copyright Information

 

The materials on this website are intended to support persons who are teaching, practicing or interested in the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata. They are periodically updated and are copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.  You are free to copy, use, remix, transform, build upon and redistribute them as long as you note the source in writing as katatogrow.com, but these materials may not be used for sale in any form.

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In encourage you to use and share these materials freely. That way we all continue to learn and the topic continues to evolve!