ITM EDITORIAL, APRIL, 2025
In her article about becoming a published author, Year 10 student, Yixin Zhang talks about ideas lingering in “the quiet corners of my mind, where stories would turn themselves into tapestries of characters, settings and plots.” The products of her imagination clearly have a strong visual quality, which she then expresses in writing.
Yixin also has the ability to stand back and think about the processes going on in her own mind as she describes the way she imagines, connects and writes.
The way she works finds more than an echo in Roger Sutcliffe’s article about metacognition. He would like to see more ‘thinking about thinking’ going on in the classroom, suggesting that the traditional range of processes we normally refer to when considering metacognition is simply too limited. There is no place in Bloom’s taxonomy, for example, for ‘visualising’. Sutcliffe has compiled an A-Z of ‘thinking moves’ and ‘picturing’ is one of them. In view of the powerful way that Yixin visualises her ideas, you can see why this way of thinking is so important.
Which brings us to Adam McRoy, who is an experienced and very successful head teacher (his school, Cogdel Cranleigh School, Changsha was a 2025 winner in the ISC Research International School of the Year Awards). The thing is, Adam can’t visualise at all, and up until a year ago he assumed that nobody could. Then, much to his surprise he found that other people were able visualise in a way he simply could not, and that he was subject to a condition called Aphantasia.
A year after his diagnosis we writes, “I still don’t ‘see’ any differently, but I do see my students a little better! Recognising that not everyone can think in pictures has reinforced the importance of personalising learning experiences. Understanding cognitive diversity isn’t just about supporting students with identified learning needs; it’s about appreciating the full range of how young minds engage with the world.”
Which is exactly what Roger Sutcliffe was talking about and Yixin is demonstrating.
Andy Homden is CEO Consilium Education
Feature Image: Martino Pietropoli For Unsplash+