The Kata school has some sets of the Kata in the Classroom puzzle and members of the school are happy to run the exercise in your workplace or school to teach the Toyota Kata patterns of continuous improvement.
A simple exercise to help you teach scientific thinking
Scientific thinking can be considered a life skill. But how can we help students and kids develop this skill?
Kata in the Classroom is an exercise that introduces a practical pattern of scientific thinking, in an engaging way that easily fits within a teacher’s existing instructional plan.
Take a look at the video to see what Kata in the Classroom is about.
The exercise is being used successfully anywhere from large corporations to schools, where the students are trained in scientific thinking and creative work. The training will increase their ability
- To think and act scientifically and creatively. They are trained to test and develop solutions for difficult challenges by experimenting towards a defined target condition.
- To collaborate. They are trained to work effectively together to solve problems and tasks with shared responsibility.
- To communicate. They are trained to structure their thinking, facts and solutions, and to present them so that others understand.
What you need to get started
To run the exercise you need
- The Powerpoint file to facilitate the exercise. In ‘presenter’ mode it has prompts for what to say at each slide. You can download the file in several languages from the websites below.
- The supporting materials. Download from the websites below and print them.
- The puzzle. Right now it’s only available on the German Amazon website.
Czech. Michal Mildorf supports teachers and parents interested in kata and scientific thinking. Download exercise instructions and materials.
Dutch. Emiel van Est supports running of the KiC exercise, and is especially interested in hearing how students, teachers and parents are using scientific thinking.
English. Mike Rother’s website for Kata in the Classroom has all the instructor materials and updates about.
German. Professor Constantin May’s website has the instructions and materials in German language and many other resources.
Swedish. Pia Anhede and Joakim Hillberg show teachers how to run the KiC exercise, and will assist in running the exercise. Download instructions and materials.
Updates from around the world
Kata in the Classroom at a college in Sweden
Richard Bergström attended Katacon Europe in April and was challenged to run it himself. Now, only a few weeks later he ran the exercise at a college for in the composite technicians.
Professor Constantin May on using the Kata in the Classroom exercise
For our German-speaking kata colleagues, here’s a link to an excellent 30-minute interview with Professor Constantin May at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences, on the subject of practicing scientific thinking with the Kata in the Classroom exercise.
Go from experiencing the exercise to running it in just a week
Here is an inspiring example: Alina Muresan attended the Kata in the Classroom exercise at Katacon Europe. Just a week later she ran her first exercise with kids. The coming week she will continue with teachers.
Alina’s example illustrates an important lesson: If you want to build on what you learn when you first experience Kata in the Classroom exercise, you should plan to run the exercise with your team the following days or week.
