University of Western Australia's Winthrop Professor, Grady Venville has won an Australian Research Council grant of $334,000 over three years to investigate how to improve high schools students' achievement in science classes.

As Chief Investigator Grady Venville, will work with Partner Investigator, Philip Adey, from King’s College London to investigate the potential for raising high school students' achievement in science through the development, implementation and evaluation of a cognitive acceleration program.

The project, titled "Thinking Australia", is based on theory from a highly successful program in the UK where students were taught complex approaches to thinking that accelerated their cognitive development and achievement.

This research will advance the knowledge base about how such a program can best be implemented in Australia and provide evidence about what really works when teaching thinking skills.

Year 7, 8 and 9 students and teachers from a number of schools will be involved in the project.

Comprehensive professional development will be delivered to the teachers so that they can implement 30 thinking lessons during science classes.

To evaluate the impact of the program students will be tested prior to and after their participation and interviews will be conducted to better understand the changes in students’ approaches to thinking.

If you are a science teacher interested in participating in this study consider applying for the course.